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Date:         Mon, 21 Nov 1994 12:19:16 -0800 (PST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Alistair Bell <ui775@vifa1.freenet.victoria.bc.ca>
Subject:      my summer trip

Hey, let me tell you about my summer trip...

We left the island (Vancouver Island), about midday on Aug 23, drove to Vancouver and picked up some supplies at an outdoors store. Then it was north on the Squamish hwy, past Whistler to Nairn Falls provincial park where we spent the night. Newxt morning we continued north through Pemberton ond on to Lilloet on the Duffy Lake road, which is now paved except for a 9 km stretch through the Mt. Currie Band reserve. Its a beautiful and steep stretch of road, with impressive peaks on either side. At Lilloet we had lunch and gassed up! From Lilloet we went NW as far as Pavillion wher we left the paved road to go north, roughly following the Fraser. After climbing up about 1000 ft, the road went through rangeland, bunchgrass and some pines and aspen. Our destination was Kelly lake, a forest service campsite, but when there we didn't like the look of it and continued NW. The road split and we decided to take the left branch (less travelled), and found ourselves heading downhill, the road very narrow and winding through trees. Teh road got steeper then we came out of the trees to find ourselves on the edge of the plateau, and the Fraser river some distance below us. At that point we also saw the sign warning of 23% grade ahead. The road switchbacked down the side of the plateau, towards a flatter area alongside but about 1000 feet above the Fraser. The road was very narrow and rough, and if it had started to rain I think we would have been in trouble. As it was, the tension in the van was thick. Margaret doesn't like heights, and for half of the swithbacks was looking pretty well straight down the hill, her hands clenched around the passenger grab handle. Al, one of our dogs, picked up on the tension between Margaret and myself, and increased the tempo of his "riding-in-the-van-on-backroads" running back and forth, whining and letting out the occasional high-pitched bark right beside your ear. We did make it down to the next level and followed the river north for a few miles through a strange deserted landscape of grass, sagebrush, then the unexpected farm, bright green with irrigated alfalfa, then dry arid dusty land again. It was around 6pm, so we stopped and set up camp on a little hillock at the side of the road. Out we all jumped and discovered cactus. Little round spiney buggers that sort of jumped up your leg. The dogs quickly picked up a goodly amount, so the leather gloves and needlenose pliers came in handy for the next 10 minutes. After dinner we experienced a very spectaclar sunset over the wierd landscape listening to Derek Jacobi reading the Iliad (I bought this expensive set of tapes before leaving thinking that I should have read this in university and maybe this would be an easy way of becoming catching up, Ha!), and drinking straight gin - a perfect moment. Next morning we tied Riley (ridgeback - hound cross who likes to wander) to the duffle bag that contained some of our clothes while we made breakfast. Soon he began to get excited and before we could see what was up, he ran off down the hill after 3 mule deer, dragging the duffel bag with him. Luckily, it got hung up on some sagebrush which allowed me to retrieve him and a very dusty bag. Leather gloves and pliers again. We headed north to Little Big Bar lk, a nice forest service campsite which we had all to ourselves and where we could swim and laze about all day. Next day we drove north and back to the Fraser and crossed it on a wooden suspension bridge at Gang Ranch. The countryside was much like the badland region of Alberta. We are heading northwest now, and after 3 hours of driving, we figure we have escaped the dreaded cactus. So we stop and go for a walk with the dogs. Well, they came running back, with the little devils on there shanks. Unfortunately Al, the hyper swiss cattle dog, tried to bite the cactus that were clinging to his legs and in the process sat in a big bunch of them. Life is full of surprises, but I would never have thought that I would be pulling spines from the anus of a dog! The end of that day saw us at a Duck Unlimited project near Fletcher lk. Lots of eager little rainbows in the small lake, and I thought I was becoming a pretty darn clever fisherman catching them on a hopper imitation until on one of my backcasts I snagged a twig and the fish struck at that when my cast came forward. It got chilly that night, ice on the dogs water bowls in the morning. From Fletcher lake we drove to Alexis Creek, which is on the paved portion of the hwy from Williams lk to Bella Coola. We gassed up and headed back onto gravel roads diving SE to Nemiah Valley. The road was surprisingly good and we could speed along at 50 mph.


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