Fort Hope Is Where It's At

Late October I had a "free" Sunday...one of those days where there is no shopping to do, no running around, no "things" to pick up, nada...even Annette was content to pick up a book and give it some serious attention.
I thought that was a great idea as well, until I heard the Jeep in the garage crying a little bit as it wanted to go out and play. Being a good pet owner, I told Annette I was off for the day, and grabbed the keys and headed to the garage. Annette called out "where you going"? I said "Out and About"....
Well, actually I did tell here where  I was heading to just in case I didn't come back on time and she needed to send out a search party

Click on the pictures to see them full size to get the full magic effect of them !  :)

I took a few minutes at my computer to figure out where I wanted to head....my playground extends from the Shores of the Pacific Ocean on the west, to Squamish in the North, and as far as east to Hope BC. I consider that large region my "backyard"...and a fine day tripping region it is.

I thought I might head either up the Coquihalla Canyon or up the Fraser Canyon..both of them I love to putter around in discovering new niches that I haven't come across yet. I made note of a few geocaches in the Hope area and a few new ones up each route, as well as a few coming back west along the Lougheed Hwy from Hope. Armed with a few geocaches, a full tank of gas and a camera I headed off to the far corner of my backyard...Hope BC.

Hope, or Fort Hope, as it it started life as a Hudson Bay Trading Company fort in 1848; well before that the local Sto:lo First nations had a settlement here stretching back 10,000 years.

Hope is 96 miles east of Vancouver, it is the head of the massive Fraser Valley that runs from Hope all the way to the sea. It's also a cross roads where three highways diverge to take you to points farther into the heart of BC.

To the north Highway #1, the Trans Canada Hwy, takes you up the amazing Fraser Canyon and points north and, if you choose, east towards Kamloops.

Northeast takes you along the astounding Coquihalla Hwy through mountain passes affectionately known to BC'ers as the "Coke" and known to TV viewers as "The Highway Through Hell" as winters are particularly brutal through the high passes.

East takes you along one of the original routes in Southern BC. Hwy #3 follows the old Dewdney Trail first blazed in 1861 as a rough trail designed to keep the gold in BC rather than having miners take the existing southerly routes like the Skagit River Trail into the U.S.

Hwy #3, also known as The Crowsnest Pass is the gentlest of the routes but even this highway has teeth that bite the uninitiated.

So, here I was at Hope...deciding which way the wind blew.....eventually I figured out the wind wasn't blowing at all and I settled down and decided to roam the back alleys and side streets of this small town where major rivers meet and major highways joined into one to allow travellers in a hurry to race to the big city of Vancouver.

        
I changed my mindset, put away the GPS, and took out my camera and started prowling around the outer edges of Hope looking for some good shots. I meandered over to the mouth of the Coquihalla River where it empties into the Fraser River. I knew there was a local park with river access, I thought this would be a good place for some pictures of the wide Coquihalla River. As you can see from the picture above, the river was running low as the winter rains had not started, and the summer melt of snow had not yet been replaced in the mountains to feed the river.

What I found instead was a vast expanse of gravel bed with the river far off nudged against a bluff. Well, that was not what I expected but still made for a good picture..

The old bridge on Hwy #1 over the Fraser River has been the scene of many accidents as it has a sharp bend at the eastern end. Many semis have failed to negotiate this turn on their night runs down the Fraser Canyon. With downhill momentum on their side and "speed" on the driver's brain they remember too late that the turn is almost 90 degrees and 60 miles an hour in a loaded semi spells bad news.

Art can be found almost anywhere, every common day object has it's beauty...the old highway bridge was no different. Standing at the gated underside of the bridge, I shot through the wire mesh gate and zoomed in a little to get the fade away box effect...it reminded me of a "metal tramway to infinity".

As if to re-enforce it's place in the history of Hope a historical sign board tucked away along a rural road proclaims the importance the Hudson's Bay by highlighting one of the original Fur Brigade Trails from the Interior to the Coast. A "fur brigade" consisted of 20 men and 200 horses packed with furs of fox, beaver, bear, mink, and other animals trapped in the lush Interior of BC. All furs were bound for either Fort Hope or Fort Langley to board trading ships to Hawaii or home to England.

A small lake is nestled between the town and the start of the mountains at the eastern edge of town. It is a local hot spot during the summer for the residents...it provides a respite of cool on hot summer days.

Serene and quiet on an Autumn day....you would never know that this little lake is a hub of activity on warmer days.

Hope found fame again a few years back when a large tree fell in the city centre and rather than just cut it up and haul it away a local artist asked if he could use his chainsaw and create a piece of art. Well, what kind of art can you create with a wild chainsaw? Apparently some pretty fantastic pieces....today more than 20 of Pete Ryan's creations stand around town providing highlights of an interesting walking tour of the city.

The carving of the dog is dedicated to the RCMP Police Service Dog Chip who was shot as he and his handler pursued a suspect in the mountains just outside of Hope.

I poked around Hope a little more until I was back onto familiar ground that I knew well, so I decided it was time to find some new land and picked up Hwy #7 the Lougheed Hwy as it ran west back towards Vancouver.

I took out my GPS and fired it up, as I knew there were a few geocaches down side roads I had not yet been along. Another reason why I love geocaching - it goes hand-in-hand with that sense of exploration that I have.

The hunt for caches led me to a backwater slough of the Fraser River I hadn't discovered before, and it also took me down a rural back road that I had not been on for 20 years. It was still as pretty as I remember it...

Being in the open farm lands provided good views of the ring of mountains that come together near Hope to form the eastern end of the Fraser Valley and the start of the Coast and Cascade Mountain Ranges. Click on the pictures to zoom in and look at the logging road clinging to the side of the mountain...only loggers, goats, and deer would dare go up there. And, oh yeah, guys with Jeeps...yeah I'm one of those guys, I've been on that mountain shelf road a few times. Awesome views from up there!

I went a short ways up the western flank of Mt Wooodside east of Agassiz to a lower level lookout that provided a scenic view. The top picture is looking south-west towards Chilliwack; the bottom picture is looking west towards Abbotsford in the far, far, distance.

Here is an "Eddie Favourite Fun Fact".... look at the bottom picture...the hills you see in the near right and the far left are actually mountain tops. As the massive glaciers covering North America started melting 10,000 years ago the Fraser River carried the glacial till in it's belly until the river slowed down in the flats of the valley and the sediment dropped out. The river sediment here is over a mile deep making the Fraser Valley one of the richest farming areas in BC.

Here is another "Eddie Favourite Fun Fact"... as the glaciers melted, the Ice Age Fraser River was massive - the mountains on the North Shore of Vancouver formed the northern edge of the river delta....the mountains to the south of Bellingham Washington was the southern delta edge. That is 112 kms wide....the present day Fraser River delta is split over three arms of the river, the widest arm only slightly more than 500 meters wide.

 
I ended my day with a quick grab of a geocache in this old road warrior advertising the local stock race track. The bright yellow of the car and squareness of the white sign board stood out like sore thumbs against the backdrop of flat drab farm land in it's winter coat.

I put away the camera, turned off the GPS, stashed my papers and notes on the passenger seat as I turned the iconic 7 slot grill of the Jeep towards home now just a half hour away.

I covered 200 miles in 6 hours, fired off over 100 shots on the camera in my wanders, found some wonderful scenery I had not seen before, and came home with a smile on my face and a feeling of contentment in my heart......not a bad way to spend a "free" Sunday.

The best 35 of the lot of pictures can be found on my Flickr web site here
 

Squamish to Whistler to Lillooett - A Geocaching Road Trip

Video at the end of the report

A while back Cookie Cacher (Jeannine) and I did another of my much loved road trips that seem to take up all day and half the night. This one wasn't quite so bad, left town at 7.00 AM and back home at 12.30 AM.

As I have done several previous reports on this route I won't go into a lot of detail here, but will state that the video is great, as usual!  :)

Jeannine met me in Maple Ridge, parked her car, jumped in the Jeep and off we went aiming for the first of our caches along the Sea To Sky Highway. We began at Porteau Cove, where Jeannine set about finding the caches and I set about filming....(this seemed to be the way it went all day), and we continued on through Squamish and Whistler finding a few caches on our way either in town or at scenic places like Nairn Falls and Murrin Lake.

Pemberton was the turning point in our day; that is, we turned away from our northerly path and began heading east towards Lillooet, and beyond Lillooet, Lytton and the Fraser Canyon. A few miles east of Pemberton is Joffre Park, well know for it's jewel like lake and challenging climb up Joffre Peak where you can obtain an excellent view of the glacier nestled in it's crook. Even the view from ground level is phenomenal, a little taste of the mountainous back country while standing a few hundred feet from your car.

We continued along through The Pemberton Pass as we crested the Coast Mountains on our way to the Gold Rush town of Lillooet. Much history and many ghosts linger in this sleepy town; Lillooet is Mile Zero on the Gold Rush route, all Road Houses where named from their distance to Lillooet. 100 Mile House, 108 mile House, all came into existence as road houses along the Gold Rush route from Lillooet to Barkerville. Frontier justice was served out by judge Mathew Begbie, where it's reported that several men lost their life at The Hanging Tree on an old river bench of the Fraser River just above town. A more colourful Gold Rush fact is that a local entrepreneur brought over 23 camels to serve as pack animals on the Gold Rush route. Well, they didn't last long; the other pack horses and mules were afraid of them, they smelled terrible, and the rough rocky terrain of the BC mountains was hell on their tender hoofs. If you drive through Lillooet you'll marvel at the wide main street of downtown; this was so a stage coach with a full team of horses could turn around in the street.

From Lillooet we headed along the same path as previous explorers, from First nations trading goods, to Simon Fraser following the Fraser River to it's end, to Gold Rush miners following it upstream to it's start, we took the same route as we began our slow turn southward towards home. Lytton is a small town, much smaller than Lillooet, but where Lillooet has much of it's history in the White world, Lytton is an ancient town for First Nations. For thousands of years and many generations, this has been a home to our lands first peoples.

The clean blue Thompson River meets the muddy Fraser River and is swallowed up by it's larger and dirtier cousin. It's quite amazing to see the dual colours of the waters when the two rivers first join, it's almost sad to see the Thompson waters be dissipated by the Fraser.

From Lytton it was a straight south bound night time drive down the Fraser Canyon to the cross roads town of Hope, then 70 miles of freeway travelling back to Maple Ridge. We picked up about 25 caches, an hours worth of video, and a life time of memories.

If the video is too wide for your screen, go to my YouTube channel and watch it there..
http://www.youtube.com/user/tjguy98

Squamish to Lillooet to Hope to Vancouver

ABOVE: Old ore car from Britannia Mine Museum

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Here is the trip report from one of the road trips I hosted for the Backroad Drivers Northwest web group of which I am a member; the trip was done a few years ago but it's still one of my favourite routes!

Hosted by Ed Pedersen

Attendees:

Cheryl Steele from Everett (AKA CJ)

Amanda Pedersen from Maple Ridge

Jeanine Albert from Pitt Meadows

Ed Pedersen from Maple Ridge

Rain, sun, then rain, then clouds, then sun, then, well you get the idea...

We were hoping for a bright sunshiny day to get the full benefit of the mountain vistas we would be traveling through today, alas, but that was not to be.

We left our North Vancouver rendezvous point around 9.30 AM after waiting for any last minute stragglers that might appear. As Cheryl (CJ) was driving by herself today, Amanda opted to ride with her to keep her company.

We traveled west along highway #1 through West Vancouver and turned north at Horseshoe Bay to begin our trip on Hwy #99, also known as the Sea to Sky Highway. For the next twenty miles we were treated to soaring cliffs on one side of us, complete with runaway creeks that often cause road problems during the winter. Even the cliffs themselves have been some what tamed; in sections they are covered with wire mesh, or even cemented over to try and control the rock face that crumbles and continually falls onto the road.

On the other side of the highway was an expansive ocean view occasionally limited by one of the Gulf Islands like Salt Spring or Galiano.

ABOVE: Mill buildings at Britannia Beach Mine Museum

We headed north and made our first stop at the Britannia Mining museum. Here you can take a short ride on an underground mine train that takes you under Britannia mountain to show you the real life working conditions of a mine, as well as the various types of drills used by hard rock miners.

The actual mine is higher on the mountain, but here at ground level were the still standing old mill buildings that crushed the ore to extract the copper from the rock. There was also a company town here to support the mineworkers and their families. Most of the old houses are gone now, just a few remaining buildings to show what they once were like.

ABOVE: Hercules Power water pump at mine museum

We walked around the grounds of the museum and spent time inside the gift shop/museum viewing the different rock types found in the mine. It was interesting to see the old pictures of the mine from 40, 60 and 100 years ago.

Back on the highway and another ten minutes along found us at Shannon Falls, a must see for anyone driving this route.

ABOVE: Shannon Falls

Shannon Falls slides through a narrow gap at the top of a 1200 foot cliff, and crashes noisily down a sheer cliff wall, creating a wall of mist that spreads for hundreds of feet away from the cliff site. Shannon Creek itself is wide, rough and full of sass, and competes for your attention as the water from the falls continues it's short journey to Howe sound.

The large creek caroms down a steep hill side and over the house size boulder slabs that have fallen over time from the cliffs above.

I have fond memories of Shannon Falls; as children our parents would come here for a day of picnicking and playing, and my brothers and I would climb right to the base of the falls and try to stand as close to the torrent of water as we could without getting knocked over. On a hot August day the cool mountain water fresh from the glaciers above was heaven!

Five minutes up the road was the logging town of Squamish, and it looks like every other logging town in the Pacific Northwest.The chosen ride is a pickup truck with a toolbox or huge diesel tank in the bed, all tools of a logger.

Squamish is being rejuvenated by eco-tourists anxious to see some of the remaining pure forests close to Vancouver; many other tourists with spending dollars are brought up from Vancouver by the Royal Hudson, a restored steam train that makes day trips to Squamish.

Plus, all the tourists on their way to Whistler and Blackcomb ski resorts stop in for a coffee, donut and a chance to re-stock their supplies.

A trip to the area wouldn't be complete without a side trip to Brackendale, home to the world's largest winter congregation of Bald Eagles.

While we were not in prime viewing time, there were still some juvenile Bald Eagles circling and playing on the thermal currents generated by the warm sun; and in the waters of the Squamish River a harbour seal dived repeatedly for young salmon and trout in the cloudy waters.

All around us the magnificence of the mountain scenery was hidden by the occasional rain shower that seemed to be following us so far this day. A major bummer to miss out on the towering mountains that encircle this small town.

ABOVE: Sign board at Brandywine Falls

Just south of Whistler we stopped to view the scenic Brandywine Falls; so named as two surveyors wagered a bet over the exact height of the falls. One wagered a bottle of brandy, and one a bottle of wine. The falls are 61 meters tall (approx 200 feet) and have formed a pocket as the water has eroded the surrounding rock. I have been here several times and I am always amazed at the power of water to change the landscape it courses through.

ABOVE: Brandywine Falls

Next stop was the main tourist Mecca of Whistler and it's multitude of ski slopes, shops, restaurants and clubs that make it so popular to the hordes of tourists.

Even in the height of summer the town was buzzing; I swear that there was a million dollars worth of mountain bikes buzzing around the town. Every place you looked there were families, young folks, and professional riders all pedaling away.

Miles out of town we seen athletes-in-training on the wide bike pathway that paralleled the road just a-charging up some of the steep hills the mountain highway traversed.

We left this bustling, scenic resort and traveled another half hour north on Hwy #99 to the tiny town of Pemberton.

This is a REAL, no frills logging town...two blocks of Main Street made up the downtown section, the local hotel, aptly named the Pemberton Hotel, with busy bar; a true one-bar town. To complete the image of a typical small town, the old railway station was smack dab at the centre of town and at the edge of the tracks.

A smattering of houses completed the downtown area; everyone else lived in the outskirts where they could park there heavy machinery and logging trucks on their own property with out the neighbours complaining.

Now it was time to turn eastward, still on Hwy #99, to travel through the First Nations area of Mt. Currie.

This is BC's biggest Indian reserve, and they hold a rodeo every year that is one of the best examples of real life cowboys; no rhinestones here!

Mt. Currie is situated in a small valley surrounded by the Lillooet River on one side, and the Birkenhead River on the other. The large strip of river delta that is formed by the two rivers is very flat and peaceful; I always expect to see orchards of apple trees on either side of the road.

Mt. Currie was also the start of the steady climb into Pemberton Pass that would take us over the divide of the Coast Mountains as we headed for the dry Interior of BC.

ABOVE: Pemberton Ice Fields

The descent coming back down into Mt. Currie is so steep that cars coming past us invariably smelt of burning brakes. I shudder to think how motor homes make it down the hill without some scary moments!

Gaining elevation into the Pass we noticed the warmer coastal air was being replaced by a cool breeze being swept down the mountains from the glaciers on the surrounding mountain peaks.

We stopped at a local Mecca for hikers, a destination called Joffre Peaks. Here you have your choice of easy day hikes around the valley and the glacial lake; or hard day hikes to the upper two lakes in the shadow of the Mattier Glacier. If you were hardy enough you could climb on the glacier itself.

ABOVE: First Lake at Joffre Lakes Park

Our group opted to pass on scaling the glaciers and only went 10 minutes down the trail to First Lake; a green gem of a lake in the shadow of Joffre Peak. Even that was rewarding enough, and it required several photos to capture the full beauty of the area before the mosquitoes chased us back to the cars.

A few more minutes of following the road as it climbed the mountain pass brought us to summit of the pass; the next 20 miles were to consist of level travel, with a slight elevation decline as we headed for Lillooet. At least that's what we thought; I had forgotten about the steep sections still to come.

ABOVE: Mountain Peaks of the Cayoosh Mountain Range

As we went along, the vistas had us continually chattering on the CB asking each other if we saw that mountain over there, or this peak here, or the lake back there; there was just too much to see, the scenery was fantastic!

ABOVE: Duffey Lake

Duffey Lake is the halfway point of Pemberton Pass, and the lake is a deep glacier-carved narrow lake situated between two mountain peaks, and COLD !! BRRRRRRRR !!

Here we pulled out the sweatshirts and hats while we drank in the cool mountain scenery.....avalanche chutes stretching from the mountain peak 3000 feet down to the lake reminded us of how truly wild this area was. Quite often during winter this route is closed due to bad weather, snow accumulations and the danger of avalanches.

We continued on along the road still awed by the scenery presented around every new bend in the highway.

ABOVE: Cayoosh Creek

We reached the end of the lake, and where the lake ended, Cayoosh Creek started. Cayoosh is a Lilloeet area variant of the Spanish word cayuse, meaning horse. In the Lillooet area it specifies a particular breed of mountain pony.

ABOVE: Cayoosh Creek

Cayoosh Creek runs noisily and angrily alongside the road for several miles, at times it is almost level with the road. We kept expecting the creek to jump the banks and cover the roadway, us included.

Soon enough we started our steep descent from the high mountain pass, down through the sharp switch backs where 20 miles an hour was way too fast for the sharp bends in the road. At times, if you looked over the edge you could see the highway a thousand feet below you. YOWSER!!

ABOVE: Seton River Valley looking east; the town of Lillooet is in the valley beyond. That same valley contains the Fraser River
EDITOR's NOTE: This picture is from a previous trip

Before we knew it we were spit out of a narrow valley pass where vertical walls 2000 feet tall were so close you swear you could throw a rock from one side of the pass and make it skip across to the other.

Suddenly we were down the last of the steep section; no more need for second gear to hold us back.....we had reached the other side of the Cayoosh Mountain range and the Fraser River was once again in site.

We were now 2/3 of the way through our trip, and a stretch break at Seton Lake presented us with a contradiction of sorts. We had started off in the cool rain showered West Coast right on the ocean with it's rain forest of Western Red Cedars, Douglas Firs and soaring waterfalls, we then climbed through a high mountain pass with peaks covered in year round glaciers that blew a cold wind down on us, and now we were back in summer!!

The hot August feeling wind that blew along the light green waters of the lake was warm and dry, and we were wondering how half an hour ago we could be so cold even with our sweat shirts on. The temperature change was amazing!

We shed our excess "cold weather" garments and rolled down the windows to let the "summer" in.

The tall rain coast trees had been replaced by shorter Ponderosa and Lodgepole Pines, interspersed with various Birch and Spruce species. The water loving wild ferns on the forest floor were replaced with bunch grass more conducive to rattlesnake territory.

We were in the rain shadow of the mountains, and the arid landscape was indicative of the low amount of precipitation that made it over the mountains. All that water that we had as rain in Squamish was now destined for the glaciers in Pemberton Pass.

Lillooet is the Mile Zero on the Caribou Wagon Road of the Gold Rush Days; 70 Mile House, 100 Mile House, 150 Mile House all exist today due to their beginnings as stage coach stops during the 1890's. Their names are indicative of their distance from Lillooet; many other road houses existed, usually based on how many days out of Lilloett they were; very few survive today.

We had a quick tour of the highlights of the town of Lillooet:

-the Mile Zero cairn

-the Hanging Tree where Judge Begbie dispensed frontier justice to 8 men, similar to the legend of Judge Roy Bean in Texas

-the remnants of gold diggings by the Chinese workers from the railroads; mountains of gravel and bedrock all lined up in an orderly fashion

-the museum with it's placer gold mining equipment

-The Bridge of the 23 Camels; this is a new bridge named to commemorate the bright soul that thought camels would make an excellent pack animal in the arid land of the Thompson Plateau. Only problem was the soft feet of the camels were ripped apart by the hard rock of the trails; and they scared the horses and mules.

By now a time check showed it to be 6.00 PM, and we still had many miles to go. We pushed on through the dry country as we now followed the Fraser River high above the river on the bench lands formed thousands of years ago from a time when the Fraser was many times it's present size.

The landscape was more desolate now then we were used to seeing on the west coast; sparse Ponderosa Pines with their reddish trunks sparingly covered the hillsides, prime habitat for deer, and we saw one right at the edge of the road feeding 4 feet of the highway. It was so well camouflaged that we did not see it until we were only 20 feet away! Lucky for us it did not dart out into our paths.....

The appearance of more farms and houses indicated that we were approaching the small town of Lytton.

Here we wanted to see the contrasting colours of two rivers merging. The Thompson River flows a deep blue as it travels through the harder bedrock of it's watershed. Cleaner gravel and less sediment means less contamination and a"purer" water column.

By contrast, the Fraser's watershed is composed of more sandy and clay like hills and mountains; small particles are easily suspended by the mighty river that contribute to it's "muddy" appearance.

Where the two mighty rivers meet is a clash of colour and a fight for supremacy. The Thompson resists the embrace of the muddy Fraser for hundreds of feet downriver, but the Fraser eventually wins. Where the two rivers first meet there is a fine line between blue and mud brown, just like someone took a pencil and drew a line.

But we were denied this treat today..it was now 8.00 PM and the sun was disappearing behind the mountains, and the absence of bright sunlight caused the shadows to hide this exceptional sight. Somewhat disappointed we walked back to were we had parked the cars, but in true Backroader fashion we were already planning another day's adventure back to this area.

Seeing as that we were about to enter the scenic Fraser Canyon in the twilight, we would be missing all the wonderful sights that this section has to offer. We decided to hold a future trip and take the day to explore the Fraser Canyon at a leisurely pace.

Back on the road we hightailed it south towards the gateway town of Hope and the end of daylight and the end of the tour. We pulled into Hope just as dark was falling, at 9.00 PM and had a late meal at one of the local restaurants that served big meals and HUGE portions of home cooked pies.

We fed our tummies with food and our brains with coffee, then rejuvenated, we headed back out on the road for our last leg of the trip towards home.It was an awfully long day that passed way too quickly, and the sights that we saw continually amazed us during the day, and I think I got a sore neck from whipping it around trying to see everything there was to see!

It was an ambitious day, not for the faint of heart,and we made the most of it !!

In true Backroads mentality, knowing we missed a lot, and there is so much more to see, the return trip to the Fraser Canyon won't be too far off before we are once again racing along side the Fraser River, rubbernecking at the Super Natural Scenery of BC.