Sunday July 19 Mt Abriel, World Cup Final , Kaslo, Into Washington

 Sunday, July 19

64 degrees this morning - the warmest in a while, but we are in the middle of  town also.

Haven't seen a lot of bees, unfortunately 

We leave early this morning, heading south to a ferry that crosses Arrow Lake.  A free ferry, it runs on the hour and we get there moments before they begin loading for 7:00.  Only four or five of us and it is a smooth 20 minute ride.

Shortly after the ferry, we decide to stop for breakfast at Mt. Abriel Recreation area.  It turns out to be mostly a biking park with ramps and jumps and a nice covered picnic area.  A couple of trucks with bikes are leaving the area as we have breakfast - they must have either spent the night or been there very early! The rough road continues past where we stopped....may be a campground down there.

We continue south on highway 31A heading towards the town of Kaslo, where we have found a couple of places showing the World Cup Final of Argentina vs Spain.  This is really a popular road with motorcyclists -  lots of twists and turns through mostly pretty and unpopulated areas.

We pass Valley of the Hot Springs, Summit Lake, Kane Creek and more.   There have been quite a few hot springs along the way on this trip, both in the US and Canada.  We've done a few over the years, but not generally a must-do.

We didn't know anything about Kaslo.  It was just a point on the map where we knew there was a place to watch the game (I called them to be sure). Turns out it is a cute little town on the edge of Kootenay Lake, one of the largest, deepest lakes in Canada and is surrounded by mountains. Kaslo is one of the few sheltered ports of the lake, which has a reputation for sudden and severe weather. Population about 1,000, it was established during a Silver boom back in 1893 and gets by today mostly on lumber and tourism (because of the lake).  

As we look for a parking place, we spot the the SS Moyie National Historic Site, the world's oldest intact passenger sternwheeler ship, docked right on the waterfront and open for tours.We have time for a visit, so take a look. It served the area between 1898 and 1957.   It has some original equipment like a galley, cabins and captain's bridge, as well as several vintage vehicles.   

We get to the Waypoint Restaurant and Bar which is part of the Kaslo Hotel, and get a primo spot and have some lunch.  Greg tries the local IPA which is called Nasty Habit, and a burger that is a beef and elk combo.  

By the start of the game, it is practically full and part way into the game a couple from Ontario asks to share our table.  (Friendly folks with a few comments that let us know they are not Donald Trump fans - that's ok cause we're not either!)

Good game and Spain deserved their win!  It seemed that the crowd was largely cheering for Spain so they were happy.

We continue on our way and instead of heading east, decide to drop down and cross the border into the corner of Washington. No line at all.  The border agent is pleasant, but asks mostly about fruits and vegetables and eggs.  Cherries are ok, but she came in and looked in the fridge and took our tomatoes.  We made sure to eat our orange this morning as citrus is a no-no, but forgot to mention the peaches which were still in the cupboard ripening, oops!

It is almost 5:00, so we look for a place to camp and end up at East Sullivan Lake and Campground.  It is pretty full, and it seems just about everyone is from Washington State.  Lots of activity on the lake, paddle boarding, kayaks, etc. and lots of kids.

Beth meets and talks with a couple who are retired biologists who volunteer to research rare plants.  They will hike to find one a mile or so from here and do a survey and report. The views at the lake are a bit hazy and they tell us it is smoke from a fire to the west.  We talked about the trees here, mostly cedar, hemlock and white pine and very tall.  Could learn a lot from them!

Still full from lunch, so we just snack a bit and play a game of cribbage before turning in.

Saturday, July 18 Logging, Fruit and Revelstoke

 Sat. July 18

There is low mist this morning as we continue south, towards Revelstoke.  

We stop at local Tim Horton's for some breakfast pastries.  Have seen a few of these restaurants in the Northwest as I understand they have been moving into the US.

We follow along the Thompson River for quite a while.  Farms, ranches, irrigation equipment and an occasional farm stand.  Very few places to pull over, so few photos.

Small forestry exhibit

Lumber is big business.  We pass logging trucks and lumber yards.  Some have logs and others have processed the logs to cut lumber.   At one place there are many logs  in the river - being transported, we guess.  I don't think they do this in the US any longer.

Later we pass trainloads of lumber, some logs, some wrapped lumber.

Another interesting sign in this mountainous area.

Next stop is Fruit World.  A huge produce stand with  an amazing amount of fruit, mostly local but also some foreign goodies like dragonfruit.  We still have cherries from last shopping, but buy a couple of peaches.  It all looks good! Wish we had one of these by home. 

First we stop at Revelstoke dam for a brief visit and tour.  There are 14 dams on the Columbia River and this is one of the three in Canada. It is 574' high with several penstocks (the big tubular structures that collect and carry water), completed in 1984.

There are some guys dangling on the cliffs adjacent to the dam, and we later learn that they are beginning work on an expansion that is scheduled for 2030.  They are checking for stability and where things need to be reinforced.

Nolan, our tour guide, is good.  There are about a dozen of us on the tour.  We learn that this plant has flexible generation, depending on demand.  No storage here, though they are working on developing battery storage elsewhere.

One issue which is only touched on when someone asks, is the dam's disruption of the migration of salmon and subsequent effect on First Nations people.  There are no fish ladders here to bypass the dams, like we saw in Alaska.

From the dam,  we go find the "Meadows in the Sky Drive" which will take us up Revelstoke Mountain.  We have to wait a little bit at the entrance,  as they only allow a certain number of cars on the drive.  

The first stop is a trail to a ski jump where famous Canadian Nels Nelson set multiple records.

Next is  about an endangered salamander...  Have never seen this sign before!  No sign of salamanders in the small stream.  We continue upward.

The Columbia River View Point is beautiful.

There is a busy parking lot near several trails which lead to the summit.  So we park here and hike upward.  Lots of pretty wildflowers and a few ponds as we take the Parapets Trail to some wonderful views. And wow, does the air smell wonderful with a hint of pine.

Canada has placed a pair of red chairs at scenic spots in parks around the country.

After the Summit we hike back to the Trek and wind our way slowly back down.  We settle on the Lamplighters Campground which is in an area of town called The Big Eddy.  When we first phoned them, they had two spots.  Beth wasn't sure, looked around and called them back and left a message that we wanted a spot.  When we got there, she had just given away the last spot - hadn't listened to messages yet. 

 But she found us an overflow spot that wasn't bad and had 15amp electric.  They did have decent showers and a train that wasn't too far (not far enough) away.  The silver lining to having poor hearing and hearing aids is that when you take them out to go to bed, you don't hear that much!