Roaming Wheels

October 2024 Seaside, OR

It’s been 13 years since we’ve been to this part of the Oregon Coast. Last time we were here, we rented a house south of here which turned out to smell like cat pee in every room & we drove into a rainy Seaside to escape the smell and wound up spending most of that day in the arcade with Eme who was tiny and portable in her BOB stroller.

It’s grown a bit and we are treated by and entire weekend of SUNSHINE on the Oregon coast. If you don’t live in the PNW you may not know that the coast, 12 months a year, is full of rain or wind or fog or rain and wind and fog.

It’s been a jam packed October both on a work and personal level in our family. Each of us has been going in every direction nearly every day this month. This is our last week of a ‘thing to do’ so now we can start to focus on put off chores and winter projects. We didn’t even get a chance to decorate for Halloween this year which is saying something for us if you’ve seen our house over the years.

We forgot some items this trip, including all of Eme’s clothes. We pulled in form lunch at the massive Chehalis Walmart and I hopped out to get Eme some weekend clothes. Pulling into the super busy Friday afternoon Walmart was not easy. Where I should have turned left, to skirt along the far end of the parking lot, was backed up 7 cars deep. I need all the lane space to turn the truck with the trailer on. So I decided to plod ahead down the straight and clear parking lane that led to the center of the store.

I’m pretty sure Tyler had a mini stroke, as he advised against the move after I initiated it. It seemed doable. I even joked at the Subaru Outback backing out of a front row spot that I should put on my blinker to wait for his spot. No one else found this amusing. I turned wide and left with no traffic and no issues and dropped myself off at the front door and left Tyler to park it.

We don’t have a Walmart nearby that people don’t get regularly shot at so I don’t go in to a Walmart unless we’re traveling. They have cute young girl clothes. Eme totally scored by us forgetting her stuff at home.

The new trailer tows like it is part of the truck compared to a ball and hitch tow behind. Why did we wait so long to get a 5th wheel? We stayed at our first ever Thousand Trails. It’s a membership based RV park, you don’t reserve your spot (at this one, at least), you just drive around and pick the one you want and pull in. That’s also a first for us.

Backing this thing is not something I’m attempting yet. I not oriented to it and it’s huge and heavy; I’m terrified of running something over. Thank goodness Tyler had mad skills at backing any manner of trailer.

We enjoyed a local craft show which also was hosting the “Seaside Sashay” Dance club. Pretty sure no one was under the age of 60 but Eme really enjoyed watching them. Had some Mo’s for lunch one of the days and walked along the Prom and on the beach. Dogs are totally allowed on Oregon beaches which is nice. It’s as windy despite the sun so Eme was not amused with the walking program, at all.

Our trailer sofa arrived the day before we left for the trip so we got to sort that out for the weekend. It’s nice to have more seating than one loveseat offered.

Our bed in the new rig is much higher than the old one. The cat requires a jumping point and has quickly taken to using one of the nearby drawers, if I leave it open, as a launch point for some kitty parkour.

The new trailer takes up 45.5′ of our 47′ driveway. Years ago we cut down one tree near the garage ourselves and a year after that the power company was thrilled to cut the large messy pine tree down near the street that was growing up through the power lines. We ground that stump down but it was a deep one and we could only go so deep. It made the side parking strip lumpy and uneven which was okay for the two behind but hooking up the 5th wheel needs a flatter, level surface so we had some local folks some in to grade and rock the area.

The trailer tires will be much happier parking on a drainable surface as well. This was done by ONE guy in 1/2 a day. Crazy amazing skill set.

Plans are mostly in place for summer 2024 with another Colorado route. We’ll check out if we want to acquire property in a particular area back there. I’m also working an angle to check out New Hampshire. I worry about be away from WATER and a coastal NE town sounds pretty amazing to me. I’ve been gone so long from the East Coast, it would be nice to have sea level with 4 seasons. I’m also worried the extreme dryness of Colorado will not be friendly to my lung issues.

Working on some spring trips. As expected, the size of the trailer lends itself to accommodation limitations at places. The old trailer at 39′ was no friend to all places either but many places tap out at 40′ which puts us in a new class of ‘big rig’ status. It’ll just take more planning. I had to rework the Colorado trip since it was already routed and booked (mostly) when we acquired the new rig.

Speaking of trailers… the old 2017 Highland Ridge left yesterday to a new family; ironically, just in West Seattle.

The puppy is growing fast. He is DEFINITELY not a mini, mini Australian Shepherd. Dixie, full grown was 34lbs. Revvy, 5 months old is 32lbs. He already is getting running training with Tyler and while he may nearly trip Tyler a dozen times, Revvy loves the running. He’ll be able to keep up with a bike next summer no problem.

Halloween in our neighborhood is a jam packed event. I’m talking hundreds of kids to each house. The kids love it. Tyler and I have often wondered if the concentrated blocks (we’re just a block off the main area) get a warning by a real estate agent when they buy the house about hoards of trick or treaters…

I’ll sign off for 2023. We’ll entertain you all in spring 2024!

Nothing like warm fall weather in Leavenworth for Oktoberfest. We enjoyed the tri colored fall trees on the drive from Roslyn to Leavenworth.

Revvy has gotten used to being on Kellan’s lap while in the car. He’s not quite a car dog yet, he’s stopped whining but pants for a lot of the drive. He used to snuggle all over Kellan but he no longer fits on his lap. He’s also not that much of his advertised ‘mini Aussie’ at nearly 30lbs at 5 months old.

Can’t not stop at Smallwoods Farms at the edge of town. We picked up pumpkins, fed goats and sheep. Two goats had jumped out of their area and were hilariously free ranging through customers.

The town was packed with festive, German attired partiers. This was Revvy’s first puppy trip where he could partake in all the puppy things since he’s fully vaccinated now. He loved the big crowds of people begging you to pet and love on him. He did well on the 3 hour walk we did round trip into downtown.

The kids loved all the different sights and costumes. Eme, apparently, digs polka dancing as well.

We did the new alpine coaster at the far end of town. It’s a more compact version of the one we did in Estes Park last summer.

We’ve been working on ‘a thing’ lately and this was our first trip with our upgraded space. The Highland Ridge toy hauler is for sale. Meet 44’ 2” of our new to us 5th wheel. this was our inaugural trip with her.

Everyone settled in and found their new spots. We’re waiting on a new sofa for more seating, the previous owners were two virtual working adults with different configuration needs, a 2 seater sofa won’t work for us. Got a full sized fridge, though, which will dramatically alter our travel dynamic.

Pulling a 5th wheel is a dream compared to pulling a heavy tow behind trailer. The irony of it all is that the guy we bought it from has the same truck (color, everything) we do, except his bumpers are black.

We got lucky coming home today, just passing a bad rollover accident – before EMS was on the scene. We looked back 30 minutes later and traffic was at a complete stop for miles.

We didn’t get so lucky in that we sheared off the right rear leaf spring, at some point, in the journey home. Some may recall the one we sheared off in CA a few years ago & Tyler changing it out in a parking lot using a 2x4x16 for leverage. We didn’t notice this until we pulled up to our driveway . I had been telling Tyler when I was driving that the left rear of the trailer didn’t seem to be tracking in alignment with the truck on the freeway. We chalked it up to mirror angle but in hindsight- we should have stopped & looked.

So that’s a new to do, the heat in the back part of the trailer wasn’t working either but other than those two things, it wasn’t a bad showing for a first trip out.

We find ourselves taking less and less things on trips. We’ve learned to pack lighter and do less laundry. Rainy days are the exception, they make a lot of laundry trying to keep ten trailer clean with a busy kid and pets. We pulled off into the truck weigh station by Roslyn to switch driving and the scale weighed the truck at 10k lbs (truck plus hitch weight of the trailer) and the trailer weighing in at 14.8k lbs.

Hitch weight is how much weight the trailer adds to your truck when it rests fully on your hitch. You have towing capacity and hitch weight, they are different. Dry weight is what your empty trailer weighs without anything in it.

With any luck we’ll make it to Seaside, OR in 2 weekends for our last 2023 trip. We’re deep in planning 2 months back through Colorado (retirement property hunting) for the coming summer.

Kellan and I will be flying back to Philly for spring break in April and we haven’t planned any spring trips yet. he keeps asking to go back to Squamish and now Leavenworth since the boys did some really great biking this weekend.

Aside from our repair to do list, we have to grade the grass parking area next to our driveway. For trailer hooking up – the fifth wheel needs a flatter surface and since it’s heavier than the other one – we want to be parking it on stones not the muddy saturated dirt through our winters and springs. Kellan is stoked to rent a little Bobcat for the job.

Happy fall travels, we’ll see you in spring!

Oh my goodness, there is an endless amount of STUFF to do at home. Bigger space, normal life appointments, catching up and cleaning up. Life is so much simpler on the road when all you have to do is exist, play, explore and keep up a 300 sq. foot trailer.

The drive from Squamish to home was a mess of traffic. A 3.5 hour drive took nearly 6 hours. We had about a 45 minute border wait but that was uneventful and easy. King County added 2 HOURS of traffic southbound for us. It was endless.

Kellan keeps asking how we can move to Squamish. I’m not sure it’s a bad idea…!

Saturday night Tyler took Eme to the Taylor Swift concert in Seattle. It was epic and she loved it, when I picked them up at 11:30pm she looked happily exhausted.

72, 000 sold out, extremely joyous crowd bedecked in more sequins then they’ve ever seen. They found the staff at Lumen Field very helpful for ADA access and assistance. They even had a wheelchair/disabled drop off point right at the front of the stadium for us to access. Eme had an incredible time.

They were given these LED bands when they entered the concert which lit up in a patterned sequence throughout the concert. Think of our lighters from back in the day, this was the new, non fire, non phone option.

Tonight, I’m taking Kellan into the Bite of Seattle followed by a Dude Perfect show at Climate Pledge. We are taking the train and monorail in. Here’s a link to Dude Perfect if you’re not familiar with them. They are masters of trick shots with pretty much any sport. https://youtu.be/ZYW2lWLpLuo?si=uWkPZ2l5Xk1s0amF

We settle into the rest of summer for the rest of break. School goes back for me August 24th/25th, the kids start back on the 30th. Plans for next summer are steadily falling into place. I now know to fit some spring and early summer Squamish trips in as well!

2 nights of vacay left. Sigh.

Gorgeous day in Squamish today but it started off needing the heat on this morning. the rains yesterday really cooled things off and they need the rain so bad, fire potential is rated at extremes up here. The forests are bone dry.

Let’s start with yesterday. Had awesome downpours for most of the morning and afternoon yesterday. Kellan and I had booked a tour 15 minutes south on 99 at Britannia Beach to tour the massive Britannia Copper Mine. The perfect thing to do on a rainy day.

Tyler, Eme and I had toured this on a trip up to Whistler when I was pregnant with Kellan. She was so much smaller then and we could carry her up the many stairs to get to the train ride into the mine entrance. Not so much at 108lbs. It’s one of the first things we’ve encountered over the last 4 weeks up in Canada that’s been partially non accessible. It’s okay, they do many loud demonstrations of old equipment that she would hate anyway.

Okay, this mine is AWESOME. It shut down 1 November 1974 after running since 1904. I can’t imagine working up here in the dark, wild wilderness for those many decades before electricity powered everything. Winters here are no joke and being right on Howe Sound (which goes into the Pacific Ocean) has got to add an extra layer of chilly winds during winter.

Plenty of trees to burn and build though.

This mine is one of the worlds only gravity fed mines. It’s ingenious. Rocks with cooper were blasted and hand hauled out in mine carts on top of the hillside. Each level of the processing mill was built, stair-stepped, into the mountainside. In the photos you’ll see the actual granite sides of the mountainside were on the mill. It’s so cool and massive.

Little known fact about acetyl is that it has an airborne sedative effect so it has to be worked with in an open air setting otherwise the workers would fall asleep on the job, literally. A little acetyl mixed with a tiny bit of water plus a flame to start the reaction would allow the headlamp flame to burn for around 4 hours. They were outlawed after a (shocker) coal mine explosion, locally, but since the new tech was a huge 10 gauge cord thickness wired headlamp with an 8lb ‘hip worn’ battery pack, many of the miners said to hell with that and continued to use the acetylene headlamps for decades after.

Anyway, the process… First the rock was hand drilled by tapping the bit with a hammer. My elbows hurt just thinking about 8 hours of that for years on end.

Then technology came blazing in with some awful 300lb tripod dry drill death tool that often tipped over on the 4-6 miners handling it. If that didn’t maime or kill you the fine silca dust in your lungs would.

Next came something called a jack-leg. A revolutionary, lightweight 100lb, one anchor ‘leg’ machine that was a wet, air driven drill. So, smaller injury potential and no dust because the water created mud with the dust.

They drilled holes to get core samples to follow the copper. Telltale signs of copper in granite is chalcopyrite – shiny gold looking sparkles.

Shove dynamite in the holes that had the good core samples taken from and blast with dynamite. Manually the workers had to clear the ‘muck’. Eventually someone invented a little mechanical mine cart shoveler to clear it out. Holy cow is it LOUD. These guys must have lost their hearing early in their youth with all the noise and no ear protection.

Then off it went to the processing mill to crush the rocks to get the copper, gold and other things out.

We are certain this truck post dates the mine closing in 1975 by a few decades. But it’s a cool bit of roadside advertising for the mine.

5km higher up the bill from the Mill, was a settlement where 200 families resided called the Mt. Sheer Townsite. It had restaurants, a hotel, a community swimming pool, sounded really cool. It’s abandoned for decades and Kellan and I are dying to checking out but it’s not accessible (so they say)…. If we were staying here longer we’d find a way, I LOVE stuff like that. Can you imagine all the cool artifacts you’d find up there?

After the mine tour Kellan and I stopped in town for lunch. You guessed it, Asian food. Japanese udon and bubble teas to be specific. I may never need to go home although I would miss our Mexican food around Seattle. dood, in general, all throughout Alberta and British Columbia has an extra zing to it, they clearly like some heat in all their foods and sauces. I overheard a retired couple ordering food at our last campground and she was saying ‘don’t worry I just bought some more Tums’.

We also went bike apparel shopping for him at a huge bike store called Corsa. All these shops have super friendly shop dogs, love places like that.

We thought of heading to a movie theater but there’s none, not even in Whistler, which is just a 40 minute drive back north. Nearest is Vancouver and I’m not ready for a city just yet. it’ll give us something to catch up on when we get back into town and an AC escape as well.

The rains do all stopped and it smelled amazing here in the forests despite the frequently intermittent toking sessions next door. Honestly, I was hoping it would help my knee, secondarily but so far, no.

The boys headed out on the trails soon after.

Kellan was desperate to show me ‘the coolest store – ever’ down the road. He wasn’t wrong. If you haven’t been to a Canadian Tire, you haven’t lived yet. Picture Fred Meyer without any food plus Les Schwab Tires. You can get your new tires, dog food, hunting knives and bed sheets all under the same roof.

As for today, sigh. We have 2 nights left here and on vacation. We’re only 3.5 hours north of home – plus border crossing. So on Thursday when we pull out (when Tyler expertly backs out of an entire campground) it’ll be an easy 1/2 day drive.

The truck has been acting up, some error about voltage being off to the turbo charger in the truck.

We haven’t had many road problems this trip in the trailer or truck, as long as this one stays a secondary problem we’ll be fine getting home to address it there. compared to last years 7 days = 7 medium sized issues to fix – this trip has been easy. The bugs have also been really manageable. Jasper/Hinton and Banff were the only summery bug areas. Could be because it’s normally consistently windy on this side of BC through the mountains?

The sun shines down beautifully today. Tyler and Kellan did lots of bike maintenance this morning then headed out to put sticky shoes and chalked hands on this amazing granite rock. Kellan is and always has been a natural climber. Unlike Garden of the Gods last summer where many hand and foot holds are clearly defined – the granite is usually more of a ‘see if you can stick’ on tiny features.

As with the biking trail ratings, climbing is seriously true rated stuff. A 5.7 outside climb here could easily be a 5.8 gun climb. It’s important to not overestimate your skills out here with either sport.

Tomorrow should be more of today. We’ll head out of here late morning on Thursday. With any luck, that is, otherwise I’ll send you our new address. 😁

When we were in Alberta all the signs were in English and French. Road signs, grocery signs… I took 3 years of formal French in high school and I sucked at it. I know so much more Spanish these days but I’m out of my element with French.

When we crossed over into British Columbia, we see some French/English but also now we see quite a bit (on road signage) native/indigenous.

Milk… milk is not sold in our 1%, 2%, whole milk increments but rather percentages of another kind, I’m sure they reference their processing. They also also in French in many places.

It’s really easy to forget that you are in an actual different country up here on this trip. People do the same things we do, right? We go to touristy places, eat meals out, go to laundromats and grocery stores… We consider ourselves lucky that Kellan (and Eme – for the most part) roll and adapt while traveling. It’s a good life skill we both hope to impart on Kellan. Be curious and interested by differences and explore to learn as much as you can I matter where you are. I mean, where would I have ever learned about bong juice at age 48 without new places and experiences? 😁😁

First full day in Squamish. when we went wheels up in Whistler yesterday, that was our last travel hop we’ll make before docking at home after this. We are here for 5 nights.

Tyler got some early runs in on the bike, it’s 80 here today, windy and sunny. Yesterday was 86 and fairly toasty.

While biking he came within an inch of popping a huge toad in the middle of the trail trying to warm up in the sun. To me, the toad looks quite happy he’s alive in the selfie.

My knee that needs replaced is immensely resentful of the Whistler walking mileage and has made its opinion clear in the form of a non bending left knee that even the awesome 12 hour Canadian Advil cannot touch. Perhaps I should explore the local cannabis fare so I can forget about it and snack all day instead.

Kellan’s been a little moody and sluggish the last few days, his cold and cough is totally fine which is good. I think maybe a month of doing something every single day for all waking hours caught up to him. Like Tyler, he doesn’t sit still and take breaks just to be still and take a break, very often.

Haley is doing fine and is basking in the cooler 80 degree temperatures.

This campground is, by far, the most eccentric mix of everything we’ve ever been in the mix on. That’s saying something after some of the more off the beaten paths ones we have visited like in Lake of the Ozarks and northern Arkansas (Sylamore Creek).

It’s also one that we got into with little challenge (advertised as big rig access) but will have to back mostly, entirely out of – as in the whole campground road into the site – including across a very narrow one lane bridge over a creek. That being said it’s a massive campsite that you could easily fit 3 RVs into big it’s all just ours. Maybe forever if we can’t get out of it. I’ll post a change of address here if we have to become Canadian citizens and live here in Squamish. There’s a secondary (that’s what they call high school) and elementary school down in town, I’d be okay.

I did learn that secondary school is 9-12 all over all Canadian provinces except Quebec which is grades 7-11. There is no grade 12, that’s college entry year. I wonder how that works with all other universities. College is also referred to, here, in the European way as ‘university’. In a sentence, ‘I go to university at …’.

It’s very consistently windy here. There’s windsurfing in the bay. The bay flows into the straight which empties into the Pacific Ocean. Their street signage has arrows with ‘ocean’ which is misleading. Semantics, maybe.

Anyway, I got lucky again on logistics for campsites in that access to the hundreds of mountain bike trails here, is right through the campground here. There also a ‘wilderness spa’, which is a new term for me, up the road. We’ll just say it’s not anything like the Fairmont Chateau in Whistler. Here’s a link if you’re bored. https://aikaspa.ca

Today was a couple of lasts for the trip. Last grocery run and last laundry run. We’ll make do with what we have or get take out u til we head home from here out.

That Canadian work ethic is a thing to be envious of, for sure. Yesterday the farmers market closed at 3pm and by 4 pm most of the dozens of businesses that line the Main Street in downtown were closed as well. On a Saturday! During a busy tourist summer weekend! Most businesses are also closed Sundays. No wonder people that live here seem happier. Maybe it’s also helped by the 12 hour Advil or cannabis. Or the sunning outdoors. Maybe it’s a combo.

The sheet solid granite monoliths are epic, stunning and unparalleled, not even Yosemite can top the many giant granite slabs that surround Squamish. A picture cannot capture the magnitude or magnificence. World class climbing is here. World class mountain biking is here. If you’re a blue level route level for biking you’d better believe you’re gonna be a green here. Ratings are harsh and true, not inflated. Ratings for trails are just like ski ratings. Green is entry/easy, blue is medium, then there’s black, double back and red. You’d better have your shit way together for anything past a blue.

Rock climbing is rated by a scale. 5.4 is like walking up stone steps. Easy. 5.8/5.9 (said five nine or five eight) is decent/average. You get to 5.10 (five ten) and then it adds levels of a, b, c d. You climb anything 5.12 of higher, is advanced/pro level. Then you have different ways of climbing… bouldering is staying near the ground, typically on massive boulders with crash pads under you. Yes, you carry your own huge crash foam pads up.

You can top rope which means you can access the top of the pitch and thread your rope through the bolted anchors, then climb up it from the bottom. Kellan and Tyler did this last year at Garden of the Gods.

Sport climbing is routes that have bolts already drilled into the rock for your rope by someone who created (and usually named) the route. These routes are often multi pitched meaning you climb to a certain length of your rope, anchor off, belay up your partner and reset, repeats this process up, up, up, until you reach the top/peak/end of the route. Then you rappel in similar stages back to the ground.

Trad climbing is when you set temporary anchors into cracks and crags into the rock for your rope as you go. You carry a lot of gear with you in order to do this and it’s a more complicated format of climbing. Once the lead climber reaches and establishes their anchor point they belay their partner up who ‘cleans’ or collects all the temporarily placed anchor gear on the way up. You repeat thus process for each segment of your climb until you reach your top or peak. You get down same way as sport climbing, you rappel in stages down to the ground.

There’s also free climbing which people have made movies on and there’s not many of those folks alive since it’s pretty crazy and no room for error to climb glowering rocks with no ropes.

There’s your general rock climbing education for the day.

No real plans, found a grocery store called Nestor’s which is like the Met Market. Kellan has requested spaghetti for dinner so I picked up some meat to make a quick sauce for that. We have fresh peasant bread and dessert from the Nestor’s store as well. That’s all for now.

The drive to Whistler from Pemberton, a whole 45 minutes was scenic and mellow. You catch stunning views of Whistler mountain and other peaks in the Fitzsimmons range, all of which are part of the Pacific Coast Range.

I always assumed all these mountains were part of the Cascade Range, learned something new. These mountains are primarily composed of granite which, as I said before, indicates volcanic formations prior to glacial carve outs.

Whistler is larger than it was 20+ years ago when I first visited, Tyler and I downhill mountain biked via the Whistler Gondolas and I sprained my ankle so bad that it became the size of my thigh (which was a lot thinner at the time). We drove all the way home to Swedish hospital in Seattle for an X-ray, a boot and crutches two days later. Walk in medical clinics were not in place up here at the time.

Clearly, there are walk in services now and they must purchase crutches and walking boots in pallets by the looks of the freshly hobbled, otherwise able bodied people strolling around downtown.

It’s like Disneyland here for mountain bikes. Lift passes are really affordable. If you know anything about Whistler, you know nothing in this elite destination town is cheap. It’s on par with your Steamboat Springs, Jackson Hole, and Breckinridge places, even in summer.

Many more Americans here, it’s an easy 4 hour drive from Seattle, plus the border crossing. Latinos are very few but every brand of European seems accounted for, I love hearing all the different languages. Indian and Japanese food are prominent cuisines here, we have had a amazing Asian food as much as we can.

The Rv park here is 17km south of Whistler Village, way up high on a ridge. The universe must know Tyler is capable of driving/towing around most challenging topography and geography because I have inadvertently chosen some rather unique situations over the last 4 years with many of them being in this trip. Over 4 years of extended travels we’ve had to back out of 0 rv places. This trip, we are at 4. The tightness of some of these ‘big rig access’ places is definitely black rated.

It’s a well kept, cared for place with a little brew shack, an 18 hole frisbee golf course, and a wiffle golf course – which is a new concept for me. May be it is a new thing for you too. Ever want to whack a wiffle ball with a golf club? Yea, me neither but sounds fun.

I spent Thursday morning and afternoon at the legendary Fairmont Chateau. Had a pool and spa morning which was so nice after a month of road dust and different showering water.

The exchange rate up here is about $0.75 USA cents to $1 CAD. Plus their tax rate is 5% (ish), Seattle’s is 10.1%.

Kellan needed some down days from near constant outdoor exploration so this stay we spent time washing the trailer and truck & shopping and walking downtown Whistler.

Whistler is comprised of 3 Villages. From the 2010 Winter Olympics being hosted here, there is now plenty of parking. Still, we logged some serious steps most days here. We’ve stocked up on smart wool socks (yay – exchange rate) and holy cow, you guys, they have 12 hour Advil, one tablet, here. I’ve never seen such a miracle and I’ve bought a box at nearly every stop, I’m being a stockpile of this stuff home. My knee that needs replaced loves it – kidneys maybe not so much but we’ve gotta compromise at ability to walk.

Speaking of injuries with aging, the right thumb reconstruction is progressing along. I have a list of range of motion exercises that I started this week. The thumb is moving stuff but well, cannot bear weight, even picking up my phone but it MOVES without pain.

Tyler explored several trails while Kellan caught some zzzz’s. Together, they did catch a trail called Trainwreck. At first, I expected them to tell me it’s a high injury rate trail but it’s an actual old trainwreck. The government felt it was too expensive to remove the old train cars that derailed (decades ago) and left them and the forest has absorbed them and the taggera have adorned them.

Lastly, we caught an outdoor concert the North Village at Olympic Park. A folk techno duo called Moontricks. https://music.amazon.com/artists/B009HJ46I2?ref=dm_sh_nDNqEJhVL3rWdyUFfc8SvmWA5

They were surprisingly good. Eme loves all music and had a blast.

Today was a fun day. We started the day with our favorite banana chocolate chip pancakes on the grill skillet. We got to eat outside which was a treat. The morning was overcast but in the low 70s. Sun came out later.

Was a great morning for a hike. Kellan and I hiked 3km to Nairn Falls. It’s a waterfall unlike ones I’ve seen before (and we’ve seen probably 100 this trip alone). This area was once the shoreline of the ocean. Dotted along here were volcano islands. When the tectonic plates shifted that thrust the ocean floor up into the sky (this is how the Canadian Rockies were formed), it obliterated the volcanic islands. This paved the way for glaciers to flow through and carve out the canyons where these waterfalls now flow onto the valley floors.

The final climb to the falls is entire sheets of slick rock granite. Granite is fabulous to climb and walk on when it’s like this, you can nearly defy gravity walking down steep slopes because it’s such a high traction surface.

After we got back the boys quickly headed out for an epic mountain bike ride. Kellan has settled into his new, heavier e-bike without much of a learning curve. Tyler’s starting to notice Kellan matching his own skills on certain terrain. They climbed to the top if a really high mountain, in the shadow of the glacial dotted Mt. Curtis.

After they got back we packed up and drive a whole 4km down the road to One Mile Lake for a sunny paddleboard. It’s quite the popular place, so many (well behaved) dogs and a notable French speaking crowd. The water is a pretty, milky blue color. Temp feels good on a hot 80s afternoon and the shore was full of swimming kids.

We went into the very small town for dinner. Had a patio seat with Mt. Curtis in the background. Tyler had marinated lamb shanks that just fell off the bones. I had a pork belly sandwich with a fried egg on it, equally tender and both delicious. The kids excitedly devoured chicken tenders and Mac & Cheese.

Learned something new today (or rather I noticed something new today), for every plastic of glass bottle of something. You purchase up here, you get charged an ‘eco deposit fee’ of $0.23 each. Clearly, that indicates that you can return the empty containers somewhere for money back. Haven’t seen that piece around, yet, must be a collection center system.

Another thing we noticed today is that Canadian butter logistics do not match ours.

Tomorrow, with no hurry, we will drive a whole 46km south to just south of Whistler. Currently we are just north of Whistler. We’ll be there for 3 nights and probably spend as much in those 3 nights, in that swanky destination, as we have in weeks combined.

The strep is recovering. Kellan’s chest cough is persisting which may require a walk in clinic in the near future. Haley is still challenged for her things but today was a better day.

We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Today we journeyed from a very small town (I’d venture to call it a village) called Lillooet along the infamous Transcanadian Highway 1.

We passed the Sicamous Lake for 33 MILES shortly after leaving Revelstoke. It’s huge, shaped like a capital letter H and is what we imagine Coeur D’Alene to have looked like before housing was established lush. It’s rugged. It’s full of boaters enjoying the 90 degree weather.

Tried our first Tim Horton’s in Salmon Arm. First fast food place we’ve eaten at on this trip and no friend foods on the menu. No fries do go with the wraps and sandwiches.

This arid landscape has a lot of Gold Rush history along the way. Settlements that were major stagecoach routes speckle the drive. After the storms pass (or we outrun them) the sun comes out blazing back to the 90s. The lakes sparkle like sapphires and the road gets skinny, narrow and winding as we work out way up, following the Thompson River which eventually joins the great Fraser River. The journey through Marble Canyon is stunning as well. No places to pull over to make a photographic journey. The ‘highway’ is one lane each way, exposure, so many one lane bridges. I’ve not been on anything like it before.

The drive to Lillooet was intense at times as we followed 99 South after Kamloops. We had tried to stop at the BC Wildlife Park but we encountered thunderstorms, high winds and driving rain through most of that part of the drive. Just passed Kamloops the landscape changes into arid eastern Oregon looking. Massive sand dunes cover nearly every surface that’s not rugged rock or treed. The sand dunes, we learned are from specific wind patterns which drive erosion into the fine rock sands.

The mighty Fraser River is the longest River in British Columbia. It runs from the Canadian Rockies to Vancouver before emptying into the Straight of Georgia. It’s an extremely swift moving LARGE body of water. Not recommended for swimming anywhere, it’s BC’s largest source of salmon and white sturgeon sizes average 500lbs.

It’s 98 when we land at Cayoosh Creek. This small campground has power and water. We only hook up to power to cool the place down with AC. We eat dinner ‘in town’. Nearly everything is closed since it’s Sunday evening around 6pm. May’s Chinese is open and May, herself (who appeared to be a 70 year old lovely Asian woman with very limited English) personally cooked our dinner. She also made Tyler turn his parked truck to face the correct way on the empty street. She said ‘police have nothing else to do’. Very sweet.

Before we left Lillooet (pronounced Lill oo ette ) we checked out the campground boat launch which was clearly an off road version of a boat ramp. We waded ankle deep into the eddy and the water was shockingly not cold. Lake Washington on a summer’s day temp.

We switch to BC highway 99 South to cross over the 4000 ft mountain passes and descend (steeply) into the lovely Pemberton Valley.

We pass Seton Lake which was a stunning turquoise color.

Let’s talk about what BC Highway 1 South looks like.

This highway is narrow with tremendous scenery. We’d highly recommend the north to south route to see the growing glacier covered Cascade Range. We climb up from 806 feet to well over 4000ft and up and back down several times.

The road lanes are very narrow, the road is extremely winding. Like extreme. And you’re challenged to take in the amazing waterfalls, crystal clear creeks, milky blue rivers, lakes and mountains while trying to stay in your lane. Sometimes, your lane is 1/3 gone, falling off into the abyss of a cliff or drop off.

Steepness grades range from 11-17%. Hauling probably 18k lbs for 2 hours – the truck got a serious workout today. We kept smelling people’s brakes and seeing cars pulled over after some of the long descents. We pull into Pemberton around 2pm today. We are staying at Nairn Waterfall Provincial Park. Provincial Parks are Canada’s version of our state and National Parks.

One mile lake is 4km down the road, a turquoise blue swimming lake. The falls in a 1 hour hike from our campground. It’s in the low 80s here. We have no hookups, the whole campground is facility free, so there’s a manual water pump, a dish washing station and pit toilets. That means no trailer AC unless we run during the two, 2 hour blocks. Time to remember what real camping is for a change. The animals were so confused by the heat.

Luckily there’s been a consistent breeze all day.

I had to do laundry, desperately, by our arrival today. Coin laundries have been challenging to find on this trip. Many of the campgrounds have not had facilities either. It’s a pretty realistic taste of what we are imagining our Alaska route will be like when we get to take it. There’s one here in Pemberton.

It’s not air conditioned so it’s a bit like a sweat shop. And the coin dispenser has a note on it that it’ll be down for the month of July.

Now Pemberton is a small town, picture maybe the size of Duvall, WA if you’re my west coast peeps or maybe 1/2 of Hellertown if you’re my east coast peeps. Not a whole lot of options for going to find $1 (Canadian) coins.

Met a feisty 60ish lady who directed me to the grocery store manager down the road. Off I went & came back with a $25 roll of $1 Canadian Loonies ( $1 coins).

In the meantime, a 20ish junky rv guy pulls up to do a load of laundry. Parks his not small junky rv front and center to the laundromat. Now I know my truck is massive and always park away from most things so I don’t take up multiple front row spots. Call me silly.

So, this guy leaves both his doors open (for the 2 hours we are here). He is equally disappointed about the coin machine Wang out of order but he is not going to drive 4 blocks to go get coins at the store he just left from. So we traded his American quarters for my Canadian ones.

He’s all chatty (I’m now the only one here but he’s but not creepy) telling me how he spilled bong juice on his damn clothes last night and I now everything stinks. Clearly, it was still seeping out of either his pores or his non bong juice laden clothes that he had on. I was dying laughing inside, clearly this was not a first occurrence for him and I learned there is such a thing as bong juice.

Kellan’s cough is getting worse. Tyler has my strep throat and Haley has diarrhea again. We had been working her back up on the dry food plus the boiled chicken/rice but now we’ll back off and go back to just the boiled chicken/rice. I’m sure it’s probably giardia from the different water. It all started after the stay at Hinton where all the water had a persistent brown sediment quality to it. Or maybe it’s stress from the heat. My strep is recovering but my throat is still not swallowing quite normally, probably was just really badly inflamed.

It will all be fine, we’re happy to be here. Sad the trip only has 10 days left. No one wants to go back to the city except for Eme who would deeply appreciate some cell service and WiFi.

Today we journeyed to a very small town (I’d venture to call it a village) called Lillooet along BC Highway 99 South.

We left Revelstoke on Sunday late morning. We really enjoyed Revelstoke and if you’re ever up in central British Columbia we’d highly recommend you stop for a stay. Though we would not recommend the rv park we stayed at, it was a terrible, dirty, run down place. Sometimes you draw the short straw on the rv parks especially when there’s so few options available to you (and to larger rigs like ours).

We sometimes look with envy on those rugged travel vans just randomly pulled off the road at any tight viewpoint or campground.

Other times we’re looking at triple axle 5th wheel toy haulers… the future could go either way. We’ll all just have to wait and see. I’ve never pulled a 5th wheel (yet l) but I keep hearing how the handling and parking is so much easier. I’d love to see. You all better give Tyler and award or something for our marriage surviving teaching me how to tow and back the boat and this giant trailer – and possibly a 5th wheel in the future.

Let’s see, what have we missed… Revelstoke. Yes – adorable (and delicious) respectfully sized small downtown. If you ever stop – Modern is a cafe to rival any of our fancy Seattle ones. We had the best ham and cheese scone I’ve ever tasted. Great walk in medical clinic…

There’s extensive Indian and Asian food tweaks from Alberta to British Columbia. It makes the menu options so unique and interesting. Tyler had a ginger coffee drink that he said was really amazing. There are little noodle and sushi places all over. I had a teriyaki bowl that had edamame, fried onions and chopped lettuce that was amazing at one place. Sadly, we have not found any Edo Japan’s in BC yet.

People are SO NICE AND HAPPY in these two provinces. Our theories are that it’s freaking gorgeous everywhere here and maybe when you live, eat and breath outdoor majesty as your norm, you’re happier? Our other theory is a better work life balance. Stores are not open late or 24 hours anywhere we’ve been. Pharmacies close by 6, open at 10. Grocery stores close at 9pm. Many businesses are closed Sundays.

With the exception of Kamloops which is a larger metropolitan area (airport, Walmart, Costco, etc), we’ve run into only small stores.

The Ghost town at 3 Rivers is worth the $12 CAD admission. It’s name is misleading, it’s not an abandoned settlement but the owner in the 1940s starting dissembling historic mountain log structures and rebuilding them at this old community settling, log by log. Old schoolhouses, general stores, etc and all their vintage items including saw mill and smithing tools. It reminded us a lot of the Museum of America in Polson, MT just smaller and on the clearest 2 we’ve ever seen.

Did I mention it’s in the 90s here? Holy Hades I’m not built for this. Doesn’t bother Kellan or Tyler. Thank goodness that even in run down campgrounds the hookups power the trailer AC! We’ve had to get used to mainly 30amp hooks ups on this trip. On 50amp hook ups you can run everything all at once… AC, microwave, hairdryer… On 30 amp you’ve gotta pick one or the other at a time. Not a big deal just an awareness.

Mount Begbie is the three pronged mountain but we are surrounded on all 4 sides by mountains. The waters are still turquoise blue or extremely clear. So clear you can see your toenail polish through the water when you’re standing in it. I cannot believe how HOT it is this far north. The waters are not any colder than Lake Washington either.

The boys got a 90 degree day paddle in. This stretch of road by the lake is right below the Mt. Revelstoke Ski Resort which also offers summer gondola service for bikers and hikers. It has signs along the road for turtle crossing (no joke on this one), elk, horse and bear. Clearly, everyone likes the lake below.

I heard a tale that Kellan was whacking the not so strong paddleboard paddle against the water to imitate a tail slap and it broke in half. Without prompting, he dove into the water to rescue the sinking half of the paddle. Go Kellan!

Kellan has been learning to mountain bike with Tyler this spring and summer in earnest. He’s always had an incredible sense of balance and he’s a natural rider. Plus he loves it. I’m a firm believer in curious, active children to have a passion, it helps keep them grounded when life gets tough. And we all know life gets tough even when you’re a kid, it’s just a different kind of tough.

Last summer we invested in a Levo, an electric assist mountain bike to help pull Eme in her bike trailer which is about a 130lb load. Tyler’s been using it to bike the mountains as well. It’s heavier because of the battery but he’s calibrated now. it’s helped him pull/tow Kellan up the forest roads to get to the higher trailheads at times.

Until we hit Revelstoke, we’d not seen or heard of any e-bike being made with an extra small frame (26”). Well, I’ll just short story it and say this growing kid is the extremely enthusiastic rider of a Rocky Mountain (made in Vancouver, BC) XS e-bike. I

The exchange rate and lower tax rate saved us 25% of the cost. It’s heavier, of course, and a tiny bit for him to grow into yet, but what better place to calibrate than 2 weeks left of your trip in Whistler and Squamish?

My hand is healing up, I get to start exercising it tomorrow until I see the surgeon on the 27th. We return to town on the 20th. Time has flown. I’m so used to seeing gas in liters, distance in kilometers and adjusting to currency, life will be so mundane when we return to the states.