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Published: October 25th 2005
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Rogers Pass
One of the summits surrounding the pass August 25th
Goodbye to Joan, Don and Maggie. Sad to leave but the Rockies and Vancouver call.
Drive Hwy 1 to Rogers Pass. Some magnificent mountains.
Rogers Pass has a museum where we view a film on avalanche control
and look at local flora, fauna and history.
Stroll along old railway tracks to the monument that marks
the highest point on Hwy 1. Lots of peaks covered with snow.
Make our way to Revelstoke. A twisting, not fully made, road takes
us 27km via 16 hairpin bends to the car park from where we walk through an Alpine meadow to the high point.
Great views of the Revelstoke Valley, river and peaks.
From here you can see the extremely geometric patches of lighter green
that show logged areas.
Intend to stop in town but we are through it before we know.
Turn South into the Okanagan.
Pull off the highway at Vernon into a large commercial area and after
a little comparison shopping we buy a 5 man tent and some fleece covers.
Well we couldn't just buy the first one could we. We did not buy cooking equipment.
Trying to find our way back onto H97
Rogers Pass Monument
Monument in honour of those who died constructing and keeping open the Pass South we take a wrong turning and stumble across an RV site on the banks of Swan Lake just outside town with spaces.
We are lakeside with a grassy pitch, firepit and bench table and chairs
provided.
Now it's time to put up the tent for the first time. Not usually much fun. The most difficult thing about this one was finding the English instructions.
Make the beds then off to town for food. (Wendy's have very good quality "disposable" cutlery, ideal for camping. And they do baked potatoes with broccoli.)
Home just as it gets dark, we only have a little torch so it's off to bed.
Get up about 4 am and put on extra clothes...it's freezing!
August 26th
I am up at 6 - mainly because it's too cold to go back to bed after the
warmth of the ladies shower block.
The lake is serene with just a couple of ducks and no motor boats. The main road runs along the far side and is audible.
Have to wait for camp shop to open before I can have coffee...one
of the disadvantages of no cooker.
Put the tent down and it fits back into
Alpine Meadow on
Easy hike to summit of Revelstoke Park.
I think it might have been easy on the way down. it's bag!!!!
Call in at Walmart for proper sleeping bags.
Continue south through agricultural land for most of the day. The Okanagan is one of the prime fruit-growing areas of Canada.
Stopped in Princeton for picnic and to find somewhere to stay the night. Information center not very informative today. They are not even sure if you can swim in the river here. It doesn't say on one of their pieces of paper.
Carry on a bit further down the road and we're back to mountain scenery.
Inspect a couple of sites near Hope and settle on the second one.
The pitch is shaded, grassy, there is a pool and we are at the foot of the mountains.
Put the tent up in minutes and then it's a dash for the pool before the sun goes down.
Venture into Hope, which is a small to medium town, and find there is not much going on.
It's Friday Night...where is everyone?
Eat in a classy Italian..I know because my salad was very pretty and tiny.
The wine was good and everyone enjoyed the meal except our waitress who was having a terrible day. She dropped several things, had to ask
Peaks from Revelstoke
One of the myriad of peaks surrounding us what we'd ordered more than twice, asked Owen and Rory if they were girls and was constantly being nagged by the senior waitress.
Streets still empty when we left.
Saturday August 27th
New sleeping bags worked we were all warm enough.
The coffee machine in the games room is broken ....disaster...so we go into town for breakfast before even a swim.
At Darrell's diner the waitress greets us at the door coffeee pot in hand, I am going to like it here.
The breakfasts seem expensive until they arrive at the table. They are huge portions.
The sausages come in multiples of 6, as do the bacon rashers.
Learn that a stack, in pancake terms, means 3 pancakes. A short stack is 2 and a single is 1.
The coffee is refilled every few minutes and the milk shakes the boys order come in those metal mixer jugs that we used to use at Wimpy that hold at least 2 glassess full.
After breakfast we explored the town. Great park, a second hand (charity) bookshop bursting at the seams, lots of Sushi bars and more than a hand full of closed up units.
The out of town commercial
The Top
Rory in my coat at the top of the mountain centre seems to be draining the old town.
Afternoon by the pool.
Take away for tea from A&W but we couldn't eat it at the lake as planned as there was no access.
The girls in the tent next door were having a party so lots of giggling well into the night.
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