Day 21 - Ashcroft to Coquitlam

Coquitlam sounds fancy, but it's just part of the greater Vancouver area.

A minor glitch today - we got as far as Spences Bridge and a big sign lit up and said HWY 1 CLOSED NORTH OF BOSTON BAR - USE HWY 5

Ohhh - what to do. No other information like what was the cause and when will it be open, so I made the call to carry on to Lytton to see if the situation had changed.

It appeared that the truckers knew something was up as they were finding spots to turn around. I called into the RCMP at Lytton and of all things, they were totally unaware of the road closure - so the guy there went on the internet and confirmed that the road was indeed closed, due to open at 3 pm. Stuff that.

Turned out to be a fatal between a car and a truck.

So we double backed and took the windy road to Merritt which followed along the old right of way of an abandoned railway line - so the guys had something to look at - "There's a bear !!" and sure enough, Grant had spotted a large black bear meandering along the river bank - cool - but there was nowhere to stop and I had a line of traffic behind me.

The bridge at Hope that I could never film a train on. There was a sign nearby warning to be aware of bears - niiiice.

The drive from Merritt to Hope was a challenging experience - speed limit is 120 km/hr - and once again, it seemed to be a recommendation. Trucks can manage it on the downhill but once they go up, they decrease speed rapidly and one almost caught me out.

Lunch at Hope and we staked out that darned bridge that I mentioned in an earlier post - sat there for about 2 hrs waiting for a train - finally got one, but it was that darned Rocky Mountaineer again.

I'd had enough of fast freeway driving so decided to re-trace our steps to Vancouver following the Lougheed Highway - which our hotel is located on anyway - filmed two trains.

Waiting to get overtaken by a fast moving coal train.

Checked in and went to a recommended restaurant - it was awesome.

Tomorrow it's a day trip to Squamish and back.

3 more sleeps then an aeroplane ride.

EJ