Canadream

“I knew we could always count on bikers!!”

The title of today’s post is Canadream because summer vacation season is in full swing, and everywhere we go there are rental RV’s that say Canadream.  So you too can rent an RV and take your dream trip across Canada.  The other reason Frank got the idea to travel Canada this year is because it is the 150th Anniversary of Canada and they are celebrating with free admission to all Canada Parks.  The only unfortunate thing is there are major wild fires in multiple locations in the area so the visibility and air quality is terrible.  You will be able to see in the pictures how hazy a lot of the vistas are, and how the tops of the mountains are literally blocked by smoke.  That is the only bummer so far about the trip.

We woke up, hit Tim Hortons of course, fueled up the bikes and got ready to head up the mountain in Mt Revelstoke National Park, which is a sweeping zig zag road. I stopped to get pictures of the town below, and you can barely see the snow topped mountains across the way.  Once you are up at a parking area,  you can take a shuttle or hike up to a series of trails that take you to an old fire lookout station at 6300 ft. It is an interesting sight to see snow and flowers just feet away from each other.

We dropped back down into town, grabbed some sandwiches to go, and started our way toward our next destination which was Golden, BC. The Trans Canadian Highway took us into Glacier National Park of Canada.  We stopped for a picnic lunch at Hemlock Grove Boardwalk, which is a trail that passes beneath soaring ancient hemlocks and old growth cedar forests. There were giant ferns that made the area look like a fairy book story land.  We also found two Red Chairs from a program Canada has to help promote people getting out and discovering the parks and great outdoors.

We finished out the afternoon with a very steep downhill climb to Bear Creek Falls.  We were a little leary about going down at first but the exhausted folks walking up said it was worth it. Tons of moss covered fallen trees alongside this curvy, up and down and stair filled short hike. Again I kept expecting to see a little gnome house or secret door in a tree. I was beginning  to think maybe Canada was a dream… then at the bottom we were greeted be a water fall with so much force that there was wind and a heavy mist that started to soak us. The kids loved the mist but it was hard to keep the camera dry for photos.

When we came back up to the parking lot, there was a group of people asking around for a pipe or tube, but not explaining that they needed gas. No one was able to help them, and suddenly one of the ladies asked if we had a pipe to transfer gas.  We could do better; we had a gas siphon.  “I knew we could always count on bikers!!” she smiled. Who would have thought that a motorcyclist would be giving gas to a car? Franks VStrom has such a large tank that we were able to give them about a gallon and a half.  They were so happy that we saved the day. I think that earned us some good travel karma points.  Tomorrow we would be having a long day, heading north to Jasper, Alberta. Tomorrow will be the farthest north we travel on this trip.