Day 3 Geocaching Merritt Area June 5

Day 3 of the geocaching weekend seen us leave Cache Creek in the morning, cache around Ashcroft on the way down, then hit the Fraser Canyon as our pathway home to the Coast.

In Ashcroft we did some city caches, and a few on the outskirts of the city, one was at a small farm outlet store on the bench land above Ashcroft. They sold their own brand of jams and preserves, as well as other locally produced items.
Always happy to see these small enterprises and we bought a few things to take home as a way of helping them and as a way to say "thanks" for letting a geocacher put a cache in the antique farm tractor on your property.

Another cool stop of interest was in just outside of Lytton. There was an yard artist whom welded all kinds of junk together to make life size art pieces that were easily recognizable. Every thing from eagles to motorcycles to people had been created, you have to watch the video to see how creative this guy was.

The last clip on the video shows an old mile signboard located in the Fraser Canyon. It's a bit faded now and somewhat hidden, however it's heritage goes back to the motor crazy days and hot summers of years gone by.

Many years ago, before there was the Coquihalla Highway, the only route to the Interior of BC was the Fraser Canyon. During the heat of the summer, it heats to 100 degrees in the canyon, and long lines of traffic would flow like snakes around the bends and turns in the Canyon. Very little support services except at Boston Bar, and little in the way to tell how much further to go to your destination.

After a long hot drive on the road you knew you were getting somewhat close to home in Vancouver when you seen the wooden mileage sign telling you the distance to Vancouver, Seattle, and even San Francisco should that be your ultimate destination.

As a young lad driving my first car with many free weekends at my leisure, quite often I could be found doing long day drives to points north of Vancouver. That sign is etched in my mind as a mental signpost to how much further and how much longer to home

I had forgotten all about that signpost until a geocacher placed a cache there as part of the Gold Country series which incorporates story telling of the Gold Rush days in the Interior with geocacches placed at historical locations to help spotlight the area for visitors.

Enjoy the video, it's a short one but shows the never changing scenery of the dry interior and the rivers that carve their way along plateaus that are remnants of mountains ground down by glaciers.
The sharp eyed geologists will pick out the vast glacial tills of sand that the train tracks cut through. One look and you know a land slide is just waiting to happen .