Sunday, December 6, 2015

Our Northern Adventure - Chilcotin Cariboo Country, BC

These first days of our travels takes us from Bridge Lake to Williams Lake, Quesnel and Prince George, BC.


We have finally begun our travels to see the incredible country of Northern BC, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska. We’d been planning this for a few years and the time had come to make it happen.  We were joined by two other couples and we gathered at Ken and Sherry’s at Bridge Lake to begin this 60 day adventure.

Morning on a tranquil Bridge Lake, BC
An overnight stay at friends’ property on beautiful Bridge Lake on Highway 24 was the beginning of our 60 day adventure North.  We gathered there, under cloudy skies, but were able to tour around the lake before the rain came.

Gull Island
We are not always fortunate enough to time our visits to see the gulls on their annual nesting visits to Gull Island but this visit offered lots of them.  The Western Gull will lay 2 or 3 eggs and both parents will help incubate.  Both parents will also feed and protect them until they learn to fly at 6 or 7 weeks.  The gulls were sitting on the nests so it seemed early for young to be around.

Cariboo ruins
The skies clear and we follow Hwy 24 to Lone Butte and Hwy 97 then turn north.  The Chilcotin Cariboo country has a history consisting of western life and is known in part for their cattle industry.  We pass several shambled buildings which have become ruins over the years that reflect the days of old.

Williams Lake, BC
Williams Lake is the heart of the rodeo world in British Columbia.  Their annual rodeo brings cowboys, bulls and horses from around the country to compete.  I expected our visit to coincide with this annual event but their 89th annual rodeo was over.

Horses of the Cariboo
The country is definitely cattle and horse country and we see them enjoying the green pastures as we make our way north.  The weather offers blue skies and sunshine all day, looks like a great day for a horse ride but horse rides are not on our agenda and we have places to go.

Beehive Burner
There are still a few old beehive burners standing but they’ve not been used for many years now.  They were used to burn the waste wood for logging yards in the ‘old’ days but are often seen as the last remaining evidence of these old yards.  I enjoy seeing that they are still around to remind us of what once was; we’ve also seen many still standing on our travels down south where they are called tepee or wigwam burners.

Parking Lot camping

We did make an unplanned overnight stop in Quesnel due to a broken spring on our 5th wheel trailer and because it was July 1, we had to wait for the next day to buy parts.  We spent the rest of the hot day and that evening in a parking lot before we could be on our way again.  
RV park on the Fraser River
We stayed north of Prince George the next night in a rustic old RV park with our first of several breakdowns behind us as we set out on this summer adventure.

Click here for another day of the adventure.


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