May 19: We woke up to a very rainy morning and it’s unfortunately a travel day. Today we travel from West Vancouver to Nairn Falls Provincial Park. We had to take care of a few things before getting the motorhome on the road. Our slide out covers tend to collect rain and can cause water to build up on top of the slide outs (design flaw). When we first bought this motorhome cold showers from the water flying off the slide tops onto us was an awful experience, but we have learned some tricks to help. So, Sean’s task was to try to clear the slide tops of as much water as possible while I man the button for the slides to come in. Our neighbor’s yard was flooded when he got done, lol. We eventually got everything put together and one more stop to make, fill propane. Luckily, the park offers this service and we had no idea what price we paid, but we were quickly helped and sent on our way. We determined there was a better way to leave the park that didn’t involve that very sharp turn, thank goodness. We wove our way through the city and hit Trans Canada 1, which turn into Sea to Sky Highway. Although raining, the highway still offered beautiful views. We had travelled Southbound on this road on our first trek to Alaska and it was neat to see the Northbound views. Soon we pass through Whistler Village and wind our way up and down some steep mountain roads to find Nairn Falls Provincial Park. According to the sign, you go find an available site and claim it as yours by setting your camp up and an attendant will come by to register you and collect money. We were ready to go hiking and had already waited for the attendant for an hour or so. We decided to leave money and a note on the step, just in case we missed them rounding, and headed to the Falls trail. The trail has eroded since we had last been there in 2013, with multiple areas that have washed out and repaired and a couple of failed reinforcements on the steep hill. The Soo River also seemed to change over time, or maybe we were there when the River was higher. It’s amazing the force and amount of water that comes off this smaller falls, still amazing to see. After taking in the sights, we headed back to the motorhome to see if the attendant had come by, but the money and note sat where we left it. We made dinner and finally the attendant came and we paid our dues. We took the pups for an after dinner walk around the campground and found a river access trail. Hershey realized we were getting closer to the water and we got to a point she could safely get her bottom half in the water. The river was moving fairly fast, so no ball/stick playing unfortunately. Sean had told me the night before he got us tickets something really cool, but it was to be a surprise and he asked me not to look it up. It takes place at 10pm and lasts about an hour, so we read our books until it was time to go. We ended up turning into Cougar Mountain Recreation Area and stopped at their Base Camp. I found out we were going to an outdoor mystery experience called Vallea Lumina that will run no matter the weather (it was lightly raining when we arrived). It was very fun and a neat experience! You hike through the course and stop at little areas along the way to gather clues of where the missing hikers have gone, then it turns out they aren’t missing, but have traveled to Vallea Lumina which is supposed to just be folklore. It was magical to see how they lit up the forest and at one point Sean and I had a dance party with the lights and music on a bridge over the creek! It was a great surprise and we both had a blast.
May 20: We incidentally slept in to almost 10am, oops! We planned to head into Whistler to look around and utilize their bike trails. I quickly made us some breakfast sandwiches while Sean took care of the pups and soon we were on our way. Free parking was difficult to find, so we ended up finding a pay to park lot near the center of town rather than waste any more time. We unloaded our bikes in the rain, a little discouraged because of it, and headed in a direction hoping it would lead us to some pretty biking paths. We weaved our way through some neighborhoods and then thought it wise to consult Google Maps. Turns out we had an okay sense of direction and found a bike trail that led to a couple of lakes and partially along a golf course. It was a beautiful ride! The clouds were low and gathered over the mountains, but the rain decided to slack off where we were. There were 2 bald eagles playing/fighting near a lake, weird to watch. There was a park nearby next to a lake that we stopped at and were pleasantly surprised to find had hammocks that we used for a rest. We then saw the clouds moving our way, so thought it best to get moving again. We were able to find our way back to the truck easily and loaded the bikes in so we could go look for a bookstore, which turned out to be no good. They directed us to the local library because there was a used book sale there recently. All that was left were 2 small bookcases that were posted as free. Sean found him a free book. I took advantage of the chance to go to an outfitter shop because I needed a better rain jacket. We checked a couple of stores, but finally found one. We were choking over the price until we converted it to USD and even then I felt strange buying something name brand, lol. Hopefully, it lives up to the quality of its name. We found a shop with bear spray, which we deem a necessity this trip. We tracked down some ice cream and lingered on a bench watching the passerby. Soon we headed back and got the pups for a long walk and took them to Coundre Point for some river playtime.
May 21: Travel day from Nairn Falls to what we initially thought would be Green Lake Provincial Park, but we decided on Lac La Hache due to it being less out of the way drive. There was a very long steep winding road that leads us to Lillooet and it was so very pretty! Last time we traveled this road, it was in the opposite direction and a lot of the it was steep downgrades that nearly caused us to have a brake failure in our past motorhome. We stopped after a while to look at a beautiful lake and take a break. We needed diesel to get us all the way to Prince George (for the next day) and experienced frustrations at a Co-op station, but soon we found an acceptable station a bit further down the road. We found Lac La Hache Provincial Park and chose our camping site. We were ready to stretch our legs and took the pups on a trail that led us under Highway 97 through a tunnel and walked over to the lake. The pups ran off a bit of steam and then we went on the interpretive trail around the park. It took us to some scary forest areas, but eventually led us back to the campground. We continued to walk around the campground. Before we knew it was time to get ready for bed.
May 22: In the morning, we got the kayaks out to get on Lac La Hache and we were surprised by how clear the water was and paddled around a small island and to the opposite shore. We had been warned by the park attendant that the lake will get very rough if there is any wind, and of course, here comes the wind and the waves, so made it a short trip. We loaded up and prepared for traveling from Lac La Hache to Prince George, BC. Sean was determined to find an RV wash to wash the grime from all the vehicles. We found one in Prince George and Sean was able to squeeze the massive motorhome into the stall and got to work while I started work on the truck. The grime was too layered on the truck and didn’t do a good job, but did well on the motorhome. Sean at one point got his ladder out and was scrubbing the back of the motorhome to get the road grime off. Eventually, we finished and headed to Costco for some bulk supplies and diesel because this was the last large city we would be around for 20-30 days. Of course we hit up the food court while there. We stayed at an RV park on the west end of town and hurried to start on laundry, and then ran a few more grocery errands. We ate leftovers for dinner and settled in for a late night of laundry catch-up.
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