Alaska #1: Anderson Creek, Chasm, 108 Mile Ranch, Vanderburghs
News ·Sunday August 17, 2008 @ 22:30 EDT (link)
20080814: Packed up food and camping gear for trip. Countered the offer on the house.
20080815: Mileage before trip: 12819.
20080816: (Duvall, WA to Boston Bar, BC: 200 miles.) We left at 1425 and stopped for gas in Bellingham (cheaper than Canada); we reached the Canadian border at Lynden at 1644 (temperature: 93°). (Lynden is only open 0800-0000, unlike most of the other crossings which are 24-hour.) I was a bit worried since my US passport hadn't arrived before we left, my Canadian passport was expired, I'd had to submit my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy) to apply for a passport. But we had no trouble. We followed the Trans-Canada (H-1) and arrived in Hope at 1803 (84°—still Fahrenheit even though we're in Canada, since I was reading from the Corolla's sensor). We camped at Anderson Creek, south of Boston Bar, arriving 1920. On looking at campsites we went down a rocky hill toward a nearby bridge, but there were no sites there, and coming back up spun the tires and kicked up some rocks, but no damage was done. We paid $16 for a fairly nice site, although there were a lot of noisy trains during the night. We had our tent (Iron Mountain, purchased in Memphis a few years back), cooler, lots of canned stuff (we had stew that night), and my Snow Peak stove. Played some Phase 10, but it got too dark to play at around 2030; we boiled water for hot chocolate and then went to bed.
20080817: (Boston Bar, BC to William's Lake, BC: 185 miles.) Up 0815, cold cereal and hot tea for breakfast; we drove out of the campground at 0952, stopping for gas and lunch (Subway) in Cache Creek at 1154 (77°), which is where we turned of H-1 and onto H-97, which becomes the Alaska Highway further north. Gas was $1.399/L, which is about $5.30/gal. (to compare, gas in Bellingham south of the border was $3.69/gal.). At 1320 we stopped at Chasm Provincial Park, which is literally a hole in the ground: it's down a side road a few miles and then there's a place to park and you can look over a fence at a chasm.
At 1500 we made 108 Mile Ranch; we looked around for about half an hour. They have some historical buildings (with preserved rooms inside), etc. We arrived at my Uncle Allen and Aunt Shirley Vanderburgh's at 1647; we'd talked to them the previous week and they kindly said we could stop in. Their children (Ken, and David and Margaret) and grandchildren were there for dinner (roast beef); we swam in their pool after dinner, and watched the Olympics with them.
20080816: (Duvall, WA to Boston Bar, BC: 200 miles.) We left at 1425 and stopped for gas in Bellingham (cheaper than Canada); we reached the Canadian border at Lynden at 1644 (temperature: 93°). (Lynden is only open 0800-0000, unlike most of the other crossings which are 24-hour.) I was a bit worried since my US passport hadn't arrived before we left, my Canadian passport was expired, I'd had to submit my original certificate of naturalization (which is illegal to copy) to apply for a passport. But we had no trouble. We followed the Trans-Canada (H-1) and arrived in Hope at 1803 (84°—still Fahrenheit even though we're in Canada, since I was reading from the Corolla's sensor). We camped at Anderson Creek, south of Boston Bar, arriving 1920. On looking at campsites we went down a rocky hill toward a nearby bridge, but there were no sites there, and coming back up spun the tires and kicked up some rocks, but no damage was done. We paid $16 for a fairly nice site, although there were a lot of noisy trains during the night. We had our tent (Iron Mountain, purchased in Memphis a few years back), cooler, lots of canned stuff (we had stew that night), and my Snow Peak stove. Played some Phase 10, but it got too dark to play at around 2030; we boiled water for hot chocolate and then went to bed.
20080817: (Boston Bar, BC to William's Lake, BC: 185 miles.) Up 0815, cold cereal and hot tea for breakfast; we drove out of the campground at 0952, stopping for gas and lunch (Subway) in Cache Creek at 1154 (77°), which is where we turned of H-1 and onto H-97, which becomes the Alaska Highway further north. Gas was $1.399/L, which is about $5.30/gal. (to compare, gas in Bellingham south of the border was $3.69/gal.). At 1320 we stopped at Chasm Provincial Park, which is literally a hole in the ground: it's down a side road a few miles and then there's a place to park and you can look over a fence at a chasm.