Sep 20, 2011 - Sleepy faces

Spent the night in Valemount. Poor Bert. Out there re-wiring every stuff. Looks like a soup and sandwich dinner at Irvin's Good Sam. OMG - what a beautiful site we saw heading west this morning. The sky was so very clear, we could see the top of Mt. Robson. Spectacular! A good omen I think. Speaking of good omens...Bert found his medallion. Missing for two years and there is was hiding in back of the radio console up front in Max's dash. Yep! It's going to be a good trip. I can feel it in the air.

Jul 6, 2011 - Valemount, BC

Stopped at the Wells-Gray Provincial Park in BC on the way. Hiked to 3 beautiful waterfalls. Our plan was to head to Jasper National Park for the night but the man at the visitor centre said this park is much prettier than Jasper and we won't be disappointed. He was right, though we may have to skip Jasper this trip due to time constraints. Tonight at Irvins RV park in Valemount, BC. Miles: 320 Campground: $32 Good Wi-fi Diesel in Kamloops: $1.189/L

Aug 26, 2010 - Salmon Run

Survival of the fittest on the Fraser River Today we left Prince George and headed southeast on Highway 16, a stretch of Trans Canadian Highway known as the Yellowhead Highway. Our destination was the upper Fraser River north of Valemount. The Fraser River flows west out of the Canadian Rockies. It makes a giant, 800 mile loop through British Columbia, and finally reaches Vancouver where it flows through the Strait of Georgia to the Pacific Ocean. (The route of the river is shown on the Homepage of this trip journal.) The Fraser River is...

Aug 17, 2010 - Hart Highway to the Yellowhead

We had forgotten just how expensive things are in Canada, particularly produce. Prices are 60-100% higher than in Illinois. (Granted, asparagus is not in season, but $8.09 a pound?) There was quite a thunderstorm overnight, but not too much rain. Eastern BC has been having a very dry summer; there are a lot of forest fires. This was a driving day; we headed out on Highway 97 (this stretch is the Hart Highway). There were a couple of brief construction delays and one short detour due to a rolled-over truck (driver seemed to be OK). Then we...

Feb 21, 2010 - The train ride - The final leg - Fraser Valley katchewan and Alberta Bound

Day Sat - Chris and I awake as we crossed the AB/BC border @ Valemount and forgot about the extra time change. Breakfast was later than we thought and we were hungry; so back to the Park Car for coffee yogurt and fruit until the real breakfast starts. Enjoy the scenery. We rattled along the North Thompson for bit and stopped in Kamloops for about 20 mins. We were supposed to be there 2300hrs Thursday and instead there 1030hrs Friday. Dropped some parcels off in Kamloops for my brother to pick up and we pressed on to the mighty Fraser...

Jun 10, 2009 - Saying Hello to the Rocky Mountains again

Today we drove from Clearwater to Valemount on the west side of the Jasper National Park. We followed the Thompson River most of the way. As we got closer to Valemount the snow capped mountains started to surround us on either side - beautiful. Our campground in Valemount had great mountain views.

Aug 12, 2008 - On the Road Again

12 Great days in Kamloops: We visited relatives & friends. Had a great time. Spent some great days sitting out on my brothers lawn enjoying a cool beer. Gets hot in Kamloops so you have to replace lost liquid. I think the hottest temperature was 37 or 39 celcius. Too hot. - Went out a few times with family and friends to eat. Enjoyed some great Chinese food. (in honour of the Olympics.) - Lots of golfing. (Why doesn't my golf improve!) Bought a new hybrid 3. Have to see how that works. - We played cards in the evenings, 'sticks'. Fun...

Jun 25, 2008 - Valemount BC

Columbia Ice Fields to Valemount BC A beautiful sunny morning. A little earlier there was a touch of rain in the campground and snow on the ice fields. All in all the weather has been perfect. As we pulled out we took one last look at the Columbia Icefield, and it is amazing. Certainly we won’t see anything like it in Ohio. Each day has just been prettier than the one before. Mountains, Snow, Lakes, Ponds, Meadows and many little water falls coming off the mountains. The water is so close to the highway and it is really fun to look upon...

Jun 18, 2008 - Home to Valemount, BC

It took us until about 1:00 PM to get underway today. It was not that we had a lot to do but it seemed to take a lot longer than usual to get everything in order around our place before we left. Perhaps we were not as anxious as usual to get underway without the bike. We had pretty much everything ready to load onto the bike so we just loaded it all into the FJ instead. The rear seats pop out quickly so I had taken them out to make sure we had enough room. Well, once we had loaded “all” of our stuff including our camping gear it hardly took...

Jun 15, 2008 - Driving the Icefields

Saturday Morning early, 7:00 am early , we were on the road heading to the Columbia Icefield Parkway and the Jasper National Park. This retirement clock of mine just isn’t working right yet, I thought when you retired you slept in, at least a couple day’s a week. The drive from Banff to Jasper is around (257) miles of nothing less than spectacular scenery. The brochure said that it’s the most beautiful road in the world, could very well be. The Columbia Icefield Glacier is on this road, we didn’t stop but we probably should have, I think it...

Jun 10, 2008 - Jasper Natl. Park to Valemount, BC

Awoke this morning to rain. Leaving Banff today, heading up through Jasper National Park via the Icefields Parkway. We have reservations at IRVing's RV Park in Valemount. It is located west and out of Jasper National Park. The rain was heavy as we travel up through Lake Louise. The further north we traveled the weather started to brake up, you could see blue sky peaking out. By the time we got to the Columbia Icefield it was nice. Saw some Big Horn Sheep and also a Black Bear. We had to pass some places up because we wanted to get to the...

Aug 26, 2007 - Another Day on the Road

Today we left Prince George--not to soon as far as we are concerned. After I posted the August 25, 2007, trip journal, we went into town and had a very pleasant visit to the town museum. On the way back to the RV Park, I hit something on the road and blew out the right front tire on the truck. We were going up a good hill and managed to get over to the shoulder. Fortunately there was a shoulder! So we got out to figure out how to change the tire on the truck. It probably took us about 45 minutes, but it went OK. We were glad that we were...