BC Electric Street Cars In The Fraser Valley

 

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Vancouver is a young city by many standards but the growth of the city and the surrounding suburbs has been astounding in its short life.

Although the First Nations have lived here for over 10,000 years, the newcomers, the Europeans, first arrived in 1792 and by the 1860's sawmills were exploiting the rich forest and miners were exploiting the gold and silver found in the mountains.

Vancouver was incorporated in 1860 and by the 1890's streetcars were being introduced to handle the needs of the people to get around Vancouver and its immediate suburbs.

Further to the east in the Fraser Valley, pioneer settlements like Cloverdale, Bradner, Mt. Lehman were only acessibil by a ferry ride across the Fraser River from the north shore where the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) ran daily through to Vancouver.

By 1809 - 1810 the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) has pushed through tracks as far as Chilliwack and was running Interurban street cars to these "remote" settlements.

While Ken and I have visited and followed many sections of these tracks over the years, today we limited our day to just three of these locations.

Our starting point was Matsqui, just south across the Fraser River from Mission. Matsqui is a floodplain which provided fertile soil for farmers to grow crops for their own use. With the coming of the Interurban line, the farmers could now expand and begin to sell their crops commercially into the big city of Vancouver.

We had a late breakfast in Abbotsford, just south of the Matsqui Prairie area, and then headed west to our next stop of Mt. Lehman. Like so many parts of our history, the community and the historic buildings which centered on the rail line have mostly gone.

In Mt. Lehman we were able to visit the old Mt. Lehman Community Hall and the Mt. Lehman United Church. Sadly, even some of the buildings that were still standing not so many years ago have now been knocked down and only an empty field remains 

Our next stop to the west was Bradner where all that remains to identify a busy pioneer centre is the general store located right next to the tracks. Further north on Bradner Road is the Bradner Community Centre, and right next to that is the old Bradner Elementary School. 

While the community centre and the school are still in use, unless you know the original history of the area, you would be hard pressed to conjure up the ghosts of the settlers which have been so neatly pushed aside.

Final stop of the day was the community of Fort Langley. While Fort Langley was not actually on the BCER Interurban line, it still represents a major part of the growth of the Vancouver area, in particular the province of BC.

Fort Langley was the birth place of the province, and the first capital of BC before that title was given to the downstream community of New Westminster, and then eventually to Victoria on Vancouver Island.  

Today the quaint shops remind us of the early days, and the actual fort itself on the hill above the town reminds us of the original days of BC

The one thing that rings true is that the railways still play a big part of the Fraser Valley's daily life, with the main lines of the Canadian National Railway (CNR) running along the riverside right next to the original Fort Langley train station building

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FORT LANGLEY AND SENDALL GARDENS 

The Fab Foursome of myself, Annette, brother Ken and his wife Linda took advantage of the sunny weather and headed over to take a stroll around the village of Fort Langley, once the capital of BC.

We arrived mid-morning slightly ahead of the main crowds but parking was already at a premium. We wandered around the stores on the side streets and then meandered down Glover Road, which is the main street through town.

We popped in a few shops which caught our fancy, then settled into A restaurant with an outdoor covered patio for lunch.
We sat next to the fireplace, so we had the benefit of the sun and the fire. The good food had us ready to continue on with our day of touring.

After lunch we headed for Sendall Gardens, a 3.67 hectare garden which includes a small creek.

Originally owned by the Sendall family, the property eventually found its way in to hands of Langley city for preservation.
The city has done a great job of expanding access to the property via pathways to the surrounding neighbourhoods.

The city has also cleaned up some of the land and created paths within the small park which allows visitors greater access to the full property.

After our tour of the gardens, the group split up to go our separate ways to take care of some shopping chores on the way home.

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 Spending a Sunday in and Around Harrison River Valley

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Aunty Diane and myself picked up the three junior woodchucks for a fun filled day of "exploring with Grampa"

First up was Weaver Creek Spawning Channel in the Harrison River Valley east of Mission BC.

Unfortunately we were in between salmon runs for this facility, so we drove a few miles down valley and stopped at the Chehalis River Fish Hatchery

Here we seen some Chinook salmon but mostly Chum salmon trying to gain access to the hatchery channels. We also looked around the hatchery and found a batch of fry in one of the rearing containers.

From the hatchery we drove a couple of miles up the Harrison West Forest Service Road to the location of an artesian well. Actually, it is the outlet of a pipe run from the neighbour's property on the hill above the road.

Being a good neighbour, the property owner installed a pipe down the hill to roadside for his fellow neighbour's and even built a rock faced Buddha shrine to highlight the water pipe outlet.

After this it was time for lunch, so we drove into Agassiz and had a great lunch at the Broken Whisk. The kids were happy about their burgers and chicken strips. Adalyn thought they were the best chicken strips she ever had, Rowan was extremely happy about his cheese burger and fries, while Camden thought his burger was pretty good but Wendy's was still better. All agreed the strawberry ice cream for dessert was fantastic.

After lunch I showed Diane Scofield a good thrift store built in the back parking lot of a church in Agassiz. Unfortunately the store was closed on Sundays but Camden and Rowan had fun playing chess on the large outdoor chess board.

From there we headed to visit the train museum but alas it was Sunday and the museum was closed as well, but we still took a few minutes to look around the rail car and the caboose on display.

Our last stop of the day was the Kilby Museum on the Harrison River close to the Lougheed Highway.

The Kilby Museum is housed inside of a large three story house with the 1906 general store on the main floor, and various boarding rooms on the top floor. The ground floor was the workshop for the farm which was also on this sight back in the day.

The building itself is up on 30 foot stilts to get above the spring floods which happened every year in the Fraser Valley until extensive diking took place in later years.

After touring the general store and surrounding farm, we began making our way home as the day was coming to an end.

Grampa took the kids on a few backroads they had not been on before, and we did a bit of bird watching in the back sloughs of the Fraser River.

We spotted many Bald Eagles of course; also present were American Coots, American Dippers, Common Mergansers, Mallard Ducks, Double Breasted Cormorants and others that were a bit too far away to accurately identify without binoculars.

It was a fun way to spend a few hours with the grand kids in between the rainy days of Fall. Grampa got to show them a bunch of new locations and sights, and Aunty Diane even got to see some new sights and sounds as well.

 BC FARM MUSEUM AND THE HISTORIC HBC FORT LANGLEY

ALL PICTURES CAN BE SEEN HERE ON MY PHOTO WEB SITE

We had Camden the Junior Farmer with us for the day while the other family members went to the PNE.

We took Camden to the BC Farm Museum located in Fort Langley where Camden got his fill of old tractors and old farm equipment. The guy is pretty smart, he figured out what a lot of the old equipment was even if it looked nothing like today's versions.

Afterwards, we found a geocache a couple of blocks away, then went back and toured the actual fort in Fort Langley.

Built in 1827, the fort is an original Hudson's Bay Company fort catering to the lucrative trade in furs and salmon, which were shipped to rich nations in Europe and Asia

Camden's day was wrapped up with an early Pirate Pack dinner at White Spot where I hear the ice cream dessert was "to die for" !

There are many pictures here, mostly for the old farmers and history buffs in the crowd. While there are many agriculture items on display, there are also many other items such as washing machines, refrigerators, household appliances, radios, etc.

It is definitely worth a visit to experience our local history at both the farm museum and the fort.

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AFTER DINNER GEOCACHING

Trail alongside Chehalis Creek in the Harrison Mills area

Ken and I made a quick after dinner trip to Harrison Mills area to replace one of my geocaches which had been hidden 17 years ago.

(Hard to believe I have a geocache hidden that long)

As usual I did a good job of hiding the geocache (old ammo can) among the creek boulders along the edge of the river. Between the many boulders to step on and look under, and the slippery moss covering the boulders, I thought for sure one of us was going to take a tumble and break something important, like our wit !

Buddha statue through which an artesian well supplies water to community residents

We replaced the geocache unscathed, other than a few mosquito bites, and then meandered homeward finding a few geocaches on our way back to Maple Ridge.

We found our last few caches in the dark but even so, that was not a problem as our BAF (Big A** Flashlights) made it easy to find our way to the geocache area and then zero in on the cache itself.

Elbow Creek directly across the road from the Buddha statue

Though we were only out for three hours or so, we still enjoyed getting out of the house to experience the beautiful scenery so close to home.

Ruskin Hall in east Maple Ridge was built in 1922

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 VISITING QUAYSIDE AT NEW WESTMINISTER

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The Fab Four, AKA myself, my "Handler" Annette, and brother Ken and wife Linda, waited out the Sunday morning rain by having breakfast at a local diner, then headed to New Westminster to visit the Quay (pronounced "key"). The Quay is an indoor public market containing gift stores, jewelry stores, craft sellers, food stands and a grocery store.

Today's visit was more about strolling the boardwalk before and after the market place, and seeing the latest buildings and parks as they are developed. 

The New West waterfront was once a run down commercial section of the city; over the years derelict warehouse were torn down and the land left vacant. A few years ago, an arsonist started a fire in the massive wooden pier which caused extensive damage and set back the city's community plans for the area.

Today, the pier has been rebuilt, residential high rises are separated by community park areas containing plenty of activity for little ones and for everyone else. Benches, lounging sculptures, extensive board walks, and clear views are accessed by city spaces and pathways from one end of the complex to the other. All in all, I'm guessing at 2 kms of boardwalk from the newer east end to the older west end now exists.

We enjoyed exploring the new areas and stated that we wouldn't mind living here; many outside cafes and restaurants have opened and the riverside view can't be beat!

After our walk we popped into the quay itself to have a coffee and do a quick shop at the grocery store where we picked up some fruit and veggies, all local of course, and headed back to our cars for our next destination.

Queens Park in New Westminster is a 75 acre park containing a baseball stadium, ice rink, spray park, tennis courts, and multiple buildings used for community functions. Established in 1887, this historic park is well loved by all of the Greater Vancouver residents.  Today we wanted to visit their outstanding Rose Garden as a soft wrap up to our day of walking the riverside boardwalk.

Constructed in 1981, this small garden harbours dozens of roses, along with some other native plants and shrubs. We spent an hour just enjoying the multitude of colours and smells of the flowers, a fine way to end the day.

Afterwards, it was time to head home and rest our feet and plan on where to go next time.  

 End Of Summer Visit to Kelowna

The Pedersen clan made a late summer visit to Kelowna BC, a destination we usually visit once or twice a year. Brother Alan and his wife Nancy make the trek to Kelowna twice yearly to visit their son Christopher who lives in Kelowna. For Annette and myself, and brother Ken and his wife Linda, it is a good reason to make it a family road trip where we all get to visit and play in another town, as well as enjoy a visit with Christopher.

YOU CAN RIGHT CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE ALL PICTURES ON THE PAGE.

Click here to see all the pictures from the weekend. There are many to see and they help to do justice to the Kelowna scenery; so much so you will add it to your next vacation ideas !  😀

Annette and I made the trip late on the Friday afternoon after visiting Samantha and the kids on the way out of town. By the time we made the four hour drive to Kelowna, we had just enough time to check into the hotel and then meet the group for dinner.

Christopher is our resident tour guide in Kelowna and he picked a brewery with outside seating as our dinner spot. Beers and pizza were the main items on the menu and those went over well with the group.

With thirsts quenched and bellies full, and our catch up conversations done, we adjourned for the night making plans to meet at a local favourite breakfast location in the morning. 

We met in the morning, ate too much for breakfast, which seems to be the norm these days, then headed over to a local farmers market a few blocks away. As outdoor markets go, this was a fairly large one with a good mix of craft artisans and farmers themselves selling their harvest. Both Annette and I were wanting to buy some farm goods but we were still to be on the road for a couple of days, so the food would spoil before we returned home.

After the market, we headed to one of the weekend's highlights, that being walking part of the Kettle Valley Railway. Then railway itself is long defunct but dedicated and passionate local activists worked hard to save the rail right away for recreational use for hikers, bicyclists and horse riders. The gem of the trail is a 12 mile section which includes 18 trestles as the railway snakes through Myra Canyon. While we were not going to attempt all 12 miles, if you access the park from the Myra Canyon end point, you reach trestle #18 in a kilometer, and then within the next kilometer are another five trestles.

That we could accomplish as a nice walk for most of us, for a couple of us (including myself) that was a stretch but we did it anyways. The roundtrip amounts to 4 kilometers, for those considering the trip.

After the walk we rewarded ourselves with a visit to a local cidery. Annette had enjoyed a cider at a Fraser Valley brewery during the summer when we stopped for lunch. Annette discovered the cidery itself was in Kelowna, just 15 minutes away from Myra Canyon Park.

The Soma Craft Cidery is a small batch cidery, meaning they make small batches of cider throughout the year but the cider flavours change dependent on the season. Unfortunately they did not have any stock of Annette's chosen cider, but we did have a sampling of their current four batches of cider. After the tasting, Annette and Linda both opted to buy the blueberry cider; it was pricey but apparently yummy, so I'm told.

After the cidery, an early dinner was in order, so we voted to visit a local Chinese food restaurant which some of the gang had previously visited. This provided a chance for more catch up conversations and the expected retelling of old, embarrassing family stories involving those present and not present.

  

After dinner, Chris suggested going to a viewpoint at Dilworth Mountain Park, which offers a terrific view of Kelowna from the east, and just happens to be the perfect location to watch the sun set in the west. It was an excellent suggestion as it made for a memorable ending to the day. We had enjoyed sunny skies through the day, which kept the temperature relatively warm, but Fall was on it's way and we needed our warm clothes to keep us toasty as we enjoyed the red sky caused by the setting sun.

Next morning, another highlight fieldtrip was on the books - a ride aboard the Kettle Valley Steam Train which runs for 10 kilometers along a restored section of the Kettle Valley railway bed. The trip starts on the western outskirts of Summerland, in Prairie Valley. The trip takes you around the local mountains and ends south of Summerland at the Trout Creek Trestle, another spectacular hand built train trestle restored by the local volunteers.

It was such a wonderful trip, the train moved slowly allowing the tourists the full experience of the train ride itself, as well as being able to take in the grandeur of the scenery. The conductor had a running monologue about the local history and geography of the area, plus he also informed us that the engine which was pulling the train was the same engine which had been pulling the train when Billy Miner robbed the train near Mission, B.C. in 1904. That was Canada's first train robbery!

After the train ride we split up and went our own ways. Ken and Linda were headed to Penticton to hit a local outdoor flea market, while Alan and Nancy were returning Chris to Kelowna, and Annette and I were heading down to Penticton to visit Annette's mother.

We all arrived back in the Vancouver area late in the day, seemingly to all arrive home in the 7.30 - 8.00 PM time frame.

Annette and I were quite happy with our Kelowna visit; we got to visit with family, got to see Christopher which we only do so now once or twice a year, and we had several new tourist experiences which were quite enjoyable.

Come October 1 you need to have your snow tires on in BC to travel the mountain passes; we headed back down to the Coast on September 29th. As we reached Pennask Summit on the Coquihalla Connector between Kelowna and Merritt, a rain shower had just passed through and the 3 degrees Celsius temperature at the summit turned the passing rain shower into snow as the clouds surmounted the mountains and reminded us that winter comes early in the BC mountains.      

        

 Suspended in Lynn Canyon

Recently we had Rowan for a sleepover and a day of adventure. We started the day in North Vancouver at Lynn Canyon where we surprised Rowan with the suspension bridge over the canyon.

The bridge is suspended 150' above the river canyon. Rowan was a bit apprehensive at first but went across with minimum fuss. While on the other side we took the trail a few hundred feet upstream so Rowan could play among the boulders on the edge of the river. The river is fairly small and quiet this time of year so there was a fair amount safe space to play in.

Once we went back across the bridge we headed into the Ecology Centre and learned about the flora and fauna in the area, as well as received information on how to help protect the environment through interactive displays.

It was Pirate Pack Day at White Spot, so what better way to reward Rowan for his bravery going over the suspension bridge. Even the adults were served Pirate Packs this day, every two dollars from the pirate packs sold went to charity, so we were happy to do our bit.

After lunch we treated Rowan to yet another new place, this time we took him to New Brighton Park in East Vancouver situated close the Second Narrows Bridge. The park gave Rowan a playground to explore, as well as a grass field to run around on and a new experience of seeing a freighter ship up close and personal.

We also watched the marine traffic go past us; various tugs, pleasure craft and commercial ships sailed past while we were there.

Once back at Grandma's house, Grandpa and Rowan took his bike to a local park and Rowan got some good practice at riding his bike on the children's bike oval. To be honest, I think Grandma had a nap while we were at the park - shhh.

Before long the day was drawing to a close and time to get Rowan back home so he could sleep in his own bed. An extended visit with the other members of his family were enjoyed while we were there before we said goodnight to all and headed back to Grandma's house.

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** LOOK FOR THE PICTURE OF GRANDMA ON THE SWINGS **

 Cruising into the Columbia Valley

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Recently Brother Ken, aka MrTJ in geocaching circles, and myself decided to make a foray into a forgotten corner of the Fraser Valley, someplace where neither of us have visited for 50+ years.

Cultis Lake, 60 miles east of Vancouver, B.C. is Vancouver's local favourite summer time destination. Cultis Lake is a fair size lake surrounded by long time summer cottages on the east, new lake front houses on the north, and densified during the summer by multiple campsites both in Cultis Lake Provincial Park and private campsites along the south shore. At the west end of the lake is the small village of Lindell Beach, an old clutch of summer cabins turned mixture of permanent residences and long time family cottages.

Beyond Lindell Beach, west along Columbia Valley Road, lays a large valley mostly forgotten about by the summer visitors. The craziness of the boaters, paddlers, swimmers, campers, and the occasional obligatory moron, is quickly left behind in just a few minutes as Columbia Valley Road ascends a small bluff and emerges into the Columbia Valley. Due to glacial action thousands of years ago, the Valley is officially classified as a "hanging valley."

The first impression you receive is that you could be in any rural green valley near Salmon Arm, or anywhere in the central part of Vancouver Island. The look of the valley belies its nearness to Canada's third largest city. 

Ken and I barely remember the valley from those many years ago, safe to say neither of us remembered it as we seen it this day. There were a few newer hobby farms with big new houses, but for the most part it seems like the farms and houses we seen years before are the same ones we seen today.

We had approx. 30 caches to find in the valley, with a bit of crossing our tracks back and forth due to the limited number of roads and the spread out nature of the cache placements.

Although I had made an adhoc route for the day, as usual that changed a bit once we got our feet on the ground. We came to realize there was a north side to the valley, a central part, a south side, and then two east sides divided by a ravine watershed. Once we understood the road layouts and the cache placements, the order to find the caches in changed and in turn, made our stops more orderly.

We started our route grabbing the caches along the north side as it was the more straight forward section. We then crossed the valley and started on the south side caches. I had looked at the maps and noticed that the south road ran close to the border. We were very surprised when we arrived on a straight section of road and noticed the forest cut line on the hills nearby. Knowing the cutline ran along the 49th Parallel delineating the International border, we eyeballed the path of the cutline running on the hills in front of us and behind us, and realized we must be very close to the border. We were even more surprised when we realized that the we conveniently stopped next to an obelisk used as the Canada-US border marker. This marker was two feet off the roadway, meaning we were _right on_ the US border. 

We took pictures of both sides of the obelisk; one side says Canada and the other side says United States. Technically I stepped into the US when I went to the other side of the obelisk but all worked out - no floodlights, barking dogs, or armed guards appeared out of the woods to challenge me, so I figured I was good! 

We soon made our way to the eastern side of the valley, and were slightly mystified as to how to get to caches on the other side of a ravine\creek, until we determined we had to go back to the main road, and then tackle the next set of caches from a more eastern access.

Ken and I were surprised by how many blueberry farms are now in Columbia Valley. The Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows areas with their wetter fields are well known for their vast blueberry fields. The ground here was harder and dryer, although we did notice their seemed to be a lot of sand in the soil. Perhaps the good drainage was an optimum growing environment for the bushes.

One of the caches to find was on a long a right of way road into the very ravine which caused our initial confusion. Ken recalled that he had a book on the old railways of the Columbia Valley and that this ravine access road was one of the main spurs for the railway back at the turn of the century when the valley was logged. Matter of fact, Ken mentioned that, due to the steep bluff from Cultis Lake up into Columbia Valley, the trains could not get down or up the bluff, so the main line went south into the US and the logs were distributed at Maple Falls in Washington state. 

Ken and I did our good deeds for the day for our fellow geocachers whom had hid the caches. As this group of caches were far off the beaten path, I came prepared with a trunkful of trinkets to refill the caches. I even had a dozen or so new cache containers of various sizes and I in turn replaced probably half a dozen missing caches. I also cleaned up, dried out, and replaced paper to use as cache logs for the benefit of cache finders to follow. Looking at past logs, many of these caches had not been found for 6 months. Safe to say these caches were the "way out there" finds to make and did not generate much geocaching traffic during their existence.

Ken and I thought our day might have ended early; you know, get out on the path by 10.00 AM, not find some missing caches, get frustrated and over heated due to the hot weather, quit, go for lunch and then go home! LOL

Instead, any cache we could not find we replaced, any cache found in bad shape was fixed up to be serviceable for months to come. Ken and I spent the entire day in this beautiful corner of the larger Fraser Valley area and thoroughly enjoyed our day. I was going to make a joke about the "company being dubious" 😀 but the fact is the siblings in the family get along great and we all appreciate the quality family time we spend together. But there is something special about hanging one on one for the day and remembering that the kindness and strength of your family is why your life is as good as it is !  

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