Sunshine & Showers Bring out the Flowers

Monday was another day of dodging the showers, and trying to decide what layers I needed to be wearing at any point.  I left Prince George bright and early (well, modified...  it was a compromise for Julia and me - I'm an early bird and she isn't!), and I abandoned the Yellowhead Highway and headed south on Highway 97, crossing the Fraser River (see you down in Richmond...). The countryside is almost immediately different - not tamed, precisely, but certainly showing more signs of agricultural care. I drove down nearly to Quesnel and then took the Barkerville Highway off to the east. It's a road that's a bit less well maintained, but well graded for easy driving. A lot of it is back to the 'driving through the trees' of the first day, but there were more breaks, and more variety of tree species. From Quesnel to Barkerville is more than 80k, and I couldn't help thinking of those early prospectors travelling the rudimentary road - many of them with no idea of what they'd find at the end (other than dreams).  I did a short stretch break at Jack of Clubs Lake, just before the road enters Wells; the lake used to be much longer, but was filled in by tailings from the mine.

Barkerville Town itself is another seven kilometers beyond Wells - uphill all the way!  It was much colder, and we had passing showers from time to time, but there was usually somewhere to shelter. It was not really busy - I guess the season's not formally started yet, with the schools only just out.  There were a few costumed staff, and a little by-play, but not a lot of interaction. 

From the entrance, looking up the street

 I decided to walk right through the town to the top end, ID what I wanted to see, and descend slowly.

At the top of the town.

Looking downhill

Apartheid was of course alive and well at the end of the 19th century. All the upper cabins and stores were for the Chinese community.

This tiny cabin was the home for 6 Chinese miners who would have worked in shifts, and rarely been together. They were, of course, paid much less than their white counterparts, but according to the stats, Chinese residents made up half of the Cariboo region's population, and they too played their part in creating the network of highways that were created by trained engineers (mostly military) but actually put in place by labourers from many places. There's some really interesting stuff about the early highways here.

The Chinese, as in many places at the time, created a Chinatown with the support of imports from their homes, and established their own patterns.

the Chinese store, with imported goods

the terraced gardens, where they grew their own supplies

Hey, this is me! 
Of course I had to make friends with the Barkerville Cat!

Practicing a curtsey with the school-teacher

Anyone need the dentist?

The library

St Saviour's Church

The pump organ is still in use

It was a fascinating couple of hours and I would have stayed longer, but there was still a long way to go!

The sun came out as I drove back down the Barkerville Highway, and I got such pleasure from seeing the road-verges in the light - lots of varieties of grasses and forbs and sedges, of course, but wonderful sweeps of blue lupins, and not only various daisies (chamomile? fleabane?) and coltsfoot, but little splashes of orange-red.

And every now and then there'd be a meadow with everything mixed together

I have to find out what this is!

The difference in temperature between Barkerville (about 12C) and Quesnel (nearly 22C) required dumping the sweatshirt and finding a cold drink before refueling and heading for Williams Lake. The land was tamer and tamer, more variety of agriculture in place - and as I went, the sun hid and a series of rainstorms swept in. Looking across the Fraser on my right at one point, the far bank was shrouded in rain, which luckily I was just managing to outrun. But I might as well not have bothered - within another ten minutes, we were headed into a big downpour, and the last leg of the trip was not a pleasant one!  I arrived at my motel in the pouring rain, and initially didn't even bother bringing my bag in with me. 

A little down-time, and things cleared again. I went out to find some dinner, and to get a bit more of a walk before returning to the motel, to discover that we had this wonderful view, which had been hidden behind rainclouds earlier. 

I would go and read outside for a while, but I'm already reacting to mosquito bites, and prevention is better than (a lengthy) cure.  A little planning for tomorrow, perhaps a little TV, and an early night....