Williams Lake and area

Williams Lake and area

The only thing I knew about Williams Lake before we arrived here was they had a huge forest fire last year. But now I would consider it a really great place to base yourself and explore the area. The city itself has the best visitors centre I have been to. Beautiful building, nice museum, cozy chairs to sit and access their free wifi, a little coffee shop inside and the staff are super knowledgable and helpful in terms of things to do in Williams Lake and beyond. I know I sound like I am writing a Trip Advisor review (which I did and gave it 5 stars) but I have really found on this trip that when the visitors centre staff are passionate about their town and the things to do, you become more interested in actually doing them….I wonder if anyone has ever done a study on this….

Anyway in Williams Lake, we checked out their hiking trails on Scout Island (there seems to be a theme in these towns that if you have an "island" accessible by land, you put hiking trails on it). We also went to their farmer’s market and checked out their mountain bike trails on Fox Mountain.

From Williams Lake you can head to Bella Coola along highway 20 where the “Cariboo” area turns into the “Chilcoutin” area (I still don’t really know what these areas entail but it is what the guidebooks are organized by). We did a little day trip out to Farewell Canyon (on recommendation from the visitors centre) and it was really beautiful. Crazy valleys and the Fraser River storming by. The drive to Bella Coola on the coast would have been 5-6 hours in, maybe spend a night or two and then drive 5-6 hours back out the same highway so we didn’t go. But we may consider it when we head back south from Yukon/Alaska as there is a ferry that goes from Bella Coola to Port Hardy (on Vancouver Island). We will keep you posted.

The drive to farewell canyon

Another really cool place to visit (and again highly recommended by the Williams Lake visitors centre staff) was Barkerville. Heard of it? We hadn’t either. It was about about an 80 km drive off the main highway that goes from Williams Lake to Prince George. There is not a lot going on down this highway besides the town of Wells that likely supplies all the staff who work at Barkerville. So what is Barkerville? It is a historic site depicting life in 1862 at the height of the gold rush in the area. There are over 100 historic buildings, actors dressed up in period clothing and re-enacting interactions they would have had at the time, demonstrations of panning for gold and the working of the water wheel, Chinatown and Chinese lessons and more that I just can’t even remember. We got there and were given the schedule and there was literally something every hour you could attend. Or you could just walk around and go tour the buildings or visit the shops (or the bakeries). It was a really fun day. They also had a variety theatre that night too so we blew our entertainment budget for the month and went to that as well.

And the mosquitoes? They definitely still terrorized us throughout the Williams Lake area especially at night. We stayed at some recreation sites (those free camp sites I talked about in the last post) near Williams Lake and although Mike had a fire going to try and smoke them out, I pretty much spent the evening in the van hiding. Unfortunately one night we left the back door window open so the mosquitoes joined us in the van and feasted on everyone. Ugh. Definitely haven’t made that mistake again…

Shuswappin along in BC

Shuswap. The name is fun so this area of the province must be fun too, right?

Shuswap to Wells Gray

From Vernon we headed north to the Shuswap (not sure if it is "the Shuswap" or "the Shuswap area") which includes the towns of Sicamous, Salmon Arm and Chase. Salmon Arm is a really nice town – cute little downtown area, nice bike trails close to town and some provincial parks close by as well. With all the flooding that has been going on in BC, it seems cities, towns and parks have felt the effects. In one park west of Salmon Arm (Roderick Haig Brown Wilderness Area - known for its Salmon run in November which turns the river red) entire bridges were washed out and parts of trails closed because of flooding.

Maverick and Dawson hanging out at a coffee shop in Salmon Arm

View from the Salmon Arm Wharf

Just to back up, near Vernon we came across a “recreation area”.  This is a more rustic campground than the provincial parks we had been staying in but still has everything we needed (picnic table, pit toilet, designated camp site). The one near Vernon had an attendant who told us about the BC sites and trails website and that other Recreation Areas that didn’t have attendants were free! So we’ve been keeping our eye out for them fairly often. Unfortunately sometimes they are down long bush roads and when you’ve driven ½ hour out of your way to find the bush road, ½ hour down the bush road and then ½ hour back out the bush road when you couldn’t find the site, you might as well have just paid for camping. We’ve gotten better at researching how to get to them a little more and have come across some nice ones.

Anyway, from the Shuswap, we headed west to Kamloops and did a 2 hour tour of the BC Wildlife Park to determine whether we saw a grizzly bear or a black bear on one of our bike rides. Mike thinks it was a grizzly. I still can’t tell. The BC Wildlife Park rescues orphaned or injured animals and tries to rehabilitate  them to return to the wild but if the animal can’t return to live in the wild, they live their remaining years in the park with all of us humans watching them. It is incredible to see these animals but I struggle with the whole zoo aspect of it. 

After the Wildlife Park, we looked for a visitors centre in Kamloops but when we couldn’t find one, Mike just turned north and 3 hours later we were in Wells Gray Provincial Park looking at Water falls taller than Niagara Falls. Pretty crazy.  We were also entering tour bus country as the most impressive waterfalls have roads (not trails) to them so easily accessible to the people on the tour buses. Plus Wells Gray is along a drive loop that can involve Jasper and Banff (perfect for a tour bus) And I am not knocking tour buses. I did one in Europe 12 years ago. It was a lovely experience to have decisions made for me so I just had to show up and enjoy. Anyway the water falls were impressive. We tried to do some hiking in the park but the mosquitoes were terrible. Although as I write this (7 days later) mosquitoes are still terrible so we may need to just get used to it.

** Note on the link above.  A reader of the blogs asked that I put a map of the area I was talking about.  So I put a link to a google map because I haven't actually figured out how to put the map in the blog post.  I will keep working on it when we get WIFI again.

Osoyoos to Vernon

Osoyoos to Vernon

After exploring Osoyoos we headed up the highway toward Summerland, Peachland and Penticton. We really liked Summeland! It had a quaint small town feel with some neat stores including an awesome bakery, a “witch” store (I think it was called The Black Cat) and a thrift store that was run by volunteers and benefited the local animal rescues. Peachland had a really neat waterfront area but it seemed a little tourist-trap-y for our liking so we just drove through. Penticton had a great park and beach area, which we took advantage of for an afternoon but the rest of the city seemed really busy so other than visiting a few bike shops we kept moving.

Speaking of bike shops… I decided shortly after riding around in Crowsnest Pass and Nelson That it was time for a new bike. My bike was a 2012 and there have been some pretty cool advancements in bike tech over the last 5 Years or so, so I started looking for a new ride. Kim says I went to at least 17 bike shops, and I’d say she is probably right. I test rode about 10 different bikes and checked out countless more. So for those who care about details: I ended up going a little crazy and got a great deal on a 2017 Devinci Marshall. It’s a 27.5+ (wheel is 27.5” in diameter and it has 3” wide tires) setup tubeless, 1x 11 XT drivetrain, dropper post (the seat post is hydraulically actuated to go up and down at the push of a button on the handlebar), carbon fibre frame with 110mm of rear travel and a RockShox Pike fork with 120mm of travel. It isn’t a burly, mega travel bike but it has slack enough geometry and enough travel to hold its own on the trails I ride. So far it’s been a fun ride!

Amd that was Kelowna, I pretty much just bought a bike there, shipped my old one home and we did laundry. :)

We toured up the west side of Okanogan Lake and headed towards Vernon. We stopped at Bear Creek Provincial Park and did a canyon bike. We spent a bit of time running the new bike through it paces at Ellison Provincial Park just south of Vernon. We thought we’d spend more time in Vernon but sometimes you just aren’t feeling it and you keep moving on.

Stuff I miss

Stuff I miss

One month of living in a van and these are the things I miss already.

1. The obvious – my friends, my family, my cat, summer in Thunder Bay,  dog walks in familiar neighbourhoods (with familiar neighbours!), a garden, my own bathroom, local news, daily wifi, my own bathroom (I know, I know – I said that already)

2. The “things”:
- hangers – I miss hanging my clothes on hangers. We have a few hooks in the van but they are usually for dish clothes, tea towels and shower towels. Here is my current clothing organization system.

Thanks to Marie Kondo’s “the life changing magic of tidying up”, I started using shoe boxes about a year ago to organize underwear and socks and they have definitely helped in the van but it is still pretty chaotic.

- a vacuum – I have a little sweeper, some rags and a spray bottle and I pretty much clean at least once sometimes twice a day. The main “living” area of the van is linoleum with a rubber cover where our “walking path” is. The front of the van is typical carpet. Mike, Dawson, Maverick and myself are always in/out of the van so we are always tracking in dirt.  And Dawson and Mav are always shedding their coats. Dog hair is everywhere. I miss my vacuum.

- a microwave – I think what I miss is leftovers but a microwave is what I heat leftovers up in so I guess I miss the microwave. The lunch box could work but with limited storage space in the fridge (especially when the compost bag is full), there isn’t a lot of room for leftovers.  I really shouldn’t be complaining about missing leftovers though as Mike continues to cook dinner for me every night and the meals are quite delicious!

There's a mouse in the house!

Our route from Kaslo to Osoyoos

Yes. We had a mouse in the van. It happened in a cute little campground in Rossland (interesting side note, they promote themselves on their website as “the only campground in Rossland”). The campground itself was one of our favourites so far – close to town, quiet, clean, affordable. Anyway, back to the mouse. We had been keeping snacks and dog treats in the middle “glove box” at the front of the van. The mouse nibbled on the bags the first night we were there (Mike thought he heard something while I was fast asleep). The next day we found the evidence and emptied out the box. Unfortunately, we had left a bag of dog treats in there hiding under some electronics. So obviously, the mouse came back for more. That night, I definitely was awoken to the scratching and chewing on the plastic. Mike opened the box while the mouse was in box and he jumped out. AHHHH. The dogs were completely useless sleeping the whole time while the mouse literally wandered around under their noses. I was also useless hiding my head under the pillow in case the dogs woke up and mayhem ensued. Luckily, this didn’t happen – the mouse left, Mike (my hero) put all of our food that wasn’t in the fridge in a storage container with a lid and we all eventually went back to sleep. When we got to our next campground, we heard no mouse, so we are hoping he stayed back in Rossland to greet someone else.

But I got ahead of myself with the mouse story. I think Mike ended in Crawford and the broom making shop. We also checked out Kaslo which is a cute little town just north after we got off the ferry from Crawford Bay. We did some mountain biking and hiking with the dogs in their recreation area and then rewarded ourselves with a dip at Ainsworth hot springs (it felt like Iceland where we always ended our day with a dip in the hot pools). We spent a bit of time in Nelson but just wasn’t loving the “big” city. By this time, Mike was in bike shopping mode so I walked the dogs along their waterfront area while Mike went to more bike shops (I teased him that he visited 17 shops before he finally found THE bike).

I also have to say that BC so far is a really dog friendly place. Every town seems to have off leash dog areas, on leash dog areas, dog beaches and water dishes outside store fronts. Most of the visitors centres have welcomed dogs inside. We were even walking by a store in Summerland and sure enough, a dog with his paws on the counter while his owner was paying.  We have had good success asking restaurant owners if our dogs can hang out with us while we eat on their patio.  I also like that the rules are specific: Your dogs are allowed here but must be on leash. Your dogs are allowed here and can be off leash. Your dogs are allowed on the walkway but stay off the grass. I think it’s helpful to have rules both for dog owners and non dog owners alike.

But I digress. From Nelson, we went to Rossland and we really liked the chill feeling of the town. We did some mountain biking during the day (they claim they are the mountain biking capital of Canada – I am not arguing, it was pretty fun there), walked around town a bit with the dogs in the evening and entertained the mouse at night.

Onward to Osoyoos and wow, what a view just going into town. This place is also very hot. It’s the tip of a desert and the town has really embraced the “desert” look in that you feel you are in Arizona or New Mexico. It is a also a really walkable/bikable city with pathways along its many water fronts. It is a resort town too and access to the lake is everywhere – public beaches and campgrounds on one side, hotels along the strip of land that joins one side of town to the other. And a provincial park on another spit of land. And thank goodness for all that access to water. The evening was lovely and warm but by noon the next day, it was HOT. It also doesn’t get very wintery here so a lot of retirees set up their big rigs in one of the year round RV parks rather than heading south for the November – March months. Osoyoos was also the beginning (for us) of “wine country”. We did a cidery tasting instead as I don’t have a clue what a good wine is supposed to taste like. We timed it so we would be day drinking on the day of the Ontario election fearing the results. It was fun but a visit to the Desert Centre definitely makes you think about the consequences of all this wonderful fresh fruit and local wines and ciders such as destruction of wild animal habitat (the badger is now almost extinct there) and threats to these really the amazing plant life that is well suited to living in the desert (ie it doesn’t need to be water and pruned and sprayed on a regular basis).

And so we continued north but I will leave the next post to Mike so can talk about the new bike.

Van life made easier

So yes, I know that the idea behind living in the van was to downsize and get rid of stuff. However, there are still some things that have definitely made living in a van a bit easier.

1. The fan. Now I know what all the fuss was about when Mike installed this. Getting air flow into the vehicle when we are parked (air in). Having air flow through the vehicle when we drive (air out). I think Mike mentioned in a previous post that we don’t have air conditioning. Since arriving in BC it hasn’t been as big of an issue as when we were driving through the hot prairies as the days have been warm (not hot) and the nights are cool. But it is only June. I am sure hot temperatures will meet us somewhere. It has also helped having the fan running when we leave the dogs in the car. We close all our blinds, put the cover over the front of the van and blast the fan at 70% to keep it nice and cool for them.

2. The lunch box. Purchased about a year ago, it allowed us to cut some veggies, add some broth, throw in some vegetarian protein and have a stew halfway through our drive from Thunder Bay to Kenora (rather than stopping at a fast food restaurant). It plugs into the cigarette lighter and heats up to about 275 degrees Fahreheit. We have used it twice so far in the van (for dinners) if we are going to be driving more than an hour in between destinations. If we are plugged in at a campground, I have been making banana loaf (needs to bake for about 1.5 hours but has turned out pretty good!).

3. The bike rack. Mike did many hours of research on this one (what doesn’t he spend hours researching?) and I think he made the right choice. Super handy to swing out the way when accessing things out the back doors (dog food, kitchen box, shoe box). And the mountain bikes are definitely getting some good use here in the mountains .

4. Shower bag (a Christmas gift from my in laws – thanks Deb & Gord!). This has been a great little tote to store my shower items and bring them to the campground showers. Because Mike still hasn’t convinced me to try the “Free camping” locations, this is also getting good use (about a twice/week).

The start of Hwy 3

Crowsnest Pass (AB) to Crawford Bay (BC)

We arrived in Blairmore AB and promptly followed the signs to the Blairmore Bike Park. They had a really cool little skills park and good access to the local trails. Darcy, Kristy and Felix showed up shortly after we got there, so after playing in the skills park Darcy took us for a tour up the bike trails to give us a little sampling of what the area had to offer. The trails are pretty sweet and it’s obvious that the local bike club UROC (United Riders of Crowsnest) have put in a lot of work to make the trails great!

Darcy and Kristy were gracious enough to let us stay in their driveway. They did offer their spare bedroom but we are finding the van pretty comfortable and generally easier with the dogs. Darcy took me up for an evening ride after dinner. We are definitely not acclimatized to the thin mountain air. I’m sure that not being in great mountain bike shape yet had nothing to do with our wheezing and coughing up the steep bike trails. But what goes up must come down, and boy are those trails fun!! We came down the School of Rock and Whistling Post trails which are about 3km long and nearly 300m of descent full or berms and jumps. If it wasn’t for the climb up I could do this all day! My 6 year old, 100mm of travel XC bike is a little undergunned in this terrain. Maybe time for an upgrade… :)

We spent the next couple of days around the Blairmore and Coleman area. I would hike and bike with Kim, and then go for a ride with Darcy where he would push my limits and scare me a little bit, which is good - I like coming up to the edge of my abilities sometimes. Kim and I also hiked part way up Turtle Mountain, which is the backside of Frank Slide, the big landslide that partially buried the town of Frank in 1903. Strong gusts of wind and weak lungs kept us from making it to the top, but we are only 2 weeks into our trip so we’ll get fitter as the weeks pass since we are hiking and biking pretty much everyday.

From there we spent a few days in Fernie and a few in Kimberley. Pretty much just biked and hiked. I think I’ve ridden over 70km of trails and hiked about 30km in the past week. Kimberley is a great town! We stumbled across a zero waste store where you could fill up your own containers with everything from cooking oils, soaps, peanut butter, spices, etc. We loved it! If we live there we’d definitely be shopping there lots. We filled up with what we could and checked out the Centrex gas station owned by the same person. Not your average gas station! Pretty much an organic/health food market with juice bar. Once again we filled our cupboards with great food and local produce.

From Kimberley we made our was west and drove up the east shore of Kootenay Lake towards the town of Crawford Bay. It’s a cute little place with lots of artists and artisanal workshops. One of the coolest places was a broom shop where they make really cool brooms. Everything from little whisks to Harry Potters recreations to brooms so pretty you could hang it on your wall. Who knew that broom making could be an art! We had a really hard time not buying a broom but when you live in a van, and you have just downsized your life we have become pretty selective in what we buy.

Canadian destinations

This post is not really specific to our trip but more about travel in general.  I have been thinking about traveling in Canada the last few days. Why?

1) Because it is really amazing - Canada is truly a beautiful and diverse country

2) Because I just read a book called 100 places in the US every woman should go (thank you to my thoughtful linemates from Sisu Warriors for the good bye gift) and I don't think one exists for Canada

3) Because you have a lot of time to think when you are hiking and biking with someone you are also living in a van with (there isn't a ton of discussion on the trails - except when we need to make noise to scare off the bears and cougars).

So where am I going with this and why aren't I telling you the details of what I have been doing lately rather than what I have been thinking? They need a "100 places every woman should go" for Canada.  In fact, I am looking for a job after this year is over and perhaps I could be paid to write it (granted I have a science degree and an OT degree and no experience with writing anything but reports on how someone's house is set up and whether they are independent with their self care, mobility and home management tasks). Okay so maybe I am not the right person for the job.

But who needs to write a book when I already have this blog with followers who just can't wait for the next post!  This post could be the list!

My next challenge though is that I could probably list some really beautiful areas areas I have been to but I think I would have a hard time with the historical places every woman should go.  (and even the beautiful places - what makes them specific for women to go to).

Anyway, I am starting a list and we will see if I can make it to 100.  Comments very welcome (and needed - this is harder than I thought).

(in no particular order - 10 places every woman should go in Canada
1. Gros Morne National Park (Newfoundland)
2. Waterton Lake National Park (Alberta)
3. Human Rights Museum (Winnipeg, MB)
4. Sleeping Giant Provincial Park (Thunder Bay, ON)
5. Tunnels of Moose Jaw (Moose Jaw, SK)
6. Pier 21 (Halifax, NS)
7. Haida Gwaii (British Columbia)
8. Chilkoot Trail (need to start in Skagway Alaska and then end in Bennett Lake, BC)
9. Hopewell Rocks (Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick)
10. Tunnel Island (Kenora, ON)

Composting while travelling

A few posts back, I wrote about our challenge of composting while traveling.  I am not sure if keeping our veggie scraps, coffee grounds and tea bags would even be an option if we didn’t have a fridge.  We currently keep a zip lock style bag (wrap bags work well) in the fridge or the freezer.  Our first bag was given to our friends who we met up with in Douglas Provincial Park (SK) to take home to their compost. Our second bag ended up in the garbage as it was getting big and even though it was in the fridge, it was also getting smelly. Then Mike had an idea about community gardens and the tourist information centre staff member in Fernie also suggested it. So now we are on the lookout for community gardens 

Here is our list so far:

Fernie – just past the hospital and police station. They even had a sign on their compost bin thanking us (or anyone) for our veggie scraps and advising us not to put bones or meat in with it. 

Kimberley – Open Gate Garden on Rotary Drive. The bins indicated what they wanted (veggie scraps) and so we dumped in our stuff.

Rossland - Rossland Community Garden in Jubilee Park on Jubilee Avenue.  The didn't really have any signs weloming compost and what they accepted and their 2 compost bins seemed to have mostly grass.  Hopefully they were okay with our veggie scraps and coffee grounds.

Salmon Arm - Community garden along 10th Avenue South West.  Compost bin had lots of veggie scraps in it but gate was locked so Mike had to jump the fence to get at it.

Williams Lake Community Garden - corner of Carson Drive and Cameron Street near the high school.  This beautiful community garden is not fenced so they must not have issues with deer.  The had a composting "centre" that had a section for fresh veggie scraps and it sounds like once/week they do some turning of the compost and moving it between bins 

Burns Lake Community Garden - Off first avenue, this small road kind of looks like a driveway.  Definitely the nicest community gardens we have seen yet.  They also had a compost centre and welcomed veggie scraps and coffee grounds.

Terrace Community Garden - On Evergreen (the gravel portion of the road).  Largest community garden we have seen with fruit trees and greenhouses.  Black compost bin was a bit inaccessible but one of the gardeners said to just add our veggie scraps to the pile.

Whitehorse Community Garden - On 7th Avenue off Baxter.  Walking distance from downtown.  Whitehorse also has a community composting program where they pick up residents' veggie scraps.  The 2 public green bins I saw that you could empty a compost bag into was the Farmer's Market on Thursdays from 3-8 and at the Canada Games Complex

Haines Junction (Village Bakery) - Not only is this a great place for some baked goods, they had a compost bin and recycling bins.  Thanks Village Bakery!

Palmer, Alaska - Their community garden definitely looks professionally done and is conveniently located right beside the visitors centre.  There was a compost bin there.

Fairbanks, Alaska - So their community gardens had a pad lock on it and a fence with barb wife (so Mike was not attempting to jump it) but we lucked out on a dog walk and found a church with 6 compost bins on the corner of 1st and Bonnefeld.

Dawson City, YT - Their community garden is located on their visitors map and is near the end of 3rd Ave (closest to the ferry).

Fort Nelson, BC - Located behind the church on 50th avenue (I think).  Ask at their very lovely visitor's centre and they can direct you.  The gentleman who was tending our plot offered us carrots and potatoes (yum!)

Whistler, BC - they have 2 recycling centres and both take organic waste.

Sechelt, BC - Salish Soils takes organic waste and is conveniently located beside the community recycling centre.

Powell River, BC - the recycling centre just up the alley from the visitors centre takes organic waste