I was undecided as to what I was doing today until late last night. Most were flying back to the coast this morning, two were driving back to Kamloops via the Quesnel River Research Centre in Likely, and I was driving back to the coast. It’s a ball-park 9 hour drive…did I “want” to add another three hours to my day of driving to see one more site?
Kinda yes, kinda no.
The last time I visited that site was just days before the world ground to a halt. I’d gone up with a pair of engineers from the US, a co-worker, and a fellow from a crown company that does interpretive displays for the national museums. We had been there to see if it was a facility that could be used for some of the Big Bar efforts. The last time I was here it was under four feet of snow, and there was literally “nothing” in incubation.
The two headed for home in the Kamloops area asked if I was going to join…I asked what time they were leaving, they said “first thing in the morning”.
When I asked them to define “first thing” the reply was “around 8am”. That’s definitely not first thing for me. Doing the math…leaving at 8am would put us at the site at noon, then probably an hour or more on the site, before heading back out. I wasn’t going to be home until after 9pm if we did that. They asked if 7am would make a difference and I said sure, so long as we were done by noon.
They had to go into William’s Lake to pick up a vehicle left there, I opted to go into Likely via Beaver Lake-Gavin Lake-Horsefly-Likely roads….all forestry roads or varying condition. They ranged from smooth enough to do 100kph on….to pitted and washboarded enough to be creeping over some sections…..with a few ohshishishitshit moments trying to slow down before nailing a crater.
I found the bottom of the car at least once.
Because of the time of day I didn’t expect to see any wildlife, but there was a deer that sauntered cross with a total “f-you” attitude, a really big brown rabbit, with big white back feet, that flew across the road in front of me….a chipmunk that darted across in front of me, and I think I grazed the tail feathers of a grouse ….I thought I hit it but then I did see it in my rear view mirror….flying in panic in a cloud of dust.
Somewhere along one of the roads I started to see more and more dark piles on the gravel road….hmmm….piles of poop…cattle guards…perhaps I ought to slow down, some of those look very very fresh…..and around the next corner….many cows and calves on and alongside the road.
But I was glad to have gone in. The visit added three hours to the day of driving, but it was worthwhile if just for the opportunity to talk to a couple of people.
Once I got back to the Trans Canada and refuelled at 150 Mile House, it was a hard push for home.
I often stop for photos of an abandoned building at Alexandria. It’s before the turn into Likely at McLeese and I’d never been through when the lilacs were in bloom, so even though I have photos of it, it was worth a few more.
I did pull a couple of U-turns to take a few photos after coming out of Likely, but also opted to not stop for many others I would have liked to take…I was tired.
The first that I had to turn around for was an old abandoned beehive burner. I’d been telling one of my colleagues about them…he wasn’t familiar with them and I had explained that, basically, back in the day, if your didn’t want something, you burned it. All the wood chips na sawdust just went into the burner to dispose of it. They were discontinued many years ago and I hadn’t seen one in ages. I remember them at the bottom of the hill down from eh airport in PG….at night they glowed because they were so hot. They were called beehive burners, but I always thought they looked like badminton birdies. But at night they were just ominous looking.
The second U-turn was for a flooded field and outbuildings alongside the Bonaparte River.
Just past that point on the road above, I turned off onto Highway 99 to take the back route home. I rally dislike the drive through the Fraser Valley…it’s just so long and straight, there is SO much traffic…and so many lunatics…and it heads straight into the sun. Turning at Hat Creek Ranch and heading into Lillooet, and then down the Duffy and through Pemberton-Whistler-Squamish…it’s just SO much more pleasant. And the traffic was light. It was a nice drive. Except for the stop for some road work…..it’s “that” season again…
I stopped at the point where the Seton River and Cayoosh Creek meet because it reminded me so much of Manuas, in the Amazon, where the two rivers meet and flow alongside each other for a distance before they mix.
And I also stopped along the Sea to Sky to appreciate that I’d finally made it out of the smoke and could actually see the mountains; the air felt fresh after two days of smoke from the fires in the north.
It was good trip, super busy, tons of mileage, some very interesting sites and more interesting people, a beer with friend, and I’m glad I went along.
Oh, and one last amusing nugget….when I turned the work vehicle off on arrival, I went to note the mileage and it was 010101.
It’s irrelevant, but it made me smile.