holiday fun

Day 6 – Friday, July 6, 2018
Barkerville Day 3

Before heading out a Blue Jay came by the camp to visit. No, not a baseball player, the bird. It alighted on one of the awning struts and I managed to grab a shot of it by gently opening the slot on the screen door that lets you access the handle and aiming through it.

Today was catch-up day at Barkerville and our donation got us a generous three more days, though we’ll likely only use the passes for today (Friday). We chose to make like the pioneers and walked into town, specifically taking the Lowhee Trail that starts here at the campground and meets up with the cemetery trail that leads down into Barkerville proper.

It was a little tricksy at times, but mostly just a typical root-covered and not-entirely maintained trail. At least we didn’t develop rickets or scurvy along the way.

We then followed the more sedate cemetery trail the rest of the way into town, then ascended to the view trail along the hillside that extends to the Chinatown area. This 650 m trail was also rather tricksy, but offered a unique perspective on the town.

Without delay, we kept going the 1.6 km to the former location of the town of Richfield, where the oldest courthouse in B.C. stands to this day. A pair of young actors that made me fondly recall the acting days of my early 20s, put in an enthusiastic performances, taking on the roles of judge, prosecutor, accused and a German hurdy gurdy girl. The 14 of us in the audience served as jury and with one exception, found James Barrie guilty of murdering his traveling companion of Charles Blessing for his precious loot, which he then spent in an unsubtle manner in nearby towns, sealing his ultimate doom. He was one of two men to be convicted of murder and subsequently hanged at Richfield.

Along the road we encountered numerous signs of claims more than a hundred and fifty years old, ranging from huge neatly piled stacks of rock on the hillsides, to collapsed remnants of old tunnels. One especially steep path (?) led down to a shed that was likely padlocked with a KEEP OUT sign on it and Jeff very badly wanted to check it out. I had visions of him catching a foot on a root and tumbling down the rest of the way, breaking one to fifty bones and told him no, he could not go. He took a picture from the roadside instead.

Ironically, this was (as the plaque notes) the same place Jenny Allen broke her neck, by being pulled over with a carriage when a horse got spooked in 1870.

We also checked out the Richfield and Chinese cemetery, located about a km further up from the courthouse. Had it not been for the fence and memorial stone at the entrance, this would not have been recognizable as a cemetery, as it is completely overgrown. A few small remnants remain and recently it was found that two bodies may still be buried here (the cemetery was a holding station for bones that would get shipped back for burial in China), so it’s also now an archaeological site of sorts.

We attempted the 600 m trail that connects back to the courthouse, but it was more than a little tricksy, with twisty turns and lots of mud. I managed to cake my entire right shoe with mud by placing the foot squarely into a large patch of the stuff, to avoid something worse, like tumbling down the hillside. We gave up about 50 m or so in.

Below are a few more shots of things along the road to Richfield.

And a few pictures of some of the wildflowers.

We came back to Barkerville and made one more trip to the confectionery for still more fudge, this time banana cream and chocolate orange. Mmm, fudge. I am pretty sure I will never spend this much money on fudge again. I do not regret it.

At the souvenir shop Jeff picked out a mug as a memento, and it comes with handy bear facts. I got an orange hoodie (I wanted purple but normal sizes were sold out) and it’s bright enough for planes to navigate by at night.

We walked back to the campsite, arriving shortly after 4 p.m., having put in about 14 km of walking for the day. Hot dogs were on for lunch and then a nap afterward so we would have energy for the fire and fighting off mosquitoes later.

Around 5:30, as we snuggled in for a nap, a thunderstorm rolled through, almost as if on schedule. As of 8:30 it seems to be less rolling through than staying put, with quite regular thunder, lightning and enough rain that the fire danger level will probably be raised from LOW to MODERATE sometime in 2020.

But it was Taco Friday and we had tacos and stayed in the trailer where it was warm and dry. Well, Jeff had to get water from across the path so we could have showers and wash the dubiously effective Off!, well, off, so he got a tiny bit drenched. But he wore his Goretex Outdoor Research hat, so it was all good.

I wonder how many of the other campers here didn’t do research ahead of time and assumed early July = constant sunshine and warm weather. Also it’s apparently still 19ºC in 100 Mile House, as that was the last location I had the weather on my watch set to, so I always know what the weather is like in basically another region of the province. (It is 11 here, which, hey, it’s still double digits. That’s actually warmer than it was at Manning Park last summer at night.)

UPDATE: The rain stopped after about three hours, hooray.

Because the WiFi automatically connects when we’re in Barkerville, all of the usual emails and notifications come sluicing in on my phone unbidden (that’s a mining joke, see?) and I happened to notice a message from Nic asking if I would be free for a movie tomorrow. As I am about 700 km north of the movie theater, I would not be able to make it. Jeff kindly agreed to go back to the parking lot at Barkerville this evening, where we sat in the nice warm truck so I could connect to the WiFi, tell Nic I would be unable to attend, and also clear out some of my 79 emails. Once I culled all the newsletters/deals, I was left with 18 “real” messages. I did not read them, because while I may like keeping a handle on things even on vacation, there are limits.

Day 5 – Thursday, July 5, 2018
Barkerville Day 2

The day started with me sleeping in a tad—it’s that fresh mountain air, I swear, but we skipped an in-trailer breakfast and made it to the first presentation at 9:30 a.m. where yet another performer briefly choked after ingesting cottonwood seeds. I think this may be listed as an occupational hazard for anyone who works in Barkerville.

The weather was once again quite nice early on, with temperatures rising into the 20s and feeling downright warm at times. Fifteen minutes later we were donning jackets. This is perfectly normal. Overall it was a nicer day, with no showers as I write this entry at 7 p.m. If it takes me longer than 15 minutes to finish this, it could be pouring.

After the first presentation we had some breakfast wraps at a local eatery, which were sufficiently yummy. I had tea, Jeff had coffee and when Jeff finished his coffee he was asked if he wanted a refill. He said yes. When I finished my tea, I didn’t even have to ask, I got a refill pronto—of coffee. This didn’t go to waste, though Jeff did spend the rest of the afternoon peeing.

At noon we went on a guided tour of the Chinatown area of Barkerville and to the tour’s credit, there was no attempt to minimize the racism and general inequality accorded the Chinese citizens. The tour guide also choked on cottonwood, as expected.

The intermingling of two very different cultures was for me the highlight of the day, and the story of the Chinese is ongoing as current archaeology projects are unearthing terraces that were used for growing vegetables. The terraces were built into the hillside of Chinatown, helping to shelter the gardens and extending the brief growing season.

We had time after this and before a tour of the cemetery to do a little freestyle touring, so we checked out a trail with some vantage points, as shown below.

We returned to Chinatown where Jeff grabbed a snazzy-looking anklet. I grabbed a Coke at the confectionery. It required a bottle opener to open. How quaint. Fortunately the cooler had one built-in. I haven’t seen such a cooler since the 1970s. I think this one actually was from the 70s. Groovy.

The cemetery tour took us along a path outside of the town, along the hillside and past the former location of the only local hospital (primarily located in its seemingly odd location because it handled a lot of typhoid patients). The hospital burned down, of course. Twice. The closest hospital now is in Quesnel, about 80 km away.

The cemetery is a mix of new and old. The old part is only maintained by those family members who choose to maintain their sites. Considering the remote location, that doesn’t happen very often. The more famous markers have been recreated. Several graves have giant trees growing out of them, due to the abundance of water and, as the guide put it, “available nutrients.” This was the only guide that did not get attacked by cottonwood, probably because we were out of town.

The tour ran late and the court session at 3 p.m. was located in Richfield, located 1.6 km out of the other end of Barkerville. Without teleportation there was no way we were going to get there in time, so we’re going back tomorrow to see the court session and, of course, get more fudge.

We also got more fudge today because I have a rule that every time we go to Barkerville we must get fudge. It is a delicious rule, though not kind to the waistline.

We addressed this, in part, by riding our bikes later. We did a circuit of the campground to see how long the loop was (1.34 km), then toured the other two campgrounds of Forest Rose and Government Hill, had a brief peek at the road to Bowron Lake—a future destination—then watched a plane take off from the Bowron Lake Airport. Bowron Lake Airport is a strip of pavement in a small field. I shot video of the plane taking off but cut it short as standing still is the signal for mosquitoes to devour you alive.

We came back for a dinner of BBQ pork chops and corn on the cob. Yum.

Our neighbors with the dog and remote control truck are gone tonight, but have been replaced by new neighbors with another dog. We have yet to hear a new remote control truck.

I skipped the Off! today and got a few more bites, so it’s pretty much a wash with or without repellent. Such is the life of an indescribably tasty mosquito meal.

UPDATE: After turning in around 10 p.m. we heard the pitter-patter of rain on the roof of the trailer. This turned into incessant pounding rain, with flashes of lightning lighting up the interior of the trailer while thunder rumbled across the valley. It was impressive, made even better by us already being tucked in for the evening, just the way I like it.

Day 4 – Wednesday, July 4, 2018
Barkerville

Lacking head-to-toe netting, I instead started out the day by having Jeff blast all exposed skin with Off!, save for my face. Normally you might expect this is where I tell you about all the bites I got on my face, but no, I did not get any additional face bites.

I did, however, get new bites near my right elbow and one on the back of my neck, thus proving the Off! to be more On! when it came to repelling insects. In its defense, I could have bitten many more times without being sprayed first. Also, I never re-applied the Off! Basically it was all my fault.

But enough about bugs. Today was our first full day in Barkerville and we more or less winged it, starting off by walking up the Main Street before taking part in a 70 minute walking tour of the city that ends near the Chinatown area (there’s a separate tour for that which we’ll check out tomorrow).

The guide was a woman in character as a local from 1863, though the fourth wall was broken liberally in order to offer comparisons on Barkerville then vs. now. Some of the interesting tidbits:

• The inevitable great fire that destroyed the town in 1868 has no definitive source, but it’s rumoured that a scuffle between a would-be assaulter and a dancing girl in the back of a saloon resulted in a stovepipe being tipped over, sending sparks up to the canvas ceiling, which immediately caught fire. The tinder-dry roof burst into flame, sending embers across the narrow street, instantly putting the blaze on both sides of the main drag. In less than two hours all but a few buildings in the town burned to the ground.
• The fire gave the boomtown a chance to impose some order on the reconstruction. The main drag was made twice as wide, buildings had space between them to prevent easy spread of fire, and, of course, they started an official fire brigade.
• Said fire brigade was in the first floor of a building that also housed the new theatre. The ground floor flooded and was cut away, reducing the building to a single floor and today the Theater Royal stands alone.
• Flooding was due to the hills around the town being stripped of trees, leading to mine tailings, soil and everything else sliding down the hills, clogging the streets and leading to the river overflowing. This led to the other major change in the town’s reconstruction. Most buildings and the boardwalks are raised above ground level, allowing flood waters to pass beneath. This has worked well, even as the ground the town is built on continues to sink. Apparently you need to dig about 50 feet down near the entrance of the town to find the ashes from the fire of 1868.
• Barkerville had a second gold rush in 1930, which I did not know.

The weather was quite nice at the start of the tour, sunny and warm enough that I could feel the burn starting on my arms. The weather in this area is fickle, though, so while I first regretted bringing my hoodie, I was wearing it by mid-afternoon when a brief shower swept through. Overall it was fine for touring the town and preferable to 30 Celsius, like they’re getting out east currently.

We also checked out a couple of shows covering operation of water wheels and other mining technology, both handled by a pair of very funny performers. I did not get pictures of these shows because I was spending my time either watching the show or swatting away the giant bee-like insects that interpret Off! as On!

I did get a couple of pictures of the Main Street, looking to the west (with our tour guide on the boardwalk) and looking east, back toward one of the churches near the entrance.

There is a stage coach ride that circles the town, which we declined to take part in, but the street had regular deposits left by its horse-powered engines. I did not take any pictures of this.

This shot is from the second floor of one of the buildings in Chinatown. I thought it would look more dramatic, but in hindsight, two floors isn’t much more than you’d seen someone fall in a saloon fight.

At several points during the day the amount of cottonwood seeds in the air resembled a snowstorm, something our first tour guide noted. Several of them, including the one hosting the tale of Billy Barker, ingested and briefly choked on the things. It was kind of weird.

We had a midday snack in a local bakery—there are multiple functioning businesses in the town, mostly selling food, but also offering clothing and other goods—and the turnovers we had were flaky, buttery and yummy. We spent the rest of the afternoon working them off.

We ended the day at Barkerville around 3:30 p.m. by stopping at another bakery, this time for some fudge, because fudge is the best thing ever. I got double chocolate and it came in an adorably small brown paper bag. I ate it and it was the best thing ever. The fudge, not the bag.

We wrapped up in the gift shop, looking over the supply of gifts both practical and gaudy, but held off making any purchases until tomorrow.

Tomorrow we have four tours we’re going to check out, covering early justice, the cemetery, Chinatown and more. Then we buy tacky gifts.

UPDATE: After returning from Barkerville, Jeff had an idea. His idea was to have a nap, so he did.

After the nap we had another meal worthy of home cooking. Jeff asked for a picture, so here it is in full three-dimensional color:

We spent the evening in mellow mode, doing a casual circuit around the campsite, checking out the sunset (not very spectacular tonight) and of course, there was a fire. The god rays in this shot were not created in post-processing. These are genuine unsimulated effects, generated by a lot of smoke before we had a lot of fire.

And then we had fire.

And then we had hot chocolate and turned in for the night.

Mosquito bite update: One new bite near the base of my right thumb and some others, but there are so many now I’ve lost track of it.

Day 3 – Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Lac La Hache, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Barkerville

We left Lac La Lache early in the morning and I counted a few more mosquito bites. By the end of the day I had bites on the following areas of my body:

• forehead (2)
• face (2)
• neck (4)
• arms (2)
• legs (1)
• ankle (1)

Conclusion: Mosquitoes have seen too many Dracula movies. Also, mosquitoes suck. That is both a joke and a statement of fact.

Barkerville was our destination today and we planned on doing it in two stages, with stops at Williams Lake and Quesnel along the way.

We stopped at Williams Lake to buy a few more groceries, filling out that “inevitably forgot something” list. Sadly they were sold out of those clip-on mosquito repellent things. I suspect it would have worked in reverse on me, anyway, but it would have been nice to have at least tried it out.

After that we had a quick break at a “rest area” (really, just a place to pull over) where I took yet another shot of the dandelions that grow by the millions along the highways.

Our next destination was Quesnel, but we only stopped to get gas from a station that had full service. I didn’t even know those still existed. One day all gas will be pumped by Amazon drones that magically descend from the sky to your moving vehicle. The guy who filled the tank smiled. The weather was pleasant and in the high teens, so maybe he was happy about that.

From there we ventured off Highway 97 and onto the winding Highway 26 to our last destination, Barkerville (technically the Lowhee Campground, but it’s only 2 km away from the town).

It started to shower and Jeff got to test his now newly-installed wiper blades. They worked very well. The temperature fell from 22 to 15. The showers stopped as we got to the campground, only to find we had power but no water. This did not please Jeff. Options were considered. Brows were furrowed. We took the stop and set up camp after realizing that exactly one camping spot out of 87 had both power and water. Not surprisingly, it was unavailable.

We consoled the loss of water with hot dogs for lunch. Also, the public washrooms are conveniently across the road from us, in case we feel like flushing someone else’s toilet.

The weather continued to be a mixed bag, but slowly improved, with the sky clearing and the sun coming out.

The sunset was very dramatic and very pretty. The colors in the photo below don’t do it justice, nor does it illustrate how rapidly the colors went from vivid red/orange to gray.

Here’s an earlier shot of the sunset, with people in the distance walking the campground loop:

And our first official campfire of the trip. Hooray!

The fire danger level here is actually Low, which means the chance of a fire ban coming into effect while we’re here is basically zero.

To feed the fire, we followed a Forest Service access road and chopped up some legal deadfall. Well, Jeff chopped, I loaded the truck, as I am not to be trusted with a chainsaw.

Before dinner we road our bikes along the 2 km path to the Barkerville Reception Center. And yes, it was uphill all way—literally. It was much faster coming back. We paid for the campsite, two days of Barkervilling and had hamburgers for dinner. Yes, hot dogs and hamburgers on the same day. How can you tell we’re camping?

We did a few more walks around the campsite, had s’mores around the fire for dessert (of course), then retired for the evening at the ungodly hour of…10:45 p.m. I was hoping to see the sky filled with billions of stars by this time but it was still too bright. If I went back out I’d probably just add to my bite collection, anyway.

Tomorrow we go to see Barkerville. I will be wearing head-to-toe netting.

Day 2 – Monday, July 2, 2018
Cache Creek, 100 Mile House, Lac La Hache

Today was another day of travel, our destination the provincial park campsite at Lac La Hache, north of 100 Mile House.

We left the frigid climate of Kamloops just past 10 a.m. after a yummy breakfast of eggs and toast. Yes, I have this every single day. It’s still yummy.

The weather continued to be unsettled, with cloudy skies and temperatures struggling to reach into the double digits.

We stopped to rest at the Big Bar REST AREA at the Bonaparte Plateau.

We did indeed help keep it clean.

Our next major destination was Cache Creek, where we stopped for gas. Since that’s all we did and one PetroCan station doesn’t look dramatically different than any other, I have no pictures. But here it is on Google Maps:

After that we arrived at 70 Mile House (about 262 km north of Vancouver if you could ignore all roads) and got propane. Here’s a shot of both the 70 Mile General Store (we bought a barbecue starter for $2.49) and Jeff getting propane.

And some flowers next to the highway with a handsome red 18-wheeler roaring by.

After this the weather took a turn for the wet, with the rain coming down hard enough at times that Jeff kind of regretted not putting on the new windshield wipers he bought in Kamloops.

We arrived at Lac La Hache around 2:30 p.m. and the campsite was virtually deserted, as most people were heading back from the holiday weekend while we were crazily doing the opposite. With the camper and trailer parked in stall 46, we settled in for evening, eschewing fires and barbecues because we’d be skipping out early in the a.m.

Here is Jeff going his best, “What , me worry?” look regarding the rain.

It let up shortly after we got to the camp, so we went for walking through what turned out to be a semi-abandoned trail adjacent to the campsite. This is when the mosquitoes descended to feast upon me and lo, they had a rich harvest. Keep in mind that due to the weather, I was wearing jeans, a hoodie, had the hood up and my hands shoved into the pockets. The only exposed flesh was my face and neck. Surely I would notice a parasite sucking the blood from my peripheral vision.

I did not.

I got four bites: one on my forehead, one on my cheek, one on my upper lip and one on my neck. The Calamine lotion in the trailer became my new best friend. Jeff claimed he escaped getting bitten because he “tastes bitter” to which I say, “Pfft!” and yet I admit it is a mystery. Maybe they can sense fear or something and home in on it.

I killed one in the trailer tonight using a box of Alleve, and it did in fact make me feel better. Thanks, Alleve.

With the weather no longer seeming so much like December, we ventured over to the lake itself for one of those “take in nature (and pray you don’t get devoured by mosquitoes)” walks.

This is the scary-looking culvert you go through to pass under the highway to get to the lake. I resisted the urge to start honking like a car horn—but only just barely.

The lake is very nice and filled with lots of water, just as you’d expect. Across the way was a strange and very tall tree which turned out to be a cell tower and is probably the reason we can check Facebook tonight instead of living like complete savages. I call this picture Our Lord and Savior.

Pretty pink flowers at the lake:

The day picnic and boat launch area discourages several varieties of fun. I’m guessing this sign is so big after a couple of boats collided, sending Kokanee everywhere.

In the parking lot was, of course, a van painted in homage to Woody Guthrie (available for rent).

We returned to the campsite, had a traditional home style dinner of chicken and veggies, then walked back to the lake because the sun came out, reminding us that is was actually summer. The Woody Guthrie van was gone. But in its place we saw frolicking marmots.

Finally, we settled in for the evening, with the temperature now 12ºC, downright balmy compared to earlier.

A shot of the campsite:

And later that night it rained again.

Day 1 – Sunday, July 1, 2018
Hope, Kamloops

Happy Canada Day! I celebrated by leaving town, but stayed in Canada.

With Jeff back in New Westminster and reasonably refreshed from a night’s sleep in a proper bed, we loaded up our bags of stuff in the truck, hoping we didn’t forget anything but knowing we inevitably would, and headed out for our ultimate destination of Barkerville. Our stop for today would be at his sister’s house in Kamloops, where we would stay for the night.

The weather in Vancouver was hovering around 20c and was partly sunny. It stayed much the same on the drive to Kamloops, but going through the mountains it did drop as low as 9c and climb as high as 22c. We saw a few showers, but nothing significant. It was quite a change from the trio to Manning Park last year, though, when temperatures were close to 30c and the sky was as blue as a great big blue thing.

We stopped at Hope and went Home to have giant turkey dinners. Here is the traditional photo of our food. Pretend this is an Instagram post.

And for dessert we shared a 10,000 calorie chocolate cream pie. I think in the shot below Jeff was putting his hand up to his mouth to prevent throwing up from the massive ingestion of food.

After we left Hope behind (yes, I never get tired of Hope jokes) we continued on, occasionally stopping at one of the utilitarian rest areas along the Coquihalla Highway. This is what the luxurious toilet facilities looks like from the outside:

FUN FACT: Using the GPS info embedded in the photo, I can find this same outhouse using Street View on Google Maps. Isn’t technology grand/weird/frightening?

Inside was a D-EVIL sticker and a conspiracy theorist scrawl on the window because even conspiracy theorists gotta pee.

The actual view from the rest area was more pleasant.

Once we arrived in Kamloops we enjoyed the typical sun-scorched weather of the region. Just kidding. It was actually cooler than Vancouver and a scary thunderstorm dumped a bunch of rain while thunder rolled ominously through the sky. Also, lightning.

We completed our pre-vacation checklist by buying a ton of groceries at the local Save-On, doing our patriotic duty in helping to prime the Canadian economy. We got out 20 minutes before they closed. We hunkered down for the night in a bed Jeff described as comfortable as plywood. With sore backs we would be ready for Day 2 and the second leg of our journey to Barkerville.