Vancouver BC

We departed the small town of Kitwanga BC and arrived in Prince George BC without issue, though riding on a spare tire. I had to replace the left/rear tire in Kitwanga due to unusual tread wear, with one of the two spares I have carried on this trip. I think it is an axle alignment issue, and I wasn’t able to get an inspector lined up in Canada, but we have one waiting for us when we get to our first stop in Washington. I inspected what I could, but I want a pro to back me up after all of the bouncing around we have experienced the last few weeks.

Prince George was planned to be a four-night, easy-going stop, and that is what it worked out to be. The campground was quiet, had sorta decent Wi-Fi, and was amazingly bug-free, which was a welcome break. We enjoyed several walks around different parts of the city, and stopped at a railway museum for some local history.

We departed PG to the south on highway 97, and stopped for three nights just outside of the small town of Clinton BC, and used it as a base to poke around the local area.

We lucked out when CA found out that there was a RibFest the next day in the town of Kamloops, about an hour away. We strolled the town for awhile after arriving to work up an appetite, visiting a small art gallery and a few touristy shops, then walked over to the park to pig-out on BBQ.

The next day we stopped by Chasm Provincial Park just north of Clinton. The plan was to hike a trail along the northern canyon edge, but after a short distance the trail was very overgrown and close to the edge, so we bailed on the hike and just enjoyed the view.

We continued the trek south toward Vancouver and arrived at our current campground. Though plagued with aggressive mosquitos, the campground is a short 10 minute walk to the small town of Fort Langley. The town is small but enjoyable, with many shops and nice eateries which we enjoyed walking to without having to drive.

We ended up only spending one day visiting downtown Vancouver, but it was a blast. We avoided the downtown parking problems for a large truck and parked Ruby at a Home Depot, then called for a Lyft into Granville Island, in the heart of Vancouver.

Granville Island is a great place to wander around, with many artsy sort of shops, native art sellers, produce sellers, and many, many eateries. We spent three hours there and enjoyed it all. For lunch, we ended up with a charcuterie to-go box with some great cheeses and salamis that we greatly enjoyed from the marketplace. While eating outside, we watched one girl lose her pastry to a seagull that flew down and snatched it out of her hand (sorry, no video!). We then moved our eating area to under a tree after that, to help block the thieves from an easy approach from above.

We then took a water taxi a short distance to the Vancouver Maritime Museum, and afterwards walked along the waterfront for most of an hour, using up lunch calories.

Tonight is our last night in Canada, and we head to the Northern Cascade mountains in Washington State for a week. We don’t have any specific plans (OK, we are avoiding the heat), other than to have several hikes in the wilderness and enjoy the views.