Week Eight: The Othello Quintette Tunnels, Hell’s Gate and an Expensive Campground

22 augustus 2018 - Thunder Bay, Canada

July 26/18

By the time we left the campground, it was already 31C, a perfect day for an excursion to the tunnels. We drove through Hope to Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park. The parking lot filled up quickly with tourists from around the world, although most of these visitors spoke dutch.

The Othello Quintette Tunnels were designed by Andrew McCulloch, who was a great admirer of Shakespeare. Work on the tunnels started in 1911 and was completed in 1916. It was hard to imagine how these tunnels were constructed through solid granite. They were the final part of the Kettle Valley Railway.

We followed the trail through the Coquihalla Canyon along the spectacular Coquihalla River. The views of the steep, rugged outcroppings were stunning. In some places the granite was pure white. With thundering noise, the river rushed and cascaded through the canyon, exploding around rocks, debris and fallen trees.

At the entrance of the first tunnel we could see through the next tunnel and the next. They were perfectly aligned. It was hard to imagine the blasting and hard labour that had gone into these incredible structures. Inside the tunnels it was surprisingly cool and dark, with water dripping from the top. We were early enough that it wasn’t too crowded with tourists.

Bijke: I could smell that delicious rushing water, but the walls were too high. I couldn’t get close to it.

We found it too hot to take the trail back to the parking lot and decided to walk back through the tunnels, which were becoming very busy.

On our way back to Hope, we stopped at KawKawa Lake and Bijke finally had his swim. It was a small lake but pretty, neatly tucked into the mountains, hidden from the road.

In the afternoon we sought the shade of our campsite underneath the canopy of the two Western Red Cedars.

We also discovered that many movies had been filmed in Hope. In 1981, Sylvester Stallone and his crew took over the town to film the first Rambo movie. Since then more than 15 feature films have been filmed in the area.

The next morning we packed up early as it promised to be another scorching, hot day. We took the old highway one, the scenic route to the town of Merrit, our next stop. On the road to Yale we followed the Fraser River Canyon and the Gold Rush Trail. We passed one of the oldest surviving churches in BC. During the Gold Rush and after the building of the Caribo Wagon Road and the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s, Yale became one of the largest cities north of San Francisco and west of Chicago. Today, Yale is a small village on the bank of the Frazer River.

Our primary goal was to drive to Hell’s Gate. The name alone conjured up various images. In 1808, explorer, Simon Fraser, described this section of the river as a place “where no human being should ever venture for surely he would have encountered the gates of hell.”

The Fraser River’s entire flow of water from its 135,185 square kilometre watershed rushes through the narrow gorge at 757 million litres per minute; twice the volume of the Niagara Falls during spring runoff.

The old highway one passes 244 metres above the Fraser River. An air tram or gondola shows visitors the spectacular view of the canyon.

We were excited to explore the education centre and to take a tour in the air tram. When we arrived at the parking lot, we found numerous disappointed tourists. Hell’s Gate was closed. The power was off and you couldn’t see anything from the road, but trees. A couple from California told us that they had driven up, yesterday, to find the attraction closed due to the heat and today closed, due to a power outage. They sounded really, really upset.

We were disappointed, too and continued our trip over and through the mountains. We must have traveled through eight tunnels. At one point trains crossed the Fraser River from both sides. It was spectacular to watch.

At Spences Bridge we decided to drive the scenic route to Merrit through the Nicola Valley. The scenery was gorgeous, with farm land following the river. We encountered several fruit stands selling cherries, peaches and apricots, but unfortunately, the road was too narrow, for us to stop.

We entered the small town of Nicola and passed through Merrit, until we hit a huge lumber mill and there was the sign for the Moon Shadow Campground. When we arrived at the campground we learned that there was a mix-up with site #34, which another camper already occupied. We found a site next to the Cold River, which was much more private and we really lucked out.

After we had set up we took Bijke to the river, but the water was shallow due to the drought of the last few months and he couldn’t really swim.

Bijke: I didn’t understand. I tried to swim and A and M yelled, “Go for it, boy!” but I couldn’t swim. I ran back and forth, back and forth and barked and barked, but it didn’t get any better. So I rolled in the dried mud and gravel and brought an enormous amount of dirt into the snail house.

It was really hot and we didn’t do anything for the rest of the afternoon, but at night the temperature cooled down, due to the river. A small ridge of stone made for a lovely runoff in the Cold River and the sound like music, sang us to sleep. In the morning, we woke up to that same gentle music of the river.

Finding the farmer’s market became a challenge as every person we asked hadn't heard about it or had no idea where it was. When we did finally discover the market, we were disappointed. All the cherries, peaches and apricots growers had advertised in the valley were not available or sold out.

We spent the rest of the day at the campsite, where the breeze of the river kept us comfortable, even though the temperature rose to 39C.

Sunday morning and the heat was already getting to us. We decided to find the Starbucks and catch up on emails. The last two campgrounds had so-called wifi, which didn’t work for our devices.

We had planned to spent some time at Central Park, in Merrit, but the lack of any shady spot or breeze, made us return to the campground. Bijke was the only one who found some respite from the heat, by wading back and forth in the river.

We spent a lazy afternoon, reading; Greg’ Davidson’s, ‘Precious Cargo’, a moving story I enjoyed very much.

Monday was the same story; too hot to get into any activities other than, stocking up on groceries, reading, writing and getting ready for tomorrow’s trip.

We learned that Merrit is the Country Music Capital of Canada and the staff at the campground were gearing up for the River Rock Music Festival for the upcoming weekend.

It was unfortunate, that we didn’t explore more of this area, as it was too hot to hike the beautiful trails outside the town. Most activities happen in the winter with Alpine skiing, snowmobiling and ice fishing and Moon Shadow campground is open all year.

An orange moon, almost full, rose up from behind the mountains. We assumed its colour was due to the forest fires.

A couple from Quebec in a small pub tent on the site beside ours, were quite noisy and active till midnight.

On Tuesday morning, we headed east and our first stop was Kelowna, where we picked up our Senior Discovery Passes for Canada’s National Parks.

The drive to Kelowna was spectacular, but the closer we came to the city, the hazier the sky became and when we drove along the Okanagan Lake, we were unable to see the other side.

In town, the traffic was insane and it was already super hot so we were not sorry to leave this city, even though the area and the lake were beautiful.

We followed Okanagan Lake north, turned east along the Shuswap River and Lake Mara. Many RV camps and resorts lined the shores.

Our next stop, Canyon Hot Springs was 35 kilometres east of Revelstoke. The Mountains surrounding the campground were spectacular.

Staying at the campground was expensive; showers were $3, so despite the stifling heat, we cut back to one-a-day. To go into the hot springs, a small swimming pool, was $12 per use and $16 for a day pass. I laundered our bedding for $3 and dried it for $4.

Long trains from the East, carrying oil and potash ran right beside the grounds every half hour. Needless to say we did’n sleep much during our stay.

We met a family from Friesland. The woman was born in Giekerk, the town where I started my teaching career, at the age of nineteen. It’s a small world or as the Friesian troubadour, Pieter Wilkes sings, “Friezen kom je oeral tsjin, oeral op’e wrậld.” Friesians, you meet them everywhere, everywhere in the world.

During our evening walk, we heard thunder and Bijke pulled us all the way home. We had a bit of rain and a few more thunders gave Bijke an excuse to come for a snuggle that night.

In the morning, we planned the next campgrounds after Banff. The wifi was slower than frozen molasses and it took much longer to be successful.

We visited the information centre in Revelstoke to plan our visit to Glacier National Park.

The summits of Mt. Revelstoke, Mt. Begbie and Mt. Cartier, all snow capped, were covered in smoke. Revelstoke is a ski town; heli-skiing in the back country is very popular and we’ve all heard about the devastating avalanches that have happened in this area. In the summer, the tourists enjoy mountain biking and hiking.

On our way home, we discovered an active fire on the side of the mountain beside the highway about 15 km from our campground. We realized how quickly these fires can happen.

The campground had filled up quite a bit this afternoon and when we got to our site we were flanked by two Adventure motorhomes and two dutch families.

During our after-supper-walk, we discovered another snail house, this one from Quebec. The model had the retractable roof and a family of four traveled in this smaller version.

Foto’s

5 Reacties

  1. Ype en Trijntsje Sijperda:
    22 augustus 2018
    Nice story,do you know the name of the lady from Gytsjerk ?
  2. Albert en martha:
    22 augustus 2018
    Sij wenne bij it leanbidriuw fan Alle en Baukje en we tinke dat se Schotanus fan achternamme hiet. Sij wenje nou yn Hearrenfean.
  3. Clazien:
    23 augustus 2018
    Moai ferhaal wer. Lolkje en ik wiene ek yen Kelowna
  4. Piet en Tjally:
    27 augustus 2018
    Wij zijn onder de indruk van al die mooie verhalen
  5. Heather:
    31 augustus 2018
    We're home from Newfoundland so I'm catching up on your blog. What a trip you've had!