March 28. Penticton to Fairmont

That bittersweet moment arrived….time to pull out of Wrights Beach Camp, our home for the last 6 months, and start the traveling thing again. With the truck and trailer all washed and sparkly clean, everything stashed and stowed safely, we are ready to rock and roll.

Wrights has been a fantastic stop with incredible hikes, amazing scenery, delicious beer, wonderful people. It will be a real pleasure to swing around through this town again.

The drive up the west side of Okanagan Lake gave us one last glorious octacular feast. We knew that Kelowna might be sticky…hitting it at 9 am…but in the grand scheme of things…its just not that busy of a town…so even tho the highway cuts right through the middle of the city, it was a straight run through.

Heading north out of the city through Lake Country and Vernon…..places we had not been yet and the rain started…..not anything torrential mind…just enough to make it difficult to take pictures, between the raindrops and the wipers…LOL….

Most of the road north follows the lakes. The rainy weather created lines of fluffy clouds clinging to the valley sides and atmospheric mists over the waterways.

BC is such a beautiful province that even the rain makes it a different kind of pretty. wow what a drive.

The cat, travelling in his box is quite laid back. Sometimes he likes to watch the view, sometimes he just sleeps. ( Editor. If I look over and see the cat like this I’m thinking, I’ll have a pint of what he’s having )

Its not the best time of year to be traveling this far with a trailer. Most of the campgrounds don’t open ’til May…or even the beginning of June…….but the Fairmont Hot Springs Resort was open…and that was our destination.

With no convenient options to split the journey we were doing an uncharacteristic run of 7 1/2 hours. Turned out to be 8 1/2 technically ‘cos we crossed a time zone as well. ( there’s just too much to see in between to drive that far in one go…!!)

So we pulled over at a truck stop in Revelstoke for lunch, our halfway point. Great thing about hauling the house along behind you…when you stop at the side of the road you have a kitchen, including fridge…and a bathroom…right there….!! Then back on the road.

We passed through multiple of these avalanche tunnels…..its quite sobering, thinking about it..!!

Avalanche control Shortly out of Revelstoke we drove into avalanche control. The Rogers Pass is apparently a bad area for avalanches….it is VERY steep as you go through…so we got stopped…and hour and a half…and a long line of traffic.

They set off field guns at a couple of spots along the pass…and then search and rescue have to go through and clear the area. They also had a slide happen a bit further east….so they said…..so…me and the cat hopped back into the trailer and curled up under a blanket..(it was cold up there..)

From the top of the lakes up the Okanagan we were back on the trans Canada. We completing a travel loop back through Golden. (where we had been in the fall)

The road to Fairmont Hot Springs is south through Radium and then a little further. I tried to get some pictures of the mountains ahead and the mountains behind. BC certainly has an abundance of mountains.

Fairmont Hot Springs resort is halfway up a mountain itself. Pulling the trailer up the road to the site was…..daunting.

The next experience for the life events bag was ….when your pull through site isn’t a pull through for a 30 footer. Between the steep uphill, the slippery loose gravel, the right angled turn in from the narrow lane and the tree right on the corner of the site. We soon decided that it just wasn’t going to work, pulled all the way around the road and backed in. (no divorce happened…Walkie Talkies are magical things..!!)

…and then….head for the hot pools…….

I can now assuredly declare myself to be an addict…of natural hot springs…be warned…they may feature strongly in our future travels….!!😀