Post 148: A Snails Trail – Day 7

A Snails Trail – Day 7

We missed a lot of incredible scenery due to fog and rain. But there were still some interesting sites that we did get to see.

Began the day with rain which continued most of the day. Only some sunshine late afternoon. Then it went back to raining for the rest of the night. 

Historical Rogers Pass

Historical Rogers Pass was one of the highlights of the day lol. A brief history is; “Rogers Pass (elevation 1,330 m or 4,360 ft) is a high mountain pass through the Selkirk Mountains of British Columbia used by the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Trans-Canada Highway.”

Excerpt: from the above link Borrowed for your entertainment 🙂

Discovery

 

Rogers Pass and Mount Carroll on the C.P.R., BC, 1887

“During the 1870s when the Canadian Pacific Railway was being planned, the preferred route through the Rocky Mountains was the northerly Yellowhead Pass. When the railway construction project was turned over to a private company in 1881, the route was changed to the Kicking Horse Pass. While the railway was being built across the prairies, the railway company had to find a pass over the unexplored Selkirk Mountains, or else it would have to detour around them via the Big Bend.

April 1881

Major A. B. Rogers was hired in April 1881 by the railway company to find the pass with the promise of having the pass named after him and a $5000 bonus. Walter Moberly had discovered Eagle Pass just to the west, and based on suggestions in Moberly’s reports, Rogers started out from what is now Revelstoke, up the Illecillewaet River. Running out of food, Rogers and his party almost reached the summit but turned back feeling reasonably confident that a pass existed.

Rogers returned the following year, 1882, from the east and reached a point where he could see where he had stopped the previous season, confirming that the pass existed and was good enough for the railway rapidly approaching across the prairies. Rogers was reluctant to cash the $5000 cheque, and instead framed it for his wall until CPR General Manager William Cornelius Van Horne offered him a gold watch as an incentive to cash it.”

Multiple Tunnels going up

As we climbed higher, we came upon a series of tunnels that went up the mountain. Bill believes the tunnels we went through, could possibly  be to protect the cars from avalanches as they drove on the highway. The highest peak we saw was Altitude 1330 Meters (4363.5 feet).

Variable speed Corridor 

We then drove through an area that was called a “Variable speed corridor”. There were over head lit signs, showing the current speed for that section of the highway. Quite unusual.

Some minor inconveniences along the way

One minor inconvenience along the way. No signage for pull offs or rest areas. Actually there were no rest areas “technically” at all in this area. 

We saw frequent soft shoulders that were very wide and obviously used to pull over on. Unfortuantely there was never any warning for them. These spots were never marked. Suddenly a pull over would pop into view at the last moment. 

These pull overs would only be familiar, if you were someone who travelled this section of the Trans Canada frequently. Or, you would never know there was a place to take a break coming up. 🙁

T here was very little signage for gas stations as well. They just appeared out of no where from time to time haha.

A shock to us lol

The biggest shock to us today, was when we hit a section of the Trans Canada. This section was 4 lanes wide after Kamloops, BC.

The max speed limit actually went up to 120 klm. Heck,  lol we were still trying to get used to the 110 klm  along the highway.

Our current plan

Once we arrive in  Horseshoe Bay, we will  catch the ferry over to Vancouver Island. From there we are roughly 385 klms to Port Hardy. Just before Port Hardy we will turn left and  travel on an old logging road. This road is roughly 75 klms to Winter Harbour.

Our sanctuary for the evening

This evening we are staying in a beautiful spot called Monck Provincial Park. The lovely lady at the front gate looked at the size of our trailer and truck and took pity on us lol.

She gave Bill a double site (2 sites side by side) and said she would not book anyone else on the 2nd site. That would give us plenty of room for our trailer.  Then she only charged us for the 1 site which was $23 for the night.

Rules of the park

None of the sites here are serviced but you are allowed to run your generator for 2 hours in the morning from 9 am to 11 am and in the afternoon from 6 pm to 8 pm. 

All the other rules are quite reasonable and very clearly stated on a small sheet she gave us. 

The park is located on the edge of  Nicola Lake. All the water front sites were reserved so we are just across the road from those and  can still see the lake and beach.