The Last Few Days in Canada

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THE ROCKIES OR NOT

Having missed the Rocky Mountains on our way through due to bad weather and having discovered that it was now much improved on the Glacier Parkway between Jasper and Banff we debated whether to rush off there to take a look. However, having worked out that we would have needed to travel about 500 miles there in one day, one day up and down the route and then 500 miles back to Vancouver we decided to be sensible and stay closer to Vancouver.

THE DRY VALLEYS

So instead of rushing to the Rockies we cruised around the dry valleys north east of Vancouver. Here in the Kamloops Plateau area they do not get much rain and the highsides are quite barren except for the wild sage which scents the air. It was also unbeliveably warm - hovering around 27 degress C. We travelled the minor roads in this area and they were bending and interesting and by now our tyres were pretty squared off from all the straight roads so it was nice to use some of the rubber on the sides!!

EAGLES

At one point we found ourselves riding along with a bald headed eagle flying level with us as the road we were riding was cut out halfway up the valley side. It was amazing to be so close to such a bird. However, a few days later when we were heading to our last nights stop in the suburbs of Vancouver we were sitting in stationary traffic on the motorway when a bald eagle just flew casually over our heads heading for the city.

We also had a close encounter with a golden eagle which was busy eating a dead deer on the road. He flew off as soon as we approached so we decided to stop some distance away and wait for him to return to finish his meal but he just circled watching us so eventually we headed off so he could return to his lunch.

THE COPPER VALLEY

We found out why the place we had stayed at the night before had been called The Copper Valley Motel when we travelled on Highway 97c between Logan Lake and Ashcroft and came across an enormous copper mine. I have never seen anything like it - they were moving mountains to extract the copper. There was also an enormous man made lake into which they were pumping sludge waste which had an amazing green colour. Let us hope they do not have any leakage like that from the aluminium mine in eastern Europe.

WHISTLER

We stopped off at Whistler for a couple of nights to catch up with Mark's son who had arrived a week earlier with the intention of spending the next nine months snow boarding. What an artificial place it is. A village constructed entirely for the visitors and some outlying estates which had been built to house the competitors at the 2010 Winter Olympics. The place was full of youngsters come for the skiing season looking a bit confused as the temperatures hit 25. Oh well, with any luck by the end of November they will be skiing and snowboarding. We were there in the completely nothing season, neither summer when the walkers and mountain bikers are about or the winter for the skiing and it was still unbelieveable expensive so what things cost in the high season when the snow arrives I hate to think. We did see another bear ambling about in the distance and this was the only one I got a photo of but it is so far off that it is just a little black dot.

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Photos

dry valley
at the western edge of the Kamloops Plateau

cowboy country
Mark's bike looks like it is on the set of a cowboy movie

autumn colours
on the west of the Kamloops Plateau

bald headed eagle
not the one we saw flying but one in a bird of prey sanctuary

retaining wall copper mine
sludge lake

autumn colours
on the road to Whistler from the north

hanging glacier
on route to Whistler from the north

snow warning sign
and we road our bikes along this road just 2 days before the snow chains and snow tyres rule became effective!

bear warning
in Whistler. The bears were right down on the edge of town