Hope, Vancouver City Whistler and Vancouver Island

Well it is Wednesday August 29th, we are in Courtenay , BC on Vancouver Island and this is the first time we have had adequate wifi to update the blog.  Since our last update we have traveled to Hope where we hiked through the Othello Tunnels and visited the Minter Gardens.

Othello Tunnels.

Othello Tunnels.

Minter Gardens.

Minter Gardens.

Minter Gardens.

Minter Gardens.

  Our next stop was the city of Vancouver, where we toured the city by bus, visited Granville Island and Stanley Park.  

View from tower of down town Vancouver,

View from tower of down town Vancouver,

Totem poles in Stanley Park.

Flower Garden in Stanley Park.

Next we were off to Whistler our last stop of this caravan, here we toured the town and rode a gondola up one mountain and then took a 2.75 mile gondola ride to the next peak.

View from gondola going up the mountain in Whistler.

Going from peak to peak.

Going up and additional peak.

View of Whistler from the peak.

We left Whistler on Friday the 23rd and boarded the 2:30 ferry for one hour and forty-five minute ride to Vancouver Island. From the ferry we drove north to Browns Cove and a wonderful campground with magnificent views.  We were staying there for four nights. While there we toured a fish processing plant, did some geocaching. And some local sightseeing.

We left Tuesday morning for Courtenay and the start of the next caravan, this one stays on Vancouver Island and lasts just two weeks.

We got lucky and were first on and off the ferry.

View from our trailer at the Browns Bay Campground.

View of the marina and our campground from the geocache find.

Our meal for tonight of salmon getting

 ready for cooking.

Cooking the salmon.

First Nations Dancers.

OKANAGAN VALLEY

We arrived in the Kelowna area on Tuesday the 13th. The Okanagan valley where we are staying is famous for it’s fruit and vegetable production.  There are also many vineyards and wineries in the area.  Because there wen’t any campgrounds large enough available to accommodate our entire group we were spit into three campgrounds.  Our campground held only ten trailers and we filled up the campground, they had requested the four seasonal campers to leave during our stay. Our host were wonderful, they have an organic apple orchard that grows grade AA Fancy Gala’s and Ambrosia apples.  All of their apples are flown to Ontario and Quebec and are on the grocers shelves three days after picking. We also used their back yard for an evening meal and to listen to a bluegrass band that performed for us.

While we were in the area we had a winery tour and a tasting on Tuesday afternoon and toured a very large sawmill and plywood production plant on Wednesday.  On Thursday we went on a bike ride on the Myra Canyon Trestles / Kettle Valley Railroad trail. On Friday we head off to Hope, BC.

Logs headed to the debarker and the into the mill.

Picture of the computer screen that analyzes the logs

for cutting. it takes 3 to 4 seconds for each log.

Oven that dries the veneer for the plywood. 

It takes 9 to 12 minutes.

Applying the glue.

The press for laminating the plywood.

One of the trestles on our ride.

There were eighteen trestles in less than 5 miles.

More trestles.

View of Kelowna down in the Valley

FORT STEEL AND REVELSTOKE

Fort Steele was just a one day stop, mainly to empty and fill our tanks for another two days of dry camping.

 We arrived at the First Nations campground on Thursday.  While we were there one of the First  Nations People gave us a talk on the Ktunaxa Nation.  We also visited Radium Hot Springs and took a few short hikes. On the second evening the Akisqnuknik First Nations prepared a nice salmon dinner for us with blueberry cobbler for desert. They also served wine with our meal from one of their wineries.

From our raft trip on Monday.

Mountain stream near Radium Springs.

The road near Radium Springs.

The RMC Mountie and the First Nations People

 that spoke and danced for us after dinner.

The road on the way to the First Nations Camp Ground.

The First Nations' campground.

Our next stop was Revelstoke, BC. On Sunday we went to church and in the afternoon we hiked some of the mountain trails for about three hours, the wild flowers in the mountain meadows were in full bloom and beautiful.

On Monday morning we visited the railway museum and learn about the building of the first Canadian Pacific Railway through the Rocky Mountains. In the afternoon we visited the Nickelodeon Museum. Our guide demonstrated all of the mechanical musical players from organ to piano’s to music boxes ranging back four centuries. There have been several small fires in the mountains around us caused by lighting. This evening the were landing helicopters just a couple hundred feet from our trailer for refueling. 

On Tuesday we head for Kelowna, BC.

On our hike in the mountains

On our hike in the mountains

On our hike in the mountains

The Giant Cedars Park.

The Giant Cedars Park.

Helicopter on the way to the fire with water.

Refueling the helicopter.

We left Canadian Barn Dance Friday the second of August in the rain and arrived at the border for a three hour wait to get back in to Montana.  Seems like it was a Canadian holiday and everyone was heading to the US. 

We arrived at Saint Mary’s, eastern entrance to Glacier National Park and the Road to The Sun Highway.  It was cloudy with a light rain. 

Saturday was still overcast but cleared  up just in time for our ride in the Red Jammers. It was a wonderful ride through the park, we stopped at the highest peak, Logan Pass and had a picnic dinner.  During the ride we saw big horn sheep and one black bear and many water falls.

Sunday we went to Church in Browning about 28 miles away,  Most of the parishioners were Native Americans and very friendly.  The very nice priest, said he had been at this parish since 1982 and loves it. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and a little cleanup on the trailer. 

Monday morning we left Saint Mary’s at 6:30AM to beat the rush at the border and crossed into Canada in less than 10 minutes.  We arrived in Fernie BC about 11:30 after some sightseeing along the way.  We are dry camping at a large ski resort.

Monday at 5:00 we went on a raft trip on the Elk River for a little over two hours. Every thing was great until the last fifteen minutes when the thunder storm finally caught us and it started to rain.

Today was a free day and we checked out the town and some of the old logging roads in the area.  Tomorrow we are headed to Fort Steel.

Saint Mary's Lake

Waterfall along the Going to the Sun Highway

The Red Jammers we rode in.

Logan Pass.

View from Logan Pass.

Big Horn sheep just had to do his business in the road.

More Big Horn sheep.

Statue of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha at St Theresa of the Little Flower

In Browning, Mt.

St Mary's River leaving Glacier at 6:30 in the morning

One big truck, will hold 350 tons.

Our campsite at Fernie.

Another view from our Fernie campsite.