Thursday Sept 17th Valemount

 We left Quesnel this morning about 9 AM and drove through light fog until Williams Lake where we gassed up.

After driving further south to 100 Mile House we turned on highway 24 and headed east towards the Valemount-Kamloops highway.

The first part of highway 24 was fairly boring however the second half had really nice views of various lakes.

I really like this photo in black and white. The far end of the lake has smoke from the major forest fires in the States.

We made it to Clearwater after about four hours driving. I took a wrong turn in Clearwater, expecting to go to Wells Gray Park but instead driving through the town for a bit before getting back on the proper route.

After a quick bite to eat at Timmies in Clearwater we headed into the park. Our first waterfall was called Spahats. It is about 200 feet high.

Next we headed much further into the park. Our next stop was called Dawson Falls. Very beautiful in a very different way,

The last falls ( and by far the most spectacular) were the fourth highest falls in Canada. Helmcken Falls at 462 feet. I remember this one from when I was a kid.

We were out of the park by 4 PM and two hours of driving later we were at Valemount.

Supper was at a pub nearby with great food but by the looks of it nobody there was aware of the covid pandemic! Very full and no masks in sight anywhere.

We have found on this trip that there were many restaurants closed or take out only, so our choices were quite restricted. Pools closed in both hotels and no breakfast served in Quesnel but the motel here in Valemount has a "grab and go" breakfast.

It appears that the highest price for gas was McBride at 119.9 with the other fill ups a cent or two lower.

Barkerville Sept 16th/2020

 After a great sleep last night we ate bananas and raisin bran muffins for breakfast and were on our way to Barkerville by 9 AM.

After 20 kilometres of foggy weather the sunshine broke through and it was a nice trip from then on.

A quick drive through tour of Wells was followed shortly thereafter by getting to Barkerville. A day that did not disappoint!

We were some of the first people to get there (and as only 200 are allowed in daily due to covid restrictions I had pre-paid our entrance). The entrance lady gave us the run down on how to get about in these pandemic days and a couple minutes later we were exploring. The town itself is only about half open so there were many buildings we couldn't get into however the town did not disappoint.

 

We knew we had lots of time so we took the opportunity to read all informational plaques and look into all the buildings we could (including the closed ones).

Lunch was in a Chinese restaurant and it was when we were leaving that the really interesting things started to happen. Just outside the door a old time miner man "in character" asked where we were from and when we said "Alberta" he stated that we were "Overlanders" and did we come on the boat down the Fraser (from near the Alberta/BC border) or did we come by raft? Caro said "Raft" so he commented "Oh you don't have money". Anyway he invited over to his little speaking area where he gave us a complete description of how the gold was actually found here and the history of the mining (and the tremendous wealth it produced). He was really awesome and I kick myself for not getting a photo of him because he really looked the part! We walked away saying that he was fantastic.

We continued our exploring visiting most of the other buildings (except of course where the horses were stabled).

Caro stopped in a building to chat with the fellow and I followed shortly thereafter. He was not in character but instead was wearing his native clothes as he obviously was native. He said that Barkerville only started having Indian (and he used the word "Indian") representatives two summers ago and again, just like the "old miner", he was great telling us stories from the native perspective. Very,very interesting (and not political). I told him at the end of our conversation that Caro was 60% Mexican Indian and that seemed to really please him and he commented that he had goose bumps hearing that. Cool! He seemed to be a very genuine fellow and it was obvious he was proud to be there telling tourists the history of his people from that area.

We left town after five hours exploring. I imagine that a complete full day would be needed when all facilities have been reopened.

An hour drive back to Quesnel and at 5 PM we went to an Italian restaurant that had great reviews with one stating "be sure to get there early". Unfortunately, due to covid it was not open tonight so we instead carried on to a very popular steak house. It was hopping with many people so we knew it would not disappoint, and it sure didn't. We split a Caesar salad  and a pasta plate. MMMMM good.

The evening was nicely finished off by walking about 2.5km of the Riverfront trail along both the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers. Very beautiful. Along the path is the Old Fraser River Bridge which is the longest wooden truss walking bridge in the world (831 feet). Of course we walked it both directions.

After doing virtually no walking yesterday we did almost 9 km today. Gotta work off that pasta!

On our way to Quesnel

 Sept 15/2020  Viva Mexico!

We hit the road for our mini BC vacation at about 9;50 AM (a bit delayed due to our ordering new carpet for the house that just took longer than I anticipated).

We drove 9 hours and 20 minutes which included 5 very quick stops along the way to stretch, gas up and go to the bathroom. Caro drove the first three hours (to Hinton) and I did the rest. Six hours seems to be my upper limit before I start to get tired.

Along the way we saw a few mountain sheep, an elk, and a black bear.

The weather was sometimes drizzly but not too bad for the first half and by McBride we began to see sunshine. We really like the scenery in the McBride area.

Our hotel room at the Travelodge in Quesnel is nice and after a stop at a nearby Subway we settled down in our room for some quiet time. 

Friday August 7th

 We loaded up the bikes and were on our way home by about 10:30

We stopped in Red Deer at Serge and Veronica's for a couple of hours (Vero made a great lunch for us) and were home by 5:15

We had a wonderful time on this trip. We enjoyed Canmore quite a bit. The hotel restaurant was really top notch and while expensive (by our standards) it was worth it.

My bike has finally worn out. The back bearings are loose now and this has made the decision to get a new bike easy. My (now) old bike was a Father's Day gift about 20 years ago so it has served me well

Thursday Aug 6

 We knew we needed an easier day than yesterday so we decided to head to Lake Louise.

We got to the town at 11:10 AM and drove up to the lake. Once at the parking lot we (and many other cars in the line) were directed into the parking lot, through it, and then redirected right back down the mountain! I think every Albertan has decided to visit the National Parks this year thinking that without the tourist buses there would be no problem seeing things in prime time. No such luck! It was a zoo.

Hmmm. What to do? We decided to head to Yoho National Park to see Takakkaw Falls. It was raining when we got there so we just stayed in the car and looked at the falls.

We then headed back towards Banff and once near there we detoured up to Lake Minnewanka. Wow! What a surprise! It was gorgeous. We drove across the dam to Two Jacks Lake, seeing quite a few mountain sheep. Both lakes were beautiful. We got out of the vehicle at Minnewanka and walked a bit, enjoying the view.

I had initially thought that the day was not going to turn out good but the lakes were wonderful (and the rain held off) so all's well that ends well.

Supper was at the hotel restaurant again. We ordered too much (should have have just a starter and split a main course, rather than a starter and each having a main course).

The evening was spent quietly in our room).

Legacy Trail

 The purpose of our mini vacation was to celebrate of our 37th wedding anniversay and 40th year since we met in Europe. We had decided to bicycle the Canmore-Banff Legacy Trail so had brought our bikes down with us.

Our hiking yesterday had taken more out of us than anticipated and I knew soon after starting biking from our hotel that this ride was going to be much harder than last time we had done it.

The ride to Banff was wonderful with blue skies and a nice temperature

Once in Banff (11 kms ride from Canmore) we walked the downtown area. The town has closed off the main street to vehicles and it was great to move around. We noticed that without the tourists buses dropping off hundreds of tourists at a time (due to the pandemic) the area was much more enjoyable. 

Everybody was wearing masks as it was manditory to help prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

We walked up to the end of the main street, crossed the river to the Banff National Park Administration building and then toured around the lovely gardens there. Absolutely stunning

We ate lunch at a popular bistro just off main street and walked around town for a while before hopping on our bikes and starting back. 

We had gone about 2 kms when Caro realized she had lost an earring. We followed the same route back to where we had initally locked the bikes up thinking that the logical location to find the earring was where Caro would have either put on her helmet or removed her mask but unfortunately we were unlucky.

The ride back was very hard. We were tired from yesterday to begin with and really didn't bring enough water. The temperature was 29 degrees and I definitely was much slower than normal, struggling to get up some of the (normally) easy inclines. Caro started cramping up in her right leg. At the look-out location (where the photo of the two of us was taken earlier) I asked a lady if she had any spare drinking water. Fortunately she did and so we drank about a litre each before carrying on.

We dragged ourselves into town about 4 PM after completing 55 kms biking and 5.5 km walking around town. I can't remember a time I have felt this wiped out.

The evening was spent relaxing in our room with some fast food purchased across the street from our hotel.

Aug 4/2020 Canmore

 We left home about mid morning for our drive to Canmore.

After a stop in Red Deer for Starbucks coffee (the line-up at Time Horton's was huge because of social distancing due to the pandemic so we went across the street) ; later a stop at Olds for gas and we headed down highway 22 thinking it would be faster than QE2 but this was a mistake. We got stuck behind semi's and later by the traffic lights in Cochrane. Lesson learned!

Arrival at the Coast hotel in Canmore went smoothly and by 2:45 PM we were up at the Nordic Centre for some hiking.

We completed about 7 kms of the numerous trails used in the Calgary Olympics for cross country skiing and biathalon.

Supper was at the hotel restaurant  and was wonderful.

The evening was spent walking around the town center and a boardwalk going along a creek.

Another 4 kms walked for a total of 11 kms today.