Here we go!!

We’re on the road!!!  Wendy and Catherine have creatively figured out how to pack the car so there is plenty of room for all – I’m impressed!  The backseat will be my home for the next few days and my job is to follow along in the Milepost, a thick travel guide for all the highways to and through Alaska, and point out items of interest along the way.  The trip out of Seattle and the US was quick and uneventful. We crossed the border at Sumas – although the Canadian border guard seemed genuinely disappointed for us that we did not have any alcohol or weapons to make our trip more exciting.  I think we’ll be OK…  Our goal for the day was to reach the Kokanee Bay Campground in Lac La Hache in British Columbia, about 400 miles along the West Access Route.  We stopped for lunch at the Bridal Veil Falls Provincial Park just outside of Abbotsford.  After we ate our sandwiches we did a quick hike up to the base of the falls.  Despite the rain, it was a very pretty sight.  In addition to reading the Milepost, we pass the time by looking for wildlife.  I have been promised sightings of moose and bear.  We had a bonus sighting of marmots – the first was sunning itself on a rock and was spotted by Catherine, who had no idea what it was.  However, just a short time later there was a yellow road sign that confirmed she did not make this creature up! Our route followed along the Fraser River and the canyon it has carved and into flatter farmland.  A sign as we approached Lytton advertised the “World’s Best Jelly Roll” and we could not pass up any type of baked good that has been designated “World’s Best”!  Lytton is a booming metropolis with a population of 235, and it took us a while to find the Lytton Inn – when we entered the restaurant, we more than doubled the total number of customers.  Given these statistics, it was somewhat of a surprise to be told that they were all out of jelly roll – and had been for days because they ran out and were too busy to make more.  We sadly left, sans jelly roll, and headed out to an overlook of the Fraser River.  Our sadness quickly dissipated when we found a prospector cut-out for photos as well as a marker for “Canada’s Hot Spot” – turns out in July 1941 Lytton registered British Columbia’s record high temperature – 111.9* F. Not quite jelly roll, but still a worthwhile stop.  We reached our campground around 7 PM.  Fun fact: Lac La Hache means “Lake of the Ax” and was named this by a French-Canadian voyager because he – wait for it – found a small ax on its shores.  We set up camp and got dinner started.  The fire was slow to get going and our ground turkey was never going to brown so we switched to the back-up stove so we could eat before midnight.  We had a yummy feast of tacos and followed it with s’mores. We had been driving in and out of rain showers all day and were lucky to have made it this far through the evening without a drop, but the rain caught up with us so we retired to our tents and called it a night.  If it weren’t for the semis racing down the highway every 4 minutes about 100 feet from our camp, it would have been a peaceful sleep listening to the rain pitter patter on our tents…