May 10--North to Alaska--Northern Washington into Canada


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North America » United States » Washington
May 14th 2011
Published: May 15th 2011
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May 10, 2011 Lincoln Rock State Park 9:30 57 degrees, clear and not windy 6453 starting mileage.

Deep snow completely covers all the Cascade Mountains. Still going through orchards of apple, cherries and pears on whatever flat space they can get to. After miles and miles, turned away from the Columbia River and went up the Okanogan River Valley and picked up the Cariboo trail. Gold was discovered in 1858 in this valley and US cattlemen thought they could make a fortune selling cattle to the miners so, they used this trail to drive cattle up into this region. When gold gave out, and the railroad was being built, in the late 1800’s, cattlemen used this route again to drive cattle up to sell the beef to the railroad workers. I guess Hollywood wasn’t aware of this trail like they were the Chisholm and other trails in the US.

At the community of Omak, got gas at a tribal station for less than anywhere else. 6541 mileage. Still going through orchards, but now they are interspersed with alfalfa fields and grazing land. Drove into town and had lunch at the Corner Bistro. Valerie had a hamburger and I had a turkey wrap---cost for both was $20. We were in the middle of nowhere and we were really surprised at the prices. Found a small bookstore in town and bought a book for birds of Western North America. The one we have with us is all birds of North America and I wanted one more specific than that.

We continued driving along a bunch of lakes/dams with big homes on the water front and still some orchards in bloom. Crossed into Canada at Osoyoos---the border guard asked about mace, pepper spray and firearms. He asked what veggies we had and when we answered one onion and some spinach, he then proceeded to tell us about places not to miss when traveling north. The Canadian landscape looked exactly the same as the US side. Continued to drive along more lakes and through more orchards. What surprised us was that we saw many Indians---NOT Native Americans—but people from India living and working in the orchards. They even had a Sikh Temple. We just didn’t expect people from this culture to be working in fruit orchards.

From Penticton to West Kelowna there was barely enough room for the road along the Okanagan lake, let alone the houses on the lake clinging to the shore. Very mountainous road with very steep grades. The lake was so still, it was like a mirror. Still, with all this water, the hills were dry with just sage brush and some yellow sunflower type plant blooming. Passed a HUGE lumber mill as we drove down the hill side into West Kelowna looking for a Wal-Mart. Spotted a shopping center and decided to ask if they allowed overnight parking in their lot. They said they didn’t have a policy but, no one would mind, so, we spent the night there.


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