Day 57 - From Sea to Sky

After a busy day exploring Vancouver yesterday, today was set for a LONG day of driving as we left the coast on the journey to re-cross the Rockies.  We had to prepare ourselves for the drive, but I think we are ready!

This time we would be crossing them on the Canadian side which were described as the US Rockies on steroids.  Let’s hope Rover is up to the challenge!

Breakfast was, how did you know, oatmeal - this time with some cereal as an alternative.  After eating, we did a little walking around the park and found that now that it was the weekend, there were a LOT of folks willing to don their drysuits and head into the ocean.  

As we packed up camp, a train went by.  It was the Rocky Mountaineer and, with some later research, we discovered that it was a tourist railroad that went from Vancouver to Banff.  It would have been nice to ride that, but we’re going to drive almost the same route and we get to stop whenever we want!

We started our drive and, while Google continued to recommend the 30 minute faster route, we committed to driving the Sea to Sky highway as recommended to us from the NC folks we met in Olympic.  Personally, I think it was WELL worth the extra 30 minutes.  The drive was full of HUGE mountains, big canyons, a surprising number of cyclists on the road and even a hang glider! 

On the drive, we went through Whistler - home to the Olympics of 2010.  The town itself was crazy - full of people and cyclists which was great to see, but would have been better if all of them obeyed traffic laws.  

We continued on our drive and saw some of the wild fires and their effects.  Initially the skies just got hazy but eventually we saw, sadly, one of the mountainsides on fire.  While it looked bad from what we saw, we heard it was even worse up north.  Hopefully it rains and puts them out soon!  We kept driving and got to see wildlife - bald eagles, osprey, and some small bird (quail) that had a death wish and darted out into the road as we approached only to bail at the LAST minute.  We also saw a taco stop that sold both nachos and ice cream - talk about a winning combination!  As we drove, we watched the thermometer climb and when we stopped for gas, it was up to 32 degrees.  HOT!

After a long day we arrived at our camp in the Paul Lake Provincial Park.  We set up and then walked around camp.  During the walk, we met the camp host, got free postcards, saw the playground, and headed to the lake.  Robinson and Sebastian started wading into Paul Lake and Robinson found a leech.  Sebastian wasn’t pleased with this development and got out.  The water itself, while still chilly, was definitely warmer than the Pacific.  While approaching an area of the lake, Robinson also met a dog that, rather than be pet, wanted to play fetch…..with ROCKS!

Sebastian and Amy left early to start dinner.  Robinson and I left the lake later and within a few hundred meters of walking, we heard thunder.  We got 50 meters from camp and it really started raining.

We had Mac & Cheese for dinner and THEN discovered that camp was under a boil order.  Oops - I guess we’ll see how this affects us.  Hopefully minimally, but tomorrow will tell us.

We finished the evening with an episode of Simpsons and headed to bed.