British Colombia is a massive province hosting some of the most wild and beautiful land on this continent.  It features huge mountain ranges, including part of the Rocky Mountains, temperate rainforests and 25,000 kilometres of coastline.  The weather in BC is the best in all of Canada, which admittedly is falling over a low bar.  Never mind, we’re up for it and our plan was to head ever northward to adventure and to Alaska.

Well, not so fast.  Tramp, who is part of the solution unfortunately is also part of the problem.  The water pump in the camper is old and tired and refusing to pump up to our pumping standards.  So our first task in beautiful Vancouver, rated by many as one of the most liveable cities in the world, was to visit a couple of RV service centres and burn another hole through our credit cards as we bought a suitable replacement. 

We’re not city people so we weren’t going to dive into downtown Vancouver anyway but we did enjoy a fabulous time exploring huge Stanley Island, a wonderful park of ancient trees, thick forests, walking and cycle tracks crisscrossing everywhere and great views of Vancouver.  Stanley Island is a real treasure for Vancouverites. 

We headed northward along Howe Sound, following the water’s edge while goggling at the snow-capped mountains opposite us.  At Squamish we filled the larder, filled the fuel tank, filled the water tank and emptied the potty tank.  We were ready to rock!

We camped that night up another logger’s track, a proven solution to finding campsites, and at 734 metres (about 2400 feet) we had thick slopes of firs and hemlocks all around us and a snow patch as our neighbour.  Let’s try to ignore the alleged sound of that bear in the trees far away.

Having built up the fire and survived the night, the next morning we tootled into Whistler, home to one of the most renowned ski resorts in the world.  The Whistler-Blackcomb ski resort, which hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics, spans two concurrent mountains and sports and fantastic village at it’s base.  And crazy as it seems for early May, they were still skiing on the Blackcomb upper slopes!

Julie and I wandered through the village with all it’s ski shops, souvenir stores, coffee shops, restaurants, bars, hotels, lodges and everything else, soaking in the fabulous atmosphere and the feeling of an area moving seamlessly between winter and summer. 

People walked through the mall on the way to the gondola carrying their ski gear – some of them wearing short sleaves and even short pants, such was the balmy 24°C (75°F) weather.  Others were off for a hike in the mountains but most were here to spend a relaxed weekend just soaking in the beautiful snow-capped mountains all around.  We loved it.

We followed Highway 99 further north and unexpectedly enjoyed one of the most spectacular drives we have ever done.  Weaving it’s way up and over the mountains, through valleys, along numerous long lakes and following many streams, this drive had it all for mountain junkies like us.  The photos don’t do it justice – this was absolutely top drawer.

With the temperature reaching 28°C (82°F), totally unexpected for this time of year, when we hit the indigenous community of Lillooet we had to stop for a life-saving ice cream.  From Lillooet we joined the more significant Highway 97 northward through rural farming land until we found a spot to camp near the top of Begbie Lookout, complete with communication towers.  We love the variety of the camping spots we end up at each night and we have done communication towers before but this one was nestled amongst the pine trees without another soul within cooee of us.  Great stuff.

The next morning as we were packing up I moved around to the front of the truck and was confronted by a curious black bear.  We startled each other at the same time, he scampered off while I had a heart attack.  Julie and I watched him circle back around to have another look, even taking a few curious steps towards us, before our repeated “hey bear” and other almost-panicked noises encouraged him to wander off.  A great cardio way to start the day! I took a short video of our new friend, you can see it here.

Our plan over the next week or so is to head towards a town called Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories.  To get there we needed to cover almost 1800 kilometres which by our standards is quite a bit of driving per day.  It was all for a good cause though so we headed north on the very slick Highway 97 across some lovely rural farm land and forested hills, enjoying another beaut day of blue skies and temps reaching the mid 20’s (mid 70’s F). 

We refuelled in 100 Mile House, the unimaginative name for the town which was a major supply centre on what is now called the Cariboo Highway but in the 1860’s supported the gold rush further north. 

Trekking onward along wonderful alpine lakes, through small communities, many of which were predominantly First Nations people, through larger towns of Williams Lake and Quesnel, the later of which featured a ‘biggest of’ and a ‘longest of’, two highlights we couldn’t miss.

Prince George is the largest city and self-proclaimed capital of northern British Colombia, a town of 75,000 people which has grown from the logging and mining industries over the years.  We stopped to buy a few supplies but couldn’t find the sparkle in the place, choosing to move further northward.

Throughout the day we noticed how the fields were only just tinting a bit green after the winter snow melt and the deciduous trees were only just starting their seasonal budding.  This was a land in transition, never mind the warm weather.  Patches of snow under trees or in the gullies were common and we knew we were watching the changing of the seasonal guard. 

On one stretch of lonely road a moose popped out of the trees and sauntered across the road in front of us.  Despite slamming my brakes and dropping my phone I managed to get a photo of this huge male moose, his antlers still not appearing this early in the season. 

We took a side track amongst the young pines, crossing through muddy and snowy sections until we came to beautiful Crystal Lake.  We couldn’t camp there but found a great spot about a kilometre away, hopefully safe from any large dangerous wildlife that may be in the vicinity. 

British Colombia is huge, that’s for sure, and it features an astonishing 700 provincial parks, some of which we’ve stopped at along the way to enjoy a lake, a forested area, special jagged mountains, a rushing river or maybe a combination thereof.  BC has spectacular nature and celebrates it by preserving it and sharing it with others.  Throw in large scary animals which usually feature in cartoons or on infants’ clothes and it is just about perfect.  And best of all, we’ve got more to come.