Milepost 1518:  Chilliwack to Cache Creek, British Columbia

We crossed the border into British Columbia yesterday and the border guard wanted to know where we were going.

“Alaska, where our kids live and work every summer,” I said.

“Do you know how far it is to Alaska?”

“Yes,” I said.

“And how long will it take you to get there?”

“We are allowing two weeks,” I replied.

“So you’re taking it nice and slow.”  He seemed satisfied that we knew what we were up against and waved us through.

Today I wasn’t so sure I knew what we were doing up here.

We are traveling northward through the rugged Rocky Mountains, and our winding route today took us through seven tunnels and over several passes.  There’s no easy way around it for the RV-er.  The easy way would have been to fly to Alaska, but it’s too late for that, and where’s the challenge in that anyway?  We must keep going.

It seems to be slow going for us with the formidable terrain we are facing these days.  We only covered about 150 miles today before we tired out and headed for a reprieve at a wayside RV park at Cache Creek, an old gold rush supply town that continues its service to wayfarers 100 years later.

Today I re-named this place “the land of 1,000 waterfalls,” because it seemed that every little stream we crossed was plunging to its death in some beautiful leap off a precipice.  The melting run-off has no other way to get to the mighty river below and eventually to the ocean.  Rather like us having no other way out of this canyon but to get back on the highway and head farther north tomorrow morning.

But at least if we are in the middle of nowhere, nowhere sure is beautiful!