Day 95 Telkwa BC to Sedro Woolley Washington

I am able to write today as I am in the Sedro Woolley library and have a good enough connection to get a post done.
After leaving Telkwa British Columbia, we worked our way east.  Our first stop was at Fort St. James, an old Hudson Bay Trading Post site.

Fort St. James Trading Post

 The town is small but in a magnificent setting on Stuart Lake.  We camped in a Provincial Park for two nights along the lake and spent a day in town seeing the old trading post as it has been mostly reconstructed.  It was pretty fascinating to tour the buildings and listen to or read about the life in the trading post in the early 1800's.  Initially, the traders were very dependent on the local tribes for securing the pelts and learning the travel routes as well as extremely dependent on them for food sources.  As a result, the interaction grew into a mutually beneficial endeavor though as the fort became the center of Hudson Bay's focus in the western Canada area, missionaries arrived and basically destroyed the native culture.  In discussion with a current First Nation resident, we found that they are continuing to struggle, but are making strides to reestablish their culture and teach the young more of the history and customs of their people.
From Ft. St. James, we moved on to Prince George.  There, we first went to the visitors center.  While there, we were told that our afternoon plans were probably not going to work.  We had intended on driving on to the Ancient Forest about 73 miles east of town.  Unfortunately, there was maintenance work going on there on the board walk and some trimming of some brush that precluded the trail being used.  We spent a couple of hours at a railroad and logging museum near the visitor's center.

Large electric engine

We then decided that by the time we would get to the Ancient Forest, about 4 pm, it might be that the work was done, or at least the workers were finished for the day.  We were fortunate.  What we found was that there are hundreds of old growth Western Red Ceder trees in this location.

The big tree in the Ancient Forest

 The forest had been scheduled for logging when a graduate student who was doing a study on the environment and the impact of the forest areas discovered the old trees and found the marks for logging.  He raised the alarm that a unique forest was about to be destroyed and, fortunately, those in authority listened and the province rescinded the license to log that area.  The trail was a continuous board walk.  This was constructed to keep the compaction of a regular trail from impacting the root systems of these magnificent trees.  The largest we saw was one 16 feet in diameter.  We were the only ones there on the trail so we had a very peaceful 2 mile walk before heading on toward our overnight near Dalemount, BC.
Finally, we were headed south.  We drove down route 5 toward Kamloops.  The valley varied from some fairly fertile wide river bottom farming areas to some near canyon type terrain with no farming and lined with trees from mountain range on one side to the other.  It was a very pleasant drive.  South of Kamloops, we stopped in Vernon for some groceries and we looked for an orchard.  Well, there were plenty.  The valley from there south to well into Washington is a prime fruit area.  We found the one we had heard about and visited their farm market and orchard.  Very well managed and they had really marketed their product well with lots of different type of goods and activities that attracted customers. Our goal that evening was to stop just south of Vernon, but we could not find a campground that was close to the road that had a manager on duty to assign the campsite.  We ended up just north of Oliver.
I inquired of the manager the next morning about his choice of wineries to visit.  We found out that there were about 40 wineries along the route to the boarder so he gave us the three he thought best.  We got off the main road and traveled the other side of the river and found wonderful views and were amazed at the number of wineries.  If not irrigated, the area is a desert with scrub growth and sage brush.

Desert and irrigated wineries near Oliver

 The three we visited were excellent choices as two were smaller "estate" wineries and the last was a large commercial winery.  Estate wineries are family owned and operated.
We crossed the boarder back into the lower 48 without incident.  A brief inspection and we were on our way.
We drove south to Okanagan and turned west on Route 20.  We spent the night in a Forest Service CG, Lone Pine.  It is the last campground before entering the North Cascades NP and the last one east of the mountain passes.  It was a beautiful quiet campground with about 30 sites and it was about 3/4 full but so well separated that we felt quite alone.  We took a 2 mile hike Saturday morning before heading through the mountains to my brother Dave's place here in Sedro Woolley, WA.

A river crossing on the Lone Pine Trail

We will be here until Thursday when we will drive down to Tacoma to visit Jeannette's sister, Judy and spend a couple days there before heading down to see Mt. St. Helen and heading east.  Our target is still to be home either Oct. 5 or 6.