Discovery Coast Passage - Part 1 of 12

  Alexis Creek, British Columbia, Canada
Monday, August 20, 2007

ON THE ROAD AGAIN:

Prince George to Vancouver via the DISCOVERY COAST PASSAGE
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Introduction

BC Tourism has created 10 scenic driving itineraries called Circle Routes which cover the province.

The trip we took from Prince George to Williams Lake, Bella Coola, Port Hardy, Port Alberni, Ucluelet, Pacific Rim National Park, Tofino, Chemainus, Victoria and Vancouver most closely follows the COAST CARIBOO Circle Route.

Coast Cariboo Circle Route

A highlight of this trip is the Discovery Coast Passage with BC Ferries, from Bella Coola to Port Hardy on the northern tip of Vancouver Island.

Discovery Coast Passage

The trip will be presented in 12 reports or episodes.

Yes, I am always optimistic in my estimates of the number of reports but the approaching next trip to _____________________ may make it impossible to complete the blogging of this trip in time.

In the meantime, Barbara is working at beautiful Bowen Island , so what else am I going to do?

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Date of Blog: August 22, 2007:

Date of Trip: Sunday, August 12, 2007

Prince George to Vancouver via the DISCOVERY COAST PASSAGE

Episode 1 of 12:

Getting There - From Prince George to Alexis Creek

Distance: 325 km.

Distance traveled for the day: 325 km.
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It was the visit of my brother Glenn and his wife Dianna which provided the excuse for another episode of: ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Glenn and Dianna

visiting the Rockies

Glenn, sons Matthew, Andrew with "Sam" back home

The "Deadwood Brothers"

They had flown from their home in Rochester Hills, Michigan (suburb of Detroit) to Seattle, Washington.

From there, they traveled through the Canadian Rockies along the Icefields Highway to Jasper, Alberta. From Jasper it is just a short drive of four and a half hours to Prince George.

It was with great pleasure that Barbara and I welcomed them here for their first visit to this region.

With the aim of seeing as much of British Columbia as possible, we set off in pursuit of one of the treasure of BC tourism, the Discovery Coast Passage from Bella Coola to Port Hardy, on the tip of Vancouver Island.

Unfortunately, Barbara was not able to join us because of her work schedule. All was not lost however as she was working in the beautiful, mystic Queen Charlotte Islands during this time period.

After seeing her photos and hearing her enthusiastic description of the islands, it seems that she was not deprived of the beauty of seeing more of the sights of Super, Natural British Columbia, to use a slogan of BC Tourism.

The first part of our trip took us south along Highway 97, the so-called Cariboo Connector, to the "Gold Pan City" of Quesnel and then to Williams Lake, located 235 km south of Prince George.

driving west from Williams Lake

Williams Lake is best known as the home of Rick Hansen.

arriving in Williams Lake

Rick Hansen

Paralyzed from the waist down following an accident, Hansen distinguished himself in 1985 by starting on a two year Man in Motion Tour around the world in a wheel chair. His heroic effort took him over 40,000 km and raised $26 million for spinal cord injury research. (http://www.rickhansen.com)

There must something special about British Columbia because two other men of the province distinguished themselves with heroic fund raising activities while handicapped by a major physical disability.

The best known of these is Terry Fox of Port Coquitlam, BC. His Marathon of Hope ended tragically in Thunder Bay on September 1, 1980 with the reoccurrence of the cancer.

Many of us can still recall the tearful news conference Terry held to end his cross-country run. The memory of this event still gives me goose bumps as I write this.
(http://www.terryfoxrun.org)

The third man, Steve Fonyo, I find most fascinating.

His duplication and completion of the efforts of Terry Fox were given little recognition.

In my opinion, he was shunned and has faded into history mostly forgotten. Although that's hard to say about someone who received the order of Canada in 1987. The copycat label and subsequent brushes with the law did not help his cause.

I was happy to see that the city of Victoria has recognized Steve's efforts with a plaque in his honour located near the "Mile 0" marker of the Trans-Canada Highway, not far from the statute of Terry Fox.

Symbolically, the statute of Terry Fox is placed just short of the "Mile 0" marker, while the plaque of Steve Fonyo is placed at the "Mile 0" mark.

The city has also named a near-by stretch of beach "Fonyo Beach". It was here that Fonyo dipped his artificial leg into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to end his cross-country run.

At Williams Lake the route takes a sharp turn to the west along BC Highway 20. Some 450 km later the highway ends in Bella Coola located on a fjord leading to the Pacific Ocean. All but the scenic and exiting 57 km of the highway over Heckman Pass are paved.

driving west from Williams Lake

The spectacular Chilcotin Bridge crosses the Fraser River, known for its annual salmon runs, at the 24 km mark as measured from Williams Lake.

piece of art

Steep sandstone cliffs plunge to the waters of the Fraser while high mountains on both sides of the Fraser Valley provide the book ends to this imposing view. This is our last sighting of the Fraser River which continues its southward direction towards Vancouver.

From the Chilcotin Bridge the highway climbs 1,200 meters to the Chilcotin Plateau so ideal for some of the best ranchland in the province. Roaming cattle, although in small numbers, are a constant part of the scene. Vast stretches of grassland intermingled with sporadic forests make for a "Ponderosa" type of setting. Definitely missing is the sight of cowboys and huge herds of cattle.

At Riske Creek (46km) we pass the Bighorn Sheep Reserve without any evidence of the Bighorn. Riske Creek is also the site of some of the earliest established ranches in the Chilcotin.

Our route westward from Williams Lake touches upon three tourist regions of BC. The whole area is collectively referred to as the "CARIBOO CHILCOTIN COAST". The three separate areas are: the CARIBOO, running south from Quesnel, Williams Lake, 100 Mile House to Lillooet; the CHILCOTIN, located on the Chilcotin Plain and the COAST near Bella Coola. It took me a while to realize that the CARIBOO has nothing to do with caribou.

Regions of BC

Our first stop was at Hancewill or Lee's Corner (57 km), so named after the ranch of Norman Lee. It is always interesting to observe the isolation both in geography and time of such little hamlets located in the middle of nowhere. In entering the general store little has changed since the 1930's.

a vital stop

general store

The beautiful river canyon we spot every once in a while is no longer the Fraser but the Chilcotin River Valley.

driving west from Williams Lake

I was looking forward to our next stop of Alexis Creek since the National Post in its August 4, 2007 edition proclaimed as its headline "What $24.8 Million Will Buy You in BC"

The Story

Alexis Creek Ranch

The report written by Brian Hutchison deals with the sale of one of Canada's largest working ranches - the 4,000 hectare Alexis Creek Ranch.

I was quite excited about the prospect of passing through this area only a couple of weeks after the appearance of the story.

What is perplexing is the caption under the photo which clearly says that the property is located near Kamloops, BC. It seems like a well researched story but Kamloops is some 400 km from Alexis Creek - hardly "near". I assume that what was intended was Williams Lake (110 km) and not Kamloops.

Apart from that, the story makes for fascinating reading for the following reasons:

- price tag of $24.8 million
- attractions - vast open range and forests, sparkling rivers, glacier fed lakes and pristine nights
- great fishing and hunting
- a dream to live the cowboy life
- 1,000 head of stock cows
- 50 purebred Black Angus bulls
- potential buyers may be Saudi sheiks, American celebrities or industrialists, Euro-royals or a reclusive eccentric
- present owner is a marine electronics industrialist from Seattle, Bruce Blakely
- previous owner, Richard Wittgenstein, a.k.a. HH Prince Richard Casimir Karl August Robert Konstantin of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg and son-in-law to the King and Queen of Denmark
- the new airport is the main selling point of the ranch
- present owner is determined to sell to someone committed to the cattle operation
- employs four full time cowboys
- the real money maker is the rise in real estate price not the cattle operation
It took two Don Quixotic types of western men (Don Quixote and his squire, Sancho Panza), whom I engaged in conversation near the Happy Eater Restaurant, to point out the location of the Alexis Creek Ranch.

characters of the west

could have been the Marlboro Man

The one with the cowboy hat was a rancher from the Williams Lake area. With his chiseled looks, he could have been the former Marlboro Man. The two men were on their way to a week of fishing in the Bella Coola area - long live the western way of life!

Episode 2 of 6: Alexis Creek to Anahim Lake
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N E W:   -see THE BEST PHOTOS from this blog in FULL SCREEN MODE

http://www.slideshare.net/lobo2007

-     once the site opens
-     select the Blog Number you wish to view
-     when the small screen appears,
-     click on FULL to see the photos at Full Screen
-     click to move from one photo to another
-        at end of slide show click on BACK to chose another Blog number

I have been looking for a means of delivering my blogs and photos in a POWERPOINT full screen mode. A solution seemed possible in a website called SLIDESHARE.


However, SLIDESHARE only allows a maximum size file of 30 MB which
turns out to be 6 or 7 photographs! Hence, I have opted for a "BEST PHOTOS"
alternative.
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You may be wondering about the map provided by TRAVELPOD with lines drawn all over  it

TRAVELPOD is not set up for a situation like EXCURSIONS where a variety of destinations all start from the same place. (Prince George).

I have not been successful in getting TRAVELPOD to make a change in the way their map is presented.