Manicured Whistler to Unvarnished Hope

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Whistler is too fancy for me. In the midst of what I'm sure are glorious mountains, shrouded in clouds, dripping with rain, you have to pay $2 an hour to park on a crowded horseshoe-shaped street of boutiques, bistros, and landscaped bits of wilderness walkways. Molly and I slept well, however.

The forecast called for more rain so I decided not to camp at Nairn Falls, just a bit east of Whistler, where I had reservations. We did stop there for a hike to see the falls, then headed east through the mountains on Highway 99, the same 99 as the oleander landscaped Central Valley road. Beautiful country, hardly any traffic, no parks, no campgrounds, just woods, streams, mountains. Coming down the other side of the range, the country dries out. You see sage brush and pine trees instead of cedar and Douglas fir.

At Lillooet we saw smoke from what's left of major fires that had closed the highways and evacuated the town the week before.

We drove south from there along the Fraser River. It's a huge, wide, snarling gray river that has torn through the land. Its banks are towering raw dirt cliffs that look ready to collapse in great landslides plunging to the water. The road at one point becomes one lane across a precarious cliff. Above you on the hill, the debris is held back by a chicken wire barrier, but you wonder what's holding the land up beneath the road.

I was glad to get out to Hwy 1, a quasi-freeway running along the Fraser to Hope. We stopped at Alexandra Bridge, no longer in use. Brief hike through the forest and over a train track where we stood as the longest train I've ever seen thundered past us on and on. As it pulled away, the rails continued to sing, a high-pitched whine.

Hope is a lovely town with an ordinary grocery store and a restaurant called "Home." We spent the night of August 11 there.

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Photos

Molly Abed in Whistler
I took the fancy white comforter off the bed to save it from Molly hair. It was a very comfortable bed.

Nairn Falls
Looking upriver from the viewpoint, after 1.5 km hike.

Nairn Falls Too
Looking down river.

Fire South of Lillooet
We saw a few helicopters too.

Family at Alexandra Bridge
Molly loved this family. Perhaps the small child reminded her of Seth.

Alexandra Bridge
Looking straight down through the wire mesh surface of the bridge

Molly at Alexandra Bridge
Molly can't walk on wire mesh. She actually howled when I left her alone there, for a few minutes.

Comments

[wendy herbert]

How beautiful!!! Especially the mountains East of Whistler. I'd hear of the town many times, glad I don't have to go there now because if it's too rich for your blood, Cindy, it's too rich for mine.

[fran]

I do know the Frazer River Valley country a litle bit, though not as thoroughly or as up close as you, but from many years back. Molly doesn't seem to mind the luxury of Whistler's bed though! Yesterday we saw the documentary The Cove about a cove in Japan where they slaughter dolphin. Horrifying, brilliantly done, and deeply sad. The guy who trained the dolphins for Flipper is the heart and soul of the film.