May 14 British Columbia on Highway 97

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May 14, 2011 town of Chetwynd Starting mileage 7315. 46 degrees.

Woke up early and got an early start. Drove around town and looked at all the carvings. The competition each year features 12, 2 person teams of carvers. Logs of red cedar are brought from Vancouver and then numbered and entered into a drawing by each team. They have 35 hours over 4 days to carve whatever figure they have planned. They are then judged and the winner’s carving is placed in town. So far, they have 100 carvings along the town’s frontage road.

We left town and drove through a high plateau which soon became an agricultural area with large farms. Most of the fields were just being turned over whereas in the farm areas that we have traveled the alfalfa was up at least 6 inches and the wheat up about a foot.

As we came into Dawson Creek we spotted a farmer’s market in the parking lot of a co-op store and decided to check it out. They were mostly selling plants with some really nice looking baked goods. We spoke to the woman selling breads about the crops grown and she said they grew oats, barley, wheat and canola which is bright yellow when grown. They only get one crop before it snows.

Found the Wal-mart by about 10:00 and met some of the other Trekers camped here. Declared it a down day and promptly went to sleep. Slept most of the day.

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