Day 20: Squamish BC - Abbotsford BC

I'll get this done early while waiting for BA's Online Check-In wossname to scroll down to zero hour...  The reset of the day will only consist of repacking The Luggage anyway.

You will recall from some days back Figure 1, on the subject of weather forecasting in these parts.

Here is the weather forecast...

Note that while the tops of the mountains are visible, the bottom isn't.  Note also that the Nice Lady on the Anbaric Distascope was predicting up to 50 mm of rain in the neighbourhood today.  And note also that the Canadians have retained a fine sense of irony and hence refer to this part of BC as the "Sunshine Coast".  Also getting to Vancouver Island, and off it again, requires the additional complication of ferries, with the outlay and being at the mercy of timetables and so forth.

I turned left from the hotel and headed back into the mountains for a fine¹ morning of going back the way I came.  Fuel consumption was rather higher than the norm for this trip, because there are no junctions and hence Emily could be left on the floor rather than jumping into my lap all the time.  This Unit recommends BC-99 in either direction.

At Lillooet the sun came out again, though there was much baleful eyeing of the sky lest it change its mind.  Turn right here for Highway 12, which follows what is now the Fraser River in the general direction of south.

And the only sound you can hear is the snarling of chainsaws...

The Fraser is joined by the Thompson at Lytton, where there is much bridge action to be had.

BRIDGE!!1!²

I also found the bolt that used to hold together the dodgy ankle of Western Half-Devil Monster Face van Schaik:

And the creepy foot-fetishist who tried to follow me on Flickr last year can fuck right off.

Highway 12 peters out here as it runs into Highway 1.  This seems officially still to be part of the Trans-Canada Highway but anyone Trans-ing Canada with an ounce of sense in their head will take the freeway alternative between Hope and Kamloops, not least because it is about ninety minutes quicker.  Not that I care.

It takes me a while to notice that I came up the Fraser valley on September 6th, but I do eventually.  Isn't there a footbridge across the road at Hell's Gate?  Why, yes!  Yes, there is.  I stopped to snap a pic of it from a handy layby, and met Ursula and Farley:

Ursula is the one with glasses

The spooky thing is that I had already chatted at length with Ursula, and tickled Farley's ears, some 1200 km to the north-west, on September 8th.  She's been as far as Alaska Proper in her aged VW Camper but is now returning home to a place with a tongue-twisting native name, just north of Vancouver.  The ferries go to Vancouver Island from there, except the ones which go from somewhere else, obv.

It started to rain again, though when I popped out just now it had stopped. And But I could see the mountains.  Twenty-five minutes to go now, and if the network plays up at the crucial moment there will be Bad Swears...  But at least I have found out - albeit belatedly - how to make DJ Random on the iPod play through the car's USB port.

1. As in "enjoyable" rather than "sunny".