Fraser Canyon - Tunnels, Old Roads, and an Old Bridge, Oh My !

 

The Fraser Canyon was created approx. 20 million years ago during the Miocene Period as the Fraser River cut its way into the uplifting Interior Plateau. 

Exposures of lava flows are evident along the walls of the canyon and the sub-canyons that lead into the main canyon. None of this is obvious to the modern traveler who speeds along through here at 90 km an hour.

Ken and I decided to spend a day geocaching in part of this historic canyon; we would be starting in the north at Boston Bar and working our way down towards Hope. Where we stopped for the day was TBD.

A number of caches in the canyon highlight the later history of the canyon, mostly the last 100 years or so. On this trip we would be visiting old roads on the side of cliffs before engineers bored through the mountains to replace the dangerous sections of road with a series tunnels, seven in all. 

 And, oh yeah, did I mention an old bridge? The "new" bridge was built in 1926 and was used by cars all the way up to 1962 when a new high level bridge was built. (Orange bridge seen in first picture).

It was really interesting to walk along the old, deteriorating roads clinging to the side of the mountains. And it was really cool when we found tunnel #8, which in fact was an early tunnel replaced by a newer tunnel which ran just below the original one.

The day's story is best told via pictures and the complete collection can be found here on my photo web site. 

This is only Part 1 of our trip; as the day ran long and many caches remained on our list, we ended our day at historic Yale.

The entire canyon has so much history contained within its short run, and Yale itself plays a key role in Canada's history.

It was in Yale where the leaders of the Colony of British Columbia met in 1868 and decided to create the Province of British Columbia. In 1871 the Province of BC came into being, and later BC joined the Dominion Of Canada, the forerunner of the country we know today as Canada.

Part 2 of the trip is still to be done and I for one cannot wait to get back on the highway for another geocaching road trip mixed with grand scenery and historical lessons about our Super Natural BC.

Drop a comment below if you liked this story or want to know more about the canyon in general.  

BC Electric Street Cars In The Fraser Valley

 

To view a larger size of the pictures, click on any picture and you will be able to view them all in the larger format

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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 SPENDING A SATURDAY IN HOPE BC

Hope BC is 95 miles east of the big city of Vancouver and is the junction of three mountain highways and a site of a former Hudson Bay fort located on the banks of the Fraser River.

The Trans Canada Highway, also known as  Highway #1 heads north into the rugged Fraser Canyon which splits the Coast Mountains and the Cascade Mountains. 

Highway #5 heads north-east into the Coquilhalla Pass, known by many around the world as the Highway From Hell due to the TV series which follows the real life struggles of commercial tow truck operators winching 18 wheelers back up to the highways after they have gone off the road.   

Highway #3, known as the Crowsnest Highway, heads due east and follows a lower elevation route that is a two lane winding lane for most of its path. While the elevation is lower, the highway is no less dangerous.

The town of Hope sits at the western terminus of the three mountain highways as they exit the mountains and enter the flat land of the eastern end of the Fraser Valley. From there it is a relative straight shot west to Vancouver and the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Today we would be settling for the town of Hope itself to wander around the town, shop the stores, and find a few geocaches which were new in the past few months.

Hope is also known as the chainsaw carving capital of Canada as there are no less than 80 carvings, most of them life size or larger. 

We have seen many of these over the years, for the grandkids along today this was a first for them. We looked at a few of the carvings and then let the kids play of the local playground before we head on to find some geocaches.

One of the fun caches of the day was located next to a residence which had two old stumps on the city property by the sidewalk and the family had turned the two stumps into a showcase of colourful birdhouses. Bird figurines are hidden among the bushes of the garden to complement the esthetics of the bird houses. 

Next geocache on the list was at the Pioneer Cemetery, which is always an interesting place to visit. What often strikes me was the short years most of the original people lived due the hasher lives they lived. 

Young Rowan found this cache, it was a plastic stick which had the cache tucked into one end of it. For a plastic stick, the cache blended in well with the other wooden debris on the ground.

The last three geocaches were located along the old Kettle Valley Railway right of way which headed east out of the town in the direction of the gold and silver mines of Southern BC.

If you followed this trail for another mile or two you would come across the Othello Tunnels, a wonderful feat of engineering where they blasted 5 tunnels through a short, steep canyon to allow the train passage through impossible terrain.

Pictures of Othello Tunnels and the Hell's Gate Air Tram from a previous visit can be seen here 

This section of the trail is less than a kilometre and is an easy walk and a great place for the kids to stretch their legs.

We found the cache at the start of the trail, with second cache being at the end of the trail. About halfway between the two, the youngest grandkid looks around a good hiding spot and found a geocache I did not have on the list. As I had found that cache previously, I had ignored it on my new search  Kudos to Camden for finding that one!

We continued on and found the last cache at the end of the trail, which much to the kids delight was a scary looking skull staring at you from under the forest debris.

By now it was the end of the day, we had all had our share of exercise for the day. The grandkids had scored some books at the book store, where all books are only $2.00 each, and the adults had a chance to get out of those house after days of winter rains.

We headed back home just a little tired and somewhat cold from the unexpected windy day in Hope. The temperature was mild at 12C, (54F) but the cold breeze just blew right through our hoodies and light jackets. Oh well, we survived.  😀 

Thanks for reading about the day's adventure. Leave a comment if you liked the story and you must click on the link to look at the pictures to get gain full appreciation of the day.

ALL PICTURES FROM THE DAY CAN BE SEEN HERE

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.

ALL PICTURES CAN BE SEEN HERE ON MY FLICKR WEB SITE

 Spending a Sunday in and Around Harrison River Valley

ALL THE PICTURES INCLUDING A VIDEO CAN BE SEEN HERE

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.

 PORT MOODY BOARD WALK

Annette and I took advantage of the late summer weather and enjoyed a walk along the newly renovated boardwalk along the eastern edge of Burrard Inlet in Port Moody.

We parked at the Port Moody rec centre and accessed the trail network from behind the rec centre.

The city has done a fantastic job on renovating the delipidated board walk with a well designed, elevated, and enclosed board walk connecting the south side of the inlet to the north side.

Along the way the trail intersects several times with the paved Trans Canada Trail which is the route for bicyclists accessing Rocky Point Marine Park.

Annette and I walked about halfway along, before we decided the heat of the day and the round trip distance might be more than we wanted to endure, so we re-thunk (sic) our plans and headed back to A\C of the car.

Enjoy the pictures and get down to the boardwalk and enjoy the views as you stroll along.

ALL PICTURES FROM THE DAY CAN BEEN SEEN HERE ON MY FLICKR SITE

 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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