All about Simon Fraser

We headed north to Hope British Columbia. We learned all about Simon Fraser here – the highway running along the Fraser River named for him. Fraser was an officer with the Hudson Bay Company, and he initiated an extensive exploration of the River in 1808 and tracked it to the Pacific Ocean. Initially he believed it to be the headwaters of the Columbia River, and set out to claim it’s resources for Canada and the Hudson Bay Company. He established a settlement in Hope in 1808 as the north most point to where the river could be navigable by commercial vessels. In 1848 he was instrumental in the establishing of Fort Hope by the Hudson Bay Company, which eventually became the town of Hope.

We headed to Manning Provincial Park and found all kinds of interesting stuff along the way. First was the Hope Slide. On January 9 1965 an enormous slide descended into the Nicolum Creek valley, destroying 3 miles of the highway and killing 4. Interestingly enough, my theory of a vortex holds. Not only did 4 perish here in the slide, but a pilot and several members of the Royal Canadian Airforce also died here in two separate plane crashes, one in August 1965, and one in April 1966.

Funny name for a place – Sunshine Valley. In 1942 over 21,000 Japanese Canadians were interred in Sunshine Valley – men, women and children. The conditions were crude at best – a few of the actual one room shacks that housed several families still exist here. Tashme was named by putting together parts of the names of two of its earlier inhabitants. While this was the largest internment camp in Western Canada, 7 other Japanese internment camps were established in the area.

The remains of several of the earliest Canadian attempts to access the riches in their western provinces still exist, many under the watch of the provincial park system. We stumbled on one, the Dewdney Trail, built by the Royal Engineers in the mid 1800’s. The trail ran some 500 miles across British Columbia, only large enough to handle smaller wagons, as well as foot and animal traffic. We hiked some 5 miles of the trail cut through the woods, and hewed into the side of rocks, and enjoyed some of the rare silence we’ve experienced.

This Steller Jay took a shine to the Woman. Everywhere she walked he would land within a few feet of her. When she would look at him and talk to him, he would stare at her as if he was listening intently. I think he was awaiting a hand out – the Woman thinks he was just very interested in her. Who knows!

When we got to Manning we found what we were looking for. Although technically the northern end of the Pacific Crest Trail is at the Canadian border, it actually continues several miles north into the center of Manning Provincial Park. With the help of a ranger, we were able to find the actual northern terminus, and walked about 5 more miles of the PCT – not under shoulder deep snow here. The Woman was ecstatic to hike the only portion of the PCT in Canada.

We managed to find the Othello Tunnels. The Kettle Valley Railway was engineered by Andrew McCullough in the early 1900’s for the Canadian Pacific Railway. In the Coquihalla Canyon just outside hope the railway passed through a series of 5 tunnels carved out of the hard granite found in the area. The tunnels and the rail bed have been preserved as a Provincial Park, which we strolled along with the pooch on a glorious day. The views were fabulous, and its fun to walk on rail bed and through tunnels built over a century ago!

We saw some of the most elaborate upgrades to RV sites at the Hope Valley RV Park. In most parks we visit, the year-round residents like to add niceties to their sites, making them more comfortable, more useful or just pretty them up a bit. This particular site is over the top and may be my number one on my list of favorites.

We visited Hells Gate, a very narrow portion of the Fraser River just above Hope. Because of Hells Gate, commercial traffic of the day could only make it up to Hope. When Simon Fraser attempted to navigate through Hells Gate, he was warned by the locals that it could not be navigated by water. He and his men scaled the rock walls used by the locals forever and managed to get below the rapids and continue their exploration.

Today there is an aerial tram that takes you down to the waters edge. Back in the 1910’s when the Canadian Pacific Railway was blowing its way through Hells Gate, they dropped so much rock into the Fraser that it apparently disrupted the salmon spawning areas upstream – the salmon could not easily get there anymore. The Canadian government registered an 80% decline in the salmon population where the Fraser met the Pacific. The Canadian government forced the CPR to attempt to solve the issue, and a massive concrete fish ladder was built in the 1930’s. Fortunately the salmon have recovered.

Apparently, crime is not only a thing that happens in the US. Every Provincial Park that we have visited we have seen these signs in the parking lots – at picnic areas, at trailheads, and even near the visitor centers. 

Talk to you soon!