Thursday July 15, 1999

Terry wanted to see some of BC's history, Laszlo wanted to see some abandoned railway structures, and Ray and I just wanted to get away from the city. I decided I'd take the group up to Princeton, where we could travel along the abandoned Kettle Valley Railroad (KVR) right-of-way if I could find it, and check out some abandoned cabins. We met up at the Port Mann weigh scales at 09:30h. It looked like it would be a nice, sunny day, with a bit of cloud cover; perfect for 'wheeling. We gassed up in Abbotsford, passed a LASER trap just past Chilliwack (thanks, Whistler!), and pulled in to the Hope Slide at noon for an ice cream. We proceeded on through Manning Park, stopping at 12:30h to snap some pics of an abandoned prospector's cabin across the Sumallo River, just west of Sumallo Grove.

Since we didn't have any stock trucks, I thought it would be a nice diversion to take the Friday Creek FSR into the Whipsaw FSR, then back out to the highway. We drove past the Copper Creek campsite, one of our favorite rendez-vous points. We reached Friday Creek by 13:30h, and spent some time wandering around looking for the steep access road into Whipsaw. Unfortunately, the recently-logged area sported new or changed roads, and I couldn't remember the exact route in since I'd only been there once before about two years ago. We stopped for a snack, hiked around in the bush for a bit, then headed on to Princeton for fuel and directions to the KVR.

We fueled up at the Chevron; they didn't have a Princeton street map, and Leticia, the girl behind the counter, had never heard of the KVR. Trusting my Keenly-Honed Instincts (tm), we drove through downtown Princeton, crossed the single-lane wood bridge, turned right, and by 15:45h were taking Old Merritt Road out of town. After travelling for several km's, we crossed a bridge and turned right onto Bellfort Rd, a gravel road with a sign warning of active logging. Within a couple of km's, we spotted the familiar yellow signs marking the KVR route, and turned left onto the rail right-of-way. Reminder to all who plan to travel this route: stay on the rail right-of-way, and close the gates once you've passed through them.

The KVR route is an easy 2wd route; the rails and ties were dug up and sold long ago. We pulled over to let a couple of cyclists by, and eventually arrived at the slide/bypass where we stopped for a relaxing hot lunch, thanks to Ray's stove. We noticed fresh deer tracks on the slide face, running upwards in the same direction we were heading; Laszlo thought that we may have spooked it as we drove up. Terry pointed out some interesting purple flowers at the side of road, and observed that the dandelion puffs were absolutely huge, the size of small grapefruits.

The picture below is a pan shot from the slide; it will take a while to load as it is 578k. Taken with four shots from the digital camera, and merged with Windows Paint.

It started to rain just as we finished packing up; good timing for once! We continued on, stopping for a couple of pics where the rail route cut through the rocks. I pointed out the fallen tree that we cleared from the railbed two years ago with a chainsaw. A short while later, we arrived at the tunnel, which the workers had painstakingly chiseled through solid rock (or maybe they just blasted their way through it; I don't know, but it sure looks like they chiseled it!).

After we drove through the tunnel, we arrived at the trestle. I stopped in the middle, and told Terry to hop out and take a pic of the trucks on the trestle. He opened the door, and suddenly realized that the trestle deck was not solid! LOL I assured him it was fine to walk on (after all, multi-ton trains used to travel over it), so he carefully stepped along the deck surface, taking care to not put his foot though the gaps. Ray, who never even bothered exiting his vehicle because it was raining, observed that the vibrations from driving over the gapped surface was quite annoying. I exited the truck, and showed Terry how to run along the surface. I tried standing on the raised edge of the trestle to take a pic of the creek and the treetops far, far below, but I just couldn't stand there long enough looking down through the camera lens without swaying and envisioning myself accidentally toppling forward... quite a disconcerting feeling.

The rain let up, and we arrived at the site of the Siwash Creek ghost town at 18:00h. Unfortunately, the old log cabins I saw two years ago were nowhere to be found, although the old fence was still standing. A yellow sign warned that the bridge over Siwash Creek was washed out, so we continued on along the KVR route (the Siwash Crk road used to lead to Missezula Lake, and then to either Hwy 97C or Hwy 5A, depending on which road you took from the lake).

We pulled over at Link Lake at 19:15h; Laszlo made a couple of casts and caught a tiny 6" trout, which he then threw back. We spotted a raptor of some sort in a tree across the lake; I took a pic of it, and of course it took to the air right after I shut the camera off *darn*. We drove across the low trestle over Osprey Lake, then took the Trout Creek FSR to Headwater Lakes.

At the Headwater intersection, we turned left on to the Sunset Lake FSR, which eventually took us to Hwy 97C about 10 km's west of Pennask Summit. While on this road we encountered some cattle, and about 5 km's before the highway we found a pair of prickly porcupines waddling along the side of the road. We got on to the highway at the Sunset Lake exit, and took the 97C west for about 25 km's to the Loon Lake exit. Ray's wife frequently reminisces about her fond childhood memories at Loon Lake, so we thought we'd stop in and check it out. Instead of consulting my BCFS map, I again used my Keenly-Honed Instincts (tm), and took the Loon Lake North road.

We crossed over a cattle guard, and almost immediately found ourselves travelling along a muddy road in the growing darkness. We spotted some more cattle at the side of the road, and as the road grew slicker, softer, and muddier, I commented that this was sure a poor road for people to drive along to the lake. We soon found ourselves sliding all over the road as the mud grew deeper. Our tires packed up at slow speeds, but a slightly faster speed allowed our mud tires to self-clean. Meanwhile, the number of cattle was increasing, and many of the calves had a habit of running along the road in front of us, then suddenly cutting in front of the trucks, forcing us to stop. I think they were playing some kind of warped bovine game. We encountered a couple of bulls fighting with each other; one had blood running down its face. The bulls glared at us as we passed by scant inches away; they sure are big when you are right next to them. I had to look up at one of them out the side window; it's nostrils were around 2" in diameter, and I was seriously hoping it didn't decide my little Toyota was another challenger to the herd (explain that one to the insurance company!).

As the mud got steadily worse, the thought occured to us that perhaps we were on the wrong road. At 21:44h, Ray commented that the Loon Lake road was supposedly driveable by Hondas and similar street-only vehicles, so we decided to check the map. We decided that we were on the road that went to Missezula Lake, and that the road was called "Loon Lake North" for people who were heading to Loon Lake from Missezula! *doh* So, we turned around, and headed back north... through all the mud and the cows again. *sigh* And it started raining again as well. Once we passed through the cattle guard, the road returned to normal, with no mud... hmm, cattle guard, no mud... I wonder how much of that was actually "mud"...

Back at the intersection, we turned left, and soon found ourselves at Loon Lake. Since it was dark, and getting late, we decided to press on. We crossed over another cattle guard, and soon found ourselves surrounded by cattle again. This particular group seemed a bit dumber than the last group; they would stand in the middle of the road, looking at us stupidly. We soon figured out that they were being dazzled by our H4's, so we shut our lights off. After waiting for a few seconds, barely able to see vague dark shapes milling around on the road in front of us, we turned our lights back on. The cows had moved off to the side of the road and had continued about their business, but as soon we turned the lights back on, they moved back onto the roadway and stared at us again! *doh* Hmm... we finally shut the lights off, hauled out the night vision gear, waited for them to move, and drove past them in the darkness.

We passed through another cattle guard (thankfully), followed the road through Kentucky-Alleyne Provincial Park, and arrived at Hwy 5A just south of Aspen Grove. We turned left and took Hwy 5A south for about 2 km's, then turned right onto Brookmere Road, a gravel road connecting Hwy 5A to the Coquihalla. We stayed right at Otter Valley Rd, and eventually found ourselves in Brookmere, where we used the night vision gear to check out the wooden CP caboose and the old water tower. We arrived at the Coquihalla Hwy at midnight via the Coldwater Road exit (exit 256), where I told Ray to find the access to the other side of the highway so we could head south. Ray, using his Keenly-Honed Instincts (tm), said "The southbound access is right here!" With some misgivings, I followed him onto the highway. Obviously, it was late, and I was getting tired, because it took me a second to realize that we did, as I thought, have to actually cross to the other side of the highway to be heading southbound... and by then it was too late. Just to be sure, Terry exited stage right with compass in hand and confirmed that indeed we were going the wrong direction. *DOH!* (Someone needs to sharpen their Keenly Honed Instincts (tm)). We drove north to the Comstock Road exit (exit 276), crossed to the proper side of the highway, and headed back south toward the toll booth.

We took the Coquihalla Lakes exit (exit 228), drove past the works yard and the school (or whatever it was), and onto the the gravel road leading to Zum Peak. We turned left at the first fork (where there was a "No Through Road" sign), and wound our way up towards the Coquihalla Summit. We encountered a little bit of snow near the top on the north face of a hill, but nothing that required driving over. We drove down the south side of the summit, crossed the bridge and took the left fork, arriving back on the highway just south of the toll booth at the Falls Lake exit (exit 221) at 01:15h. From there, it was a long, boring drive back to town, with a quick stop in Chilliwack for cheap gas. We arrived home at 04:00h, unloaded the truck, and quickly fell asleep.

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