Day of Rest

Day 6 Castlegar to Grand Forks

It was a beautiful warm day.  Got to Grand Forks at lunch time, saw a lovely little campground next to the river, a perfect place for a time out.  I asked if they had good internet and they did. The owners wondered if it was because I wanted to watch the debate as they were really interested in it. Spent the afternoon by the river reading, did some laundry and after dinner sure enough the connection for live streaming was good.  It seemed Hillary held her own but a sad time for politics in their country.  

                                This is why I wanted to stop.  Even my own little beach

I looked up from my book and there was a young deer across the river 

just looking at me then he turned and started eating

The next few days I am spending time with family and friends. 

Will pick up again when I get time.  

Slow Down You Move To Fast

Day 5 New Denver to Castlegar

Today was supposed to be an hour and a half but everywhere on this route seems to take much longer.  It was a really pretty drive down but heavy with clouds, not good for photography. 

I thought I would like Slocan but Sunday morning and not a soul around with the threat of rain  it felt pretty empty. I did like the paintings on some of the buildings but with rain threatening I kept moving on. There is a famous bicycle trail built on an old railway bed that goes 50 km all along the lake.  I sort of wished I had brought my bike but I probably wouldn’t have gone on it alone as this time of year there were almost no cars let alone bicyclists on trails. Once I got onto Hwy 3 again the traffic picked up and by the time I got to Castlegar 4 hours later the RV park only had 2 sites left, granted it is a smaller park.

I headed out right away and visited the Brilliant (and it is brilliant) Suspension Bridge built in 1913 by the Doukabours. An equally beautiful arch bridge for Hwy 3 was built next to it and there are lengthy descriptions of the difference in construction and enginering between the two styles. However I don't have a good picture of the Brialliant Bridge.

 Brilliant Bridge is the lower one in the background 

 From there to the Doukabour museum. I had an informal tour by a really smart Doukabor woman who game me a different history than I envisioned.  She estimates there are only 22,000 in Canada, mostly in BC and Saskatchewan and few live in colonies anymore.  

I needed some exercise so went down to Millenium Park an incredible park for a town of only 8,000 people. It was reclaimed from gravel pits and has 3 natural swimming ponds with water slides and a long paved river walk to Zuckerberg Island.  I wonder if Mark knows about it. Anyway it was beautiful and busy and I loved being there. 

Then onto the downtown Sculpture Walk.  There were about 30 pieces within a 6 block area and again there were quite a few people following along on maps. It is my favourite town on this route. 

By the time I was finished I was really tired and hungry, ordered Boston pizza and while waiting went over to Safeway and filled up with gas. Back at camp I ate at the picnic table and watched the sun go down over the river. It was a full day and was thinking how good it would be to have just one day to not be moving. I opened an email from a friend with this quote from an interview with Jeff Bridges: 

Bridge: I'm 66. I cannot believe it, man. I cannot believe it.

They tell you this your whole life, and it's really true—how fast

it goes. And it picks up speed. I've got these two voices in my

head. One is saying, "Man, you're 66. You're not going to live

forever. You got a lot of stuff you wanna do, so get on it,

because it's gonna be over in a little while. There's not much

time left. And the other guy in my head says, "Will you please

relax? You don't want to spend the rest of your life in the middle

of some homework assignment, doing all this achieving. Why don't

you just take it easy?"

Methinks this is hitting a little too close to home.  I don’t feel like this trip is a homework assignment, although this nightly blog might seem like that to the reader, but a break from driving would be good and I do like this site so we will see in the morning.

And this is the view in the morning!

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Roots Ainsworth, Slocan, New Denver

Day 4 Crawford Bay to New Denver

OK so Google says it would take me an hour and a half to get from Crawford Bay to New Denver. Try 8 hours instead.  It started when I made it to the ferry just to watch it pull away. Turned out to be the best thing that could have happened as it gave me an hour and a half to walk (more like lay) on the beach and enjoy the first warm sunshine of the trip.  The ride across was full of motorcyclists of all different types. Entertaining

The view from the beach

Two crows did their best to chase the osprey away from his perch.  No luck

At 35 minutes it is the longest free ferry ride in North America

I stopped at Ainsworth Hot Springs where we took the kids when they were little. Disappointing as they made it all modern and took away the charm.  Onto Kaslo where my Grand Dad met up with his brother after walking and riding the rails from New Orleans. They worked the silver mines together.  The lady in the Kaslo Info centre had lived in Slocan and wrote a book about the history. We had a long chat about her life and his then bought the book. 

The drive from Ainsworth to Slocan was beautiful. The road was mountainous and windy felt like driving in NZ except on wider roads but still no shoulders.  Fewer cars but cyclist and motorcycles love it. 

When I got about half way up the road to Slocan I almost turned back.   It had rained a lot and Strider was noisily complaining about the washboard and potholes.  However we persevered.  Slocan was a  big surprise, not for what it is, which is nothing much, but for the museum that was full of pictures of what it was.  I had no idea there had been 6,000 and the town looked rich and fancy.  The museum guy spent a lot of time telling me stories about the pictures and I got a totally different sense of why my Grand Dad went back year after year.  The work would have been brutal but the money good. At the mines they lived rough but if they wanted to go into town for the high life they had a lot to choose from in town.  The trains coming daily from Vancouver brought in the best in foods and everything else for living well.  I thought he had been living in a typical gold/silver rush town but this was a class above. The town burned down in 1907 was rebuilt on a smaller scale but when the easy silver ore ran out so did the people. 

In the picture bellow everyone was told to dress in their Sunday best and pose for the camer. The owner in the bottom left was opening his new luxury hotel and wanted this as an advertising shot. The road was also cleaned and raked. 

There are only a few buildings left and many of those are in serious disrepair. The best things to shoot are rusty

There was also an old trailer that had a beautiful mural painted on it

This is as good as I could get Sandon to look.  The creek has regularly changed course and washed away sections of the town.

The last time Sandon had a boost in population was when it was made an internment camp

I went on to New Denver to see the Japanese Internment Museum and Gardens.  I’ve read several books about that time but it was still very sad, especially for the old, sick and poor who stayd on in the Orchard camp in destitute conditions until they died. When the reparations settlements were made in 1988 many Japanese donated theirs to the development of this museum. It was the only internment camp that wasn't bulldozed down after the war. An attempt to erase what had been done.  

In the evening some quiet time to reflect on the day and my friends 

who have had their own losses

There are bear signs all over New Denver and tonight when I went for a shower I came out and there was a bear moseying along in between me and my van.  Luckily he just took a look at me and kept on going down the beach I had just left.  Good thing I'm not nervous. 

Fort Steele Crawford Bay

Day 3 Fairmont to Crawford Bay

Nice to wake up to not freezing, easy to pack up and get on the road.  It was a strange day full of low clouds, dark skies and the threat of big rain which was worrisome but the sky was sometimes spectacular. 

For awhile it cleared up at Fort Steele probably because I was so happy to be at the Fort named after Sam.  He has been my hero for years. The third to join the NWMP a leader in everything he did to establish peace, order and good government whether it was in Saskatchewan, the Kootenay's, the Klondike gold rush, the Boer War and finally WW1. Before I go on with too much detail there are several books written about him and you can find a quick summary on Wikipedia.  What Wiki doesn't capture is the respect people had for him. At any rate like any groupie I was glad to see his room and office and read in his own words what he felt about this part of the country.  Fort Steel boomed through the gold/silver rush and continued growing until the railway chose to bypass them and go through Cranbrook.  After falling on hard times it regenerated itself with tourism. 

In the early days a mix of soldiers, cultured opera houses, agriculture 

and industrial development 

The dregs of what was left behind is hidden from view except from the water tower

These are mostly for my horse loving friends and family

For such a small town there were a lot of churches first the Catholics, with the Anglicans hot on their heels and the Presbeteriens not far behind.  The Anglican minister took it as his mission to bring culture to the place and prepare students to be ready for University.

The most interesting thing I leaned today was that letters and other documents usually arrived all squished up and wrinkled. Sam had a letter press to make them smooth before he read them.  Who knew there was such a thing.

This sextant was used to survey the valley, sort out land and claim disputes, lay out towns and generally make the business of settling a new part of the country with good order. 

By the time I left the morning was long gone and I was lucky that the time change gave me another hour. There was a lot of delays along the Crowsnest and it took longer than I expected to get to Creston.  I was really tired and it was starting to rain for real.  tried a couple of RV places but the sites were small and unappealing so I pressed on up Kootenay Lake. It was a beautiful drive and without the clouds and good light it would have made for some great images. I found a lovely place on Crawford Bay.  

The lady at the desk said the bears are terrible right now, hungry, pooping everywhere and making it impossible for people to get out. Surprisingly, In spite of the fresh dropping next to my campsite I felt quite relaxed, about it  or maybe too exhausted to care. I went for a walk around the area and found a great mural and a pretty happy woman.  

In this town it seems everyone has a sign at the end of their driveway saying they are  an artist, potter, healer, soap or candle maker. It isn't a very expensive area but everything looks comfortable and I like all the art around.