She’ll be Comin’ Through the Mountains....

The last day – and perfect weather for the final Big Drive!

Breakfast at the orchard with Ross & Ed

Ross and Ed and I headed out to one of their favourite Friday morning traditions – breakfast at a local apple orchard called The Crick – wonderful coffee from the neighbouring Backyard Beans, and a breakfast sandwich. We hear dire stories about the future of the peach/apricot/nectarine harvest this year – badly hit by frost, so that all the buds were just little crispy tips.  Luckily the apple harvest was not damaged, and it looks as if they’ll have a good crop, which will mostly go to cider.

The Crick

Cider made here in the fall

When I finally got my act together and got away, I headed south, bypassing Penticton, and enjoying the road through Oliver and to Osoyoos. I could have gone back up to Peachland and taken the connector to the Coquilhalla Highway, which would probably have been faster, but speed was not the issue – I love the lower route, and it gave me the chance to check out a few of the fruit stands already open, as well as to explore Osoyoos a bit. Lake Osoyoos straddles both countries and the border lies just south of the city; i took a run down there just to get as far south as I could (the furthest north was probably Hazelton, on the road between Terrace and Smithers, where we left the Skeena River and moved across into the Bulkley Valley). Having turned around, I veered off the road to go down to Haynes Provincial Park, which is a spit of land that just out into the lake and got a bit of a walk both in woodland and by the lakeshore – lovely clear water, with just enough cooling breeze coming off it. 

Haynes Point

Looking north to Osoyoos

Looking south to the US 

Then I retraced my tracks and veered off Highway 97 and on to the westbound Highway 3, known as the CrowsNest Highway, which stretches from Medicine Hat, AB through to Hope, where it joins the TransCanada. The last time I drove it was in 2019, returning from the last Chorfest before COVID hit. The name comes from the point on the Continental Divide where the road passes from Alberta into BC. The highest pass on this route in BC is the Allison Pass (1342m – just a little less than the CrowsNest at 1358m) and closely followed by the Sunday Summit (1282m) – the Coquihalla only gets to 1244m, though the Okanagan Connector achieves 1728m at the Pennask Summit. 

Looking back at Osoyoos 

There’s a LOT of uphill and downhill on this route – first the climb out of Osoyoos and the turn to head down into the Similkameen Valley. The road actually follows the course set by the river all the way up to Manning Park, where its headwaters are found, and there’s a lot of zig-zagging involved in place, which is why it is a longer route than Highway 5, which is more direct. The lower Similkameen valley is very beautiful, and its slopes are the homes for many wineries. Sadly, as in the Okanagan and in the Osoyoos valley, the vines were hit by the same cold snap that hit the stone-fruit trees, and it’s sad to see how many lines of vines are decimated, or sending up only minimal shoots.  This will not be a good year for many of the wineries – though there are some varietals that seem to have made it through; perhaps they budded later.  The cherries, however, have made it through, and most of the fruit stands have them in good quantities!

The Similkameen, near Hedley

Once down in Keremeos, the valley remains pretty level and open through Hedley and on to Princeton, where I stopped to stretch and get some lunch before resuming the Big Climb. The elevation at Princeton is 650m, so there was a lot of climbing to do before the road got to Allison Pass!  It was obvious that we were going into the holiday weekend, because there was much more traffic headed eastward than towards Vancouver; it’s a road that really takes careful driving, but it’s really well engineered. 

... and the sane river in Manning Park

At Manning Park I took another stretch-break, but I was keen to make the point where the Similkameen vanished and the new creeks were flowing westward at last. Once that happens, there’s a sense of being on the homeward leg, though even when the road is past Hope, it always surprises me just how long there still is to go! I loved seeing the Fraser River again off to my right, and remembering that I greeted it in Prince George, and said “See ya later” to it after Williams Lake.

In fact, I ended up doing a bit of a detour, going off the TransCanada at Bridal Falls, and taking the Old Yale Road through Rosedale and into Chilliwack – some very pretty communities, and lovely quiet roads. I wanted to pick up a gift voucher from the Minter Gardens shop for a Valley friend, and it was a nice place for a quick exploration, before heading back to Hwy 1 and home.  Eastward traffic was nose-to-tail, but westbound had its congested corners too, and it was 7pm before I was opening my door in Richmond to find Scout looking at me as if to say “Where the heck have you been?”

Watching carefully - "you're not going away again?"

It’s been a great trip! - 2630k of driving, plus another c.500k of ferry, so perhaps not the most ecologically friendly holiday, but I was able to see and do things I would not have been able to do any other way. There’s been weather of all kinds, from the downpour in Williams Lake and the thunderstorm outside Kamloops to the beautiful sunshine of this last day. Time alone – time with friends – new places to explore – memories refreshed. Prince Rupert was the westernmost point, Hazelton to the north, probably Vernon to the east and Osoyoos down to the border!  I’m glad to be back in my own space again, and though I know he’s loved having Debbie visiting him, Scout is VERY glad that things are back to normal.