1998 Alaska, British Columbia & Yukon Trip

We finally left our campsite south of Kelly Lake at 4:30 am, having given up on getting anymore sleep. Our sleep had been disturbed too many times by wind and trains. As we approached the gate, we realized someone had shut if after we arrived and tied it with rope. Dale got out and untied it. We decided to take the road toward Pavilion. This gravel road is not recommended when it rains, with a 14% grade. It wasn't as bad as we remembered it from taking it one other time. Once we reached Pavilion the road was paved and we continued south toward Lillooet. Dale wanted to see more of this country so we took the unpaved road toward Fountain Valley which was quite steep and windy. We turned around at the Cinquefoil Lake on the Xax'lipa Indian Reservation. We continued south on Highway 12 past Lytton, where the Fraser and Thompson Rivers converge. It had started getting pretty hazy and smoky from the forest fires we had heard about. Near Boston Bar we saw helicopters flying around with huge orange buckets to fight the forest fires. In a clearing there were a couple large semi-trucks and helicopters landing, we assumed to get supplies. At 8:30 am we stopped in the small town of Spuzzum for breakfast at the Spuzzum Cafe. Dale made the mistake of asking the waitress about the fires. She seemed kind of grumpy and acted like the fires were old news to her. Later the waitress and her grown son explained that her parents lived on a farm near Salmon Arm, (about 70 miles east of Kamloops), where the worst fires were. They were waiting to hear if they had been evacuated. The decor of the dining room of this restaurant was Victorian while the lounge was made to look like a medival dungeon. I wondered if the waitress had decorated the dining room and left the lounge for her son to design. We continued south to Hope and took Highway 1 to the Sumas border crossing. There was no wait at the border crossing. It seemed that the closer we got to home the warmer and clearer the sky got. We stopped at the Fish Outlet to pick up frozen salmon on our way home. We arrived home at 2:15 pm.

350 miles today 5650 miles total