BC 2022

2022-07-02 : Drive to Horsefly
Driving our gas sipper, Nemo, I’ve never really paid attention to how much it costs to drive out to see Cheryl, either in Quesnel or Horsefly. Today I paid attention (yeah… inflation). The highest we paid for gas was $2.22/L (which is $10/gallon). Total to get here was about $150. We came via Prince George, and including breaks, it was 14 hours.
We brought our tent, but they’re forecasting thunderstorms for tonight and tomorrow night so Cheryl offered for us to sleep in her motor home instead. We decided ‘better safe than soggy’ so we’re sleeping in the motorhome


2022-07-03 : Horsefly
We spent a nice relaxing day on the deck at Bob and Cheryl’s cabin. It was quite warm but not hot. Lots of hummingbirds, and a nest of hungry baby birds just off to the side. Then around 4:30 the rains started. They say it’ll last til Tuesday evening so we’re pretty glad we chose the motorhome!


2022-07-04 : Horsefly
The morning was a little cloudy but it cleared off quite nicely mid day so Cheryl made us a fire and we sat around it until about 3pm when the rains returned


2022-07-05 : Drive to Doug's
Leaving Horsefly, just about where the road changes from gravel to pavement, we finally saw the doe with two fawns that Cheryl and Bob had been telling us about.

There was a truck on the other side of the road coming toward us. Mama Doe, Calm Fawn and Panicky Fawn were in the ditch on our side, about 100 feet ahead, and Panicky Fawn was running for his life towards us, trying to stay ahead of the truck. I just completely stopped to wait and put the hazards on.

When the truck had passed, Panicky Fawn stopped running, and was just ahead of us in the ditch. Mama Doe was cautious, but when I switched the engine off, apparently she decided we weren’t a threat because she and Calm Fawn walked up to reunite with Panicky Fawn.

I expected them to leave fairly quickly, but they didn’t. They just hung out there while Brent snapped some pics. After a couple minutes, a car came up behind us, and the deers started crossing the street. Mama Doe went directly while the two fawns kinda dawdled across. Panicky Fawn was very slow in crossing. I restarted the engine and started easing toward the right side of the road which encouraged him in the right direction and he finished crossing the road. As I passed, and the car behind us followed, Panicky Fawn panicked once again and started running up the ditch on the far side. He gave us, and the other car, a good run until we were finally passed him. Silly silly Panicky Fawn. We hope Mama Doe got them both safely into the woods.

Photo (from Brent) below.
Today was a driving day.

We had a nice trip along highway 97 south. Stopped at Centennial Park in 100 Mile House and walked out to see their waterfall.

We missed Painted Chasm because of poor signage but found the Horsting Farmers Market.

Since Highway 97 meets Highway 1 west of Kamloops, it doesn’t make sense to take the Coquihalla, so the old highway it is! I asked Brent to take over the driving in case the cliffier highway scares me.

We had a nice, scenic drive along the Thompson. Where the Thompson meets the Fraser is where the town of Lytton is/was, which had completely burned in last year’s forest fires. I wanted to stop and gawk at it but there were gawk-blockers all along the highway - the road was blocked off and the highway was fenced off. I could see a little through the fence and the town still looks pretty flattened. I don’t know how much rebuilding is happening. Poor Lytton-ites. Lytton-ians?

Shortly past Lytton, we spent some time in a construction zone where they’re using a pilot vehicle to guide folks through a zone with a temporary one-lane bridge.

When we were beyond Hope we took highway 7 instead of the TCH. I don’t think I’ve ever been on it before. Very very nice. Pastoral.
We made it to Poco after a drive that was longer than I expected. Doug plied us with chicken, potato salad and beer. Lisa relinquished her bedroom for us so that we could have a room that ‘Puss’, their nottheircat hasn’t been in. We have the tent set up in the back yard in case the ‘Puss’ dander has leeched into the room but I’m kinda hoping we don’t need to use it since there’s been a bear in the neighborhood lately, and there was a raccoon in the yard when we went to set up the tent.


2022-07-06 : Port Coquitlam
I went to bed last night in Lisa’s bedroom in the basement which had been declared the most cat-free room. Unfortunately my lungs did not agree with that assessment and at 1:15, Brent and I moved to the backup plan - our tent in the back yard. Thank goodness we set that up. Also thank goodness that the raccoon that came past while we were setting up did not return, nor did any habituated bears (which they’ve been having problems with here lately). It’s an adventure!!
Brent and I went for a couple of walks in Port Coquitlam today. What a beautiful city in a beautiful area.


2022-07-07 : Port Coquitlam chores day
Brent and I put the run on a raccoon when we first set up the tent in the back yard. It seems to think the back yard is its back yard. I put the run on it again last night around 7pm. It came back a couple of times in the night, though, banging around in the back yard and and making grunting noises close to the tent. Makes it hard for me to sleep. Stupid raccoon….

I have named the back yard raccoon ‘Frankie’ (Frankie Five Fingers). The Google says that raccoons grunt to signal their presence to homeowners, so when Frankie comes by at night and grunts, she’s probably just letting us know that she’s here. We’ve seen her digging in the lawn, which The Google says is her looking for food - probably grubs.

Then, this morning, the heavy rain showed up and for the first time ever our tent sprung some leaks. We think we can scotch guard around the seams of the roof vent so hopefully we can get that done today. The rain is supposed to clear off for several hours. If we get that taken care of maybe we’ll go see the Elvis movie this afternoon when the rain returns.

We bought some Scotch Guard today and sprayed the vents on our fly. Hopefully that seals up the drips.


2022-07-08 : Rogers Outage, Meridian Arms, Bear
Frankie didn’t come by all night last night so I was afraid maybe I’d actually succeeded in putting the run on her for good. Nope. She came by this afternoon. I was sitting in the back yard and I heard a clatter. I thought maybe it was her pushing the lid off of the compost. I went over towards the compost and the lid was off and her little face popped up from inside. As I tried to get my camera ready to take her pic, she poked the rest of her face out and she had a whole bagel in her mouth. It was SO CUTE! Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough to get a pic of her like that.

Later in the evening, I went to lay down in the tent and listen to some German lessons while Brent and Doug watched the news. After I’d been out for maybe ten minutes, Brent came out and told me he and Doug had just seen a large black bear walk past the front of the house and down the street. Brent and I moved our tent from the back yard up onto the deck, which is quite high off the ground. Never a dull moment wildlife-wise around here.
In the evening we went for dinner and drinks at the Meridian Arms Pub with some of Brent’s old school mates.
Today was the big Rogers outage across the country. Rogers phone and internet is out, as well as ATM service across the country. This is the second time in 15 months that Rogers has had an outage like this and it sounds like this time is similar to last time - self-inflicted. Some system upgrade or something. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it was some kind of cyber attack- it’s been pretty disruptive for the whole country.


2022-07-09 : Minnekhada Park
Brent and I walked to Minnekhada Park and then did a bit of hiking in the park and then walked back. We heard there was a bear on one section of trail so we skipped that section. There were signs up that Western Toads live in the park and toadlets might be trying to cross the trail so be careful where you step. I hoped we would see a toadlet.

About 1/3 into our walk, we saw some folks looking at something on the side of the trail. We had a look. OMG it was hundreds of teeny toads, many of them still with a prominent tadpole tail! How cool! Then, just a short way from there, we saw tens of thousands of tadpoles swimming around in the swamp with the occasional toadlet leaving the water and hopping over to join the others. As we continued our walk there were toadlets, literally EVERYWHERE. We had to be careful not to step on them as they were all over the trail hopping from one side to the other. We also saw one full-grown toad sitting on the trail. The whole thing was completely magical. I’m so happy we were there for the day that the toadlets emerged from the swamp. It was almost as special as the day at Forgetmenot Pond when the ice was breaking up.


2022-07-10 : Downtown Poco
Two nights ago, Brent and Doug, and some of the neighbors, saw a black bear going down the street in the evening. It visited a few yards trying to knock over the garbage bins.

This morning, while Brent and I were sitting out front having breakfast, the same bear came down the street, following the same route and targeting the same trash bins. Brent and I watched it make its way down the street and then we called it in to Fish and Wildlife. A trash bear eventually becomes a problem bear. Hopefully they can catch it and relocate it someplace where it won’t become a problem bear.
After the bear sighting, Brent and I walked down to downtown Port Coquitlam. We had breakfast at Amigo restaurant, which had very good food at very affordable prices. Then we walked back. The walk was about half of what we did yesterday, which is good because yesterday kinda kicked it out of me a little bit so today’s 8km was a good recovery walk.


2022-07-11 : Head to Madeira Park
Brent and I have been doing a lot of walking since we got to Poco. I’m really happy about it. I haven’t done tons of walking in years and I’m really out of shape for it. I have sore legs and hips and some blisters on the bottom of my feet that are turning to callouses. Hopefully it will help me with all the walking we’re going to be doing in Germany next month.

Today we walked through Wellington Park, then up, and down, along the Coquitlam River trail. Very pretty.
This afternoon we made the journey out to Doug’s cabin on the Sunshine Coast. He’s been renovating it since last year, and to say it’s completely torn apart right now… well… that’s a bit of an understatement. Brent and I pitched our tent outside. I think Doug is going to sleep in what is left of an original bedroom. As I remembered from last time, it is really really beautiful out here. Oh, and mosquitoful as well.


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