Criss Crossing in Chilliwack

I picked up the three Junior Woodchuks early on Saturday so that they may embark on another Grand Adventure with Grampa. First up was a trip to the Chilliwack Fish Hatchery located on Chilliwack Lake Road. The hatchery is located in the Chilliwack River Valley, 20 kilometers from the intersection of Vedder Road and Chilliwack Lake Road.

As you drive further into the valley, you begin to gain elevation, and to match your elevation gain, the temperature drops a few degrees. Knowing this in advance, I had the kids prepped by packing their warmer coats for this early day excursion.

Arriving at the hatchery, the first sign we seen (after the Fish Hatchery sign, of course), was a warning sign that bears were seen in the area. This did not worry me as A) the chance of actually seeing a bear was low, and B) I have bears walking through my yard and on my front porch most nights.

So of course, 5 minutes later the kids say "Grampa, there's a bear" !
The bear looked to be a two year old, running along the inside of the hatchery property trying to figure how to get out to the creek. Eventually a work truck scared him off and that's the last we seen of the bear.

It is early in the season, so only Chum salmon were present in the fish ladders and the pens. They are also called Dog salmon as they do not taste as good as other salmon. That did not stop the hordes of fishermen lining the miles of river bank from trying to land a returning fish.

We walked around the hatchery property and checked out all the fish pens; some where empty, some had fry waiting to be released into the river once they reached the right age.

By now it was getting lunch time and the kids voted on a fast food joint to load up on chicken strips and fries.
This is also where we met up with Brother Ken and his wife Linda who would be joining us for the next stage of our adventure - Geocaching!

I had picked out three caches in our current Chilliwack area, all three were located in local parks.
The first cache took a bit to find as the co-ordinates were a ways off, but find it we did.

We signed the log book in the cache, then wandered across the street to the elementary school so the kids could burn off some energy on the playground.

After a sufficient amount of sliding and swinging, we headed a few blocks over to Sardis Park which has a small lake at its centre. The park held two caches around the lake, so we enjoyed a nice walk around the lake as we went from one cache to another.

Of course, once we found both caches the playground had to be tested to see if we up to "kid code". Apparently it was as the kids did not want to leave.

Ken and Linda headed off to do some shopping, while the kids and I headed in the general direction of home.
Of course, if the Clayton General Store happens to be down the block from another cache I had in mind, that's just a happy coincidence.

The Clayton General Store is inside an old company store built out of the same bricks which were made onsite. Old time buildings throughout much of southern BC were built using Clayton bricks.
The store is also renowned for its vast collection of old time candies, as well as candies from other parts of the world.
And what kind of a Grampa would I be if I didn't spoil the kiddies by buying them a food item containing fast acting sugar?

Lastly, we headed back into Mission and found a couple of more caches just to round out the day's findings.
By now it was almost dinner time: time to get the kids back home to their parents where they were finally allowed to open their nutritious candy collection.

Another fun day with Grampa while the kids experienced new locations and learned new things. Grampa had fun showing them around his extended "backyard" as well.


Click HERE to see the rest of the pictures from the day's Grand Adventure