Lilooet, British Columbia

Sun 26 July

Approaching Horseshoe Bay

Easy day today...

left early in light mist up the east coast of Vancouver Island to catch the ferry at Nanaimo across to Horseshoe Bay, a ferry terminal north of Vancouver City linking direct to R99 north,

then up the eastern side of Howe Sound, pretty awesome, but couldnt make a photo stop on the freeway

the water in the sound turning from ocean blue to snow-melt green

and on to first stop at Whistler ski-field.

Lot of works going on here, road and building, for 2010 Winter Olympics,

Whistler

the ski-fields, all bare summer meadow right now, look pretty steep

lots of young people doing the tramping, mountain biking thing

and family camping groups, many of them doing day trips.

Squamish to Whistler

On the way up from Squamish to Whistler much of the first part was valley floor

mostly First Nation holdings, rudimentary homes, beat-up utes outside

dusky skinned families enjoying the river.

Have discovered an external temp gauge on the bike dash

it was 88 - 104 degF all this leg, shirt sleeves order of the day, and swapped my helmet face shield to open peak.

Had a late lunch a few km further on, at a place called Pemberton,

yes, canadians use kms, so the distances are slipping by at a more familiar rate.

Had a de ja vu here, maybe some of our forebears called here, before the rest carried on to NZ,

a wrap and salad, and 4 huge glasses of water, the first 2 without stopping.

From here the road climbed up from Lillooet Lake in a switch-back tour de France climb, a dream bikers road, winding and twisting on fresh laid hot-mix,

looks like foxglove lining and perfuming the roadside

before dropping down to where we are now, in Lillooet, 1500' asl.

Saw another roadside deer today, big bugs bunny ears

it didnt hear me coming, and looked up in amazement as i called out to it.

Am a bit dubious of the hazard-reputation road wild-life here has, probably more due to inability to read roadside stock, than it is to their unpredictability.

Got talking to a kanack at the ferry wait, and he glossed right over my query about wildlife

and said Canadian drivers were by far the greatest road hazard.

I do sense a drop in driving standards here, an increase in lassez faire, and a bit more aggression.

Anyway...

met some tangata whenua Indians in the pub, quite Inuit looking, some tending toward asian features, maoris have a good rep with them, as with other locals you get into conversation with

Locals enjoy asking if we're Australian

but i respond that only an American would ask such a silly question

which gets a laugh and breaks the ice quite nice.

Lilooet bushfire

I asked the indians how they survive up here and got a no probs sort of response.

Right now is the salmon season, they preserve a lot, ditto mountain berries, and garden produce

often snowbound in the winter, -10 to -30F.

There's a bushfire going at the moment, started 4 days ago from a lightning strike

you could feel the blasts of hot air round the canyons

helicopters working 8 hours a day with monsoon buckets

the pilots were in the same restaurant we dined in, one of them was from Taupo.

What you see on the roadside

Thats it

I'll leave further explanation to a few pics

and we aren't in the Rockies yet.