Travelling back to BC – Mitchell News

Travelling back to BC…

Having decided to go to Whistler, we chose to overnight on the way – this would make for shorter travel days, enable us to stop off along the way and provide lots of contingency for stopping for roadworks. Due to its climate, Canada only has a few months a year to fix up the roads – and we had already experienced lots of delays!

Land of lakes and bridges…

Given its huge waterways and as a country built on the back of the railways, there are lots of bridges – road, rail and pedestrian. Our trip across Alberta into BC had us visiting a few of these.

The pedestrian bridge in Golden, the Kicking Horse Pedestrian Bridge spanning the river of the same name at 46 meters (151 feet) across, it’s the longest freestanding timber frame bridge in Canada. Planned as a community event in 2001, over 100 members of the Timber Framers Guild came from the US, Europe and all over Canada to help raise the bridge. The superstructure weighs approximately 210,000 lbs and was constructed of 72,000 bd.ft of Douglas-fir timbers.

Located in a deep and a dramatic valley, the Lilooet bridge is an example of a suspension bridge from the early 20th Century. The bridge is located in a very scenic setting, courtesy of the dramatic mountain landscape that British Columbia is noted for. In addition to the suspension bridge, there is an impressive railroad deck truss visible north of this bridge. It’s pretty scary to see the landslides that have poured rock down the mountains close to the railroad.

Gold mining towns…

The little town of Lilooet where the bridge is located, was a lovely diversion in itself. The town had its start as one of the main centres of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush of 1858–59, during which it was reckoned to be “the largest town west of Chicago and north of San Francisco”. There is an interesting museum and the buildings made us feel as though we were on the set of the Murdoch Mysteries (if you don’t know it, this is a Canadian detective series set in the late 1800s). The little bakery in Lilooet had some of the best breads and treats that we’ve had in Canad (apart from Purebread).

Lakes, golf and bears…

In addition to the bridges, our days were filled with driving along the edge of many lakes. The Shuswap Lake was a lovely expanse of water and we enjoyed a stop at Salmon Alm which has a long wooden jetty stretching into the lake.

Our overnight accommodation was at a lovely lodge set on the edge of Little Shuswap Lake. We arrived to information that a bear and her three cubs were interrupting play on the lodge’s golf course. Good thing we weren’t there for the golf.