OOOH, CAANADAAA

Day 41, 2015-05-31

Sometimes you just need a day like today.  We slept late, kayaked for a couple of hours, and then took care of some minor maintenance on the truck and trailer.  All-in-all, a lazy day by our normal standards.

The lake was really calm today, and there were surprisingly few boats for a beautiful spring Sunday.  Here’s a parting shot of Bettie and yak on Banks Lake.

Now, on to Canada.

Day 42, 2015-06-01

Border Crossing Day!  The big sign about 20 miles from the border announced “<5 Min Wait”.  We had even less wait time.  The only glitch was that we had to dispose of a couple of frozen chicken breasts and 3 raw eggs – something about some poultry related disease in the US.  Not a heavy toll to pay.  Bringing in the shotgun presented no problem, just cost C$25.00 for the permit.  Even before entering Canada, Hwy 97 took us up the Okanagan Valley.  On the US side, it was fruit orchards.  Immediately after crossing the border, the agriculture turned to orchards and vineyards – and fruit stands and wineries.  No kidding, from Osoyoos, BC where we crossed the border to Penticton, BC (maybe 40 miles), there must be 150 wineries and twice as many fruit stands.  Most of the fruit stands were closed for the season, but we did manage to source some fresh Chelan cherries, so all was not lost. 

After seeing all the wineries, we decided this area deserved an extra day of our time.  We’ll do a wine tasting tour tomorrow.  After an ice cream stop at Tickleberry’s (lots of flavors of homemade goodness), we went to the Wine Country Visitor’s Center in Penticton to get info for our outing tomorrow.  Bettie spotted the Barley House Brewery, so we stopped in for an appetizer and a couple of local brews.  Bettie opted for the Caballero Cerveza Mexican lager and I had the Mustang IPA.  Both did the job quite well. Our camp is the Okanagan Falls Provincial Park just west of Okanagan Falls, BC.  First come, first served, no services except a potable water faucet and two pit toilets for the entire 25 campsites to share.  What with that and the BIG rain this afternoon, we are glad to be self-contained.  We plan on doing a lot of this type of camping, with a few commercial campgrounds thrown into the mix when we need more services.  We’ll see how that plays out.  No pics today. 170 (5,849)

Day 43, 2015-06-02

We set off on our wine tour with no particular plan in mind other than to stop at whatever looked good.  We drove to an area known as the Naramata Bench, an elevated shelf of land on the east side of Okanagan Lake just northeast of Penticton.  In a stretch of about 5 miles there are over 30 wineries.  We stopped at 5 or 6 for wine tastings and ate lunch at Lake Breeze Winery, exceptional view and Spanish/Italian architecture that lends a very comfortable feel to the place.  Tastings were generally 4 or 5 wines for a cost of C$5 per person, waived if you bought something.  With that kind of a discount, did we stock up?  You betcha.  Would be stupid not to, EH!?  Here are some shots of the scenery from a few of the wineries.

La Frenz

Lunch at Lake Breeze

View from Lake Breeze

 Bench 1775

Oh, and we took a short walk along the Okanagan River at our campsite this afternoon.  These Canadians are SERIOUS about their safety.

While we were out, I talked to a couple of locals who live in Barriere, BC, about 4 hours up the road.  They recommended a restaurant in Little Fort, which is on our way tomorrow.  We’ll give it a try.  45 (5,894)

Day 43 – 2015-06-03

 Big travel day today, 300 (6,149).  We headed up the Okanagan Valley on BC97.  The clouds were so low in the valley that we climbed into them a few times.  Made for a very surreal feeling for the day.  The valley extends for MILES along the lake and river.  We took the route through Vernon and Kamloops then picked up BC5 north through Little Fort where we stopped at the High Five Diner “Where quality and quantity collide.”  No shit, that’s their slogan, and they REALLY MEAN IT!  Their food is locally sourced and cooked fresh.  This place had great food.  Sharyn W, you are on notice.  There is a rival for the “Best Apple Pie in the Universe”.  We asked for one piece to share and they brought us a third of a pie, obviously homemade.  After lunch we made our way to the North Thompson River Provincial Park just south of Clearwater, BC.  We set up camp, then headed into Clearwater, BC to the Visitors Center and free WiFi.  Hooray on all fronts, we got good info and updated our communications all at one stop.

The afternoon’s adventure found us in search of waterfalls in Wells Gray National Park.  There are 39 named waterfalls in this park, but we only had time to hit the “Big 3” that are accessible by road, Spahat’s Creek Falls, Dawson Falls, and Helmcken Falls.  Even so, this is a big park and it took us over 3 hours just to see these.  As always, pictures don’t really express the majesty and power of these things.

Spahat’s Creek Falls – 240 Feet High – 25 Feet wide

Dawson Falls – 59 Feet High, 350 Feet Wide

From the top of Dawson Falls

Helmcken Falls – 462 Feet High – 75 Feet wide – More than twice the height of Niagara Falls

Helmcken Falls and the Cascade below.

After the waterfall tour we returned to this view from our campsite along the Thompson River.

We sat back with wine and cheese from the Naramata Bench, then finished off the day with a MOST EXCELLENT apple pie from the High Five Diner.  We think we will stop there for another piece tomorrow on our way out.  Life could be a LOT worse!

Day 44 – 2015-06-04

Another driving day today started with us backtracking down BC 5 to Little Fort. We stopped at The High Five Diner again and picked up some Coconut Cream Pie (yes, a third of a pie).  It went in the frig for today’s journey. 

We turned west on BC 24 which took us from Little Fort to 100 Mile House (this is the name of a town).  This road left Little Fort at about 800 feet and climbed to over 3,000 feet in very short order.  Here’s a look at the cloud cover from Little Fort.  This has been typical for several days.

Needless to say, before we cleared the pass, we had our heads in the clouds (sorry, I couldn’t resist).  Got pretty thick at the top, 20 mph max, but we broke out into sunshine on the west side of the pass, something we have not seen in several days. BC 5 joined back into BC 97 at 100 Mile House and we headed north. 

Our next major “waypoint” is Dawson Creek, BC, which is the beginning of the Al-Can Hwy.  We have a few days to get there, so we stopped along the way at Quesnel, BC, just south of Prince George, BC, at Robert’s Roost RV Park.  Real nice setting on a small lake. It also has WiFi, which is why you got this today, and a laundry, which we needed.  We are doing very well staying off the grid, but occasionally, it’s nice to return to the amenities.  Dinner at the campsite tonight.  The Coconut Cream Pie was to die for. 208 (6,402)