Second the weather has been very cool by Texas standards. Not unpleasant, but very cool. After Death Valley, which was pleasant, the daytime temperatures were generally around sixty and at night about forty degrees. While in Seattle there was talk our last Friday might be the day they reached seventy degrees for the first time this year. Well they made it! Everywhere we’ve been there has been talk of the wet winter and spring. So yes, we have been in the clouds much of time with some rain. It hasn’t been a problem except for photography.
Saturday, May 21 we packed up and drove to Lynden, WA where we didn’t find the campground we had planned for. The city park was there, but no place to stay. We had planned to attend church Sunday morning, so we found the
Methodist Church and while Olivia was talking to the pastor, Fred found the Windmill Inn and trailer park. Again, not our favorite, but certainly a place to stay. In fact since we were the last spot on the row we had a very pleasant view out our big window. Grass, a little creek and a farmer’s field were within view. Much more pleasant than the park in Bellevue.Sunday, May 22 we attended the Lynden United Methodist Church and enjoyed this pastor’s going away party. He is young, with three little girls under 3, the last two are twins,
shown in the picture. They are moving to Nashville, TN where he will be teaching in the seminary. The congregation will miss him, but they knew when they met him he would be going up the ladder of the UMC in a hurry.We found the only open business on Sunday in the town and came out with clean clothes for our Canadian entry.
Monday, May 23 we changed money and headed across the border. Even though we are legal and don’t carry weapons, and answer all their questions honestly, this is always a tense time. This trip through we were stopped two times. The first was checking for weapons. Two cars in front of us was really getting the whole inspection, inside, outside and underneath. We answered their questions and were waved on to the regular stop. This inspector asked lots of questions then asked us to pull into the parking lot and come inside. We did as requested and answered many more questions. Then the lady guard asked for our keys and she proceeded to inspect both vehicles. It only took about five minutes, but we wondered what she might be looking for. When she came back into the building she was frowning and we were really puzzled. She picked up our passports and said, “Have a nice trip.” Talk about relieved!
Across the border we headed north hoping to find a BC Hydro campground. We followed this road and that and came to a dam and stopped at the visitor center. There were no Hydro employees there, only a couple of young ladies running the gift shop. They knew of no Hydro campgrounds, but there was Rolley Lake Provincial Park nearby, so off we went, disappointed we couldn’t find the better priced park. But this park was beautiful with lots of
nice spots. We decided this was a steak place so Fred put the grill out and chips to soak. While he was cooking the ranger came to collect and told us there was firewood across the way so Olivia went after a load. After supper we walked to and along the lake in this rain forest 
where everything was covered with moss and
nurse logs were everywhere. Back at our spot we had the best campfire we have ever had. Too bad we didn’t have company to go with it. We wished you all could have been here with us.Tuesday, May 24 we drove and drove and drove through Vancouver and it’s suburbs stopping only for cappuccino and fresh produce at Safeway. Finally we cleared the city and started up the north bay passing
Lions Bay. The scenery was beautiful even though it was cloudy. This must be similar to Norway and their fjords.Shortly we stopped at the Squamish visitor center and learned all about the 54 routes to the top of
The Chief. Since we are not technical climbers we motored on following the Sea to Sky ParkwayWe had planned to stop in Whistler and did stop at Riverside Campground only to read the sign saying their spots were $50. We might have to pay that sooner or later, but Olivia starts saying no when it gets over $30. So we told them no thank you and asked if they had a list of others. There was one 15 miles north so we headed that way. We have been told many times, to just stop on the side of the road anywhere and since the BC provincial parks don’t have hook ups and charge, then why not. We contemplated a couple of spots, but ended up at Nairn Falls Provincial Park. And were we glad!The spot we picked
backed up to the Green River with snow on the mountain behind. Fred said this was the noisiest river he has ever heard. Nairn Falls
is the spiritual site of the Lil’wat Nation and part of the trail to the falls is a traditional route that was used by the Lil’wat people to access the falls. We took off to find the fall, in spite of the fact that we have seen many, this one sounded intriguing. The trail was about a mile to the falls which are a dramatic example of the erosive power of water. The potholes created in the rocks as the water spins trapped particles in the ever-deepening circles. The trail took us approximately an hour along the riparian areas of steep banks and drop offs.As we had driven in to Nairn Falls campground we briefly met a couple who told us they were also heading to Alaska. So after supper we walked over to meet Terry and Sue from Zephyrhills FL. We compared notes on the map as we found we were both planning to travel the Cassirer Highway. For those who haven’t traveled to Alaska, there are two routes and the Cassirer is the westernmost.
Wednesday, May 25 On the road again, this time we really felt like we were on the road to Alaska. We were out of the commercial lower BC. Not far from our camp a bear ran across the road causing us to slow for his crossing and later a marmot. We gassed up in Pemberton where we noticed a lot of hitch hikers and walkers both male and female. There were
mountains all around us.We were following Hwy 99, the Sea to Sky Highway, and have been since we left Vancouver. From Pemberton we drove to Lillooet driving over a pass with 16% grades both up and down. That is steep! It was hard to drink it all in. The scenery was beautiful. At the top we drove along
Joffre Lakes for several miles. The reflections were outstanding with the snow capped peaks. Along the side of the lake snow even
came down to the lake. All of this is along the Cayoosh Range of the Coast Mountains. We passed a beautiful Lake Seton and a BC Hydro campground as well as several other BC recreation parks. We had read in our faithful “Milepost” book there was a full hookup park in Clinton for $15 so we had planned to stay there, check our messages, and post our blog.Lillooet was the first big town we came to which was on the mighty Frasier River. The town was all on one side of the river. We detoured into the town and managed to get turned around before heading out. There were four bus loads of people in town, so we decided not to compete with them at the local tourist stops. Back on the road it seemed to take forever to reach the next crossroads as we drove through a semi desert, bench land. The whole landscape was different. When they irrigated the benches it was very green. Then we realized we really were out of civilization. No homes, or vacation homes. It was just like God made it, except for the highway.
Across Crown Lake we saw a
waterfall that is frequented by ice climbers in the winter. Wow! Fred said, “they didn’t have enough to keep them busy!”
We arrived at the junction of 99 and 97 and the end of the “Sea to Sky” highway and on to Clinton on the South Cariboo Region of Highway 97.
Since we have Wi-Fi we are making this a short letter. Who knows when we will post again.
Keep sending us news from home or just saying hi by emailing us at
Olivia@bobheck.com or fredharrington@yahoo.com
