Day 2 Vancouver to Kamloops

 


It is about 200 miles from Vancouver to Kamloops (both British Columbia). It took about  8 or 9 hours by train (Rocky

Mountaineer) because of rail crossing and tight turns and steep grades. But it was a relaxing trip


(e.g., nice seats, complimentary beverages).




August 16 max temp at National Airport was 82F. Max temp in Kamloops (~59N) was 91F.

There was a lot to see on the way. 


First image was taken about 20 miles east of Vancouver where the train crossed from the south shore to the north shore of the Frazier River. It shows a barge pulling (from east to west, downstream) a load of logs.  Probably no big deal to people who live in the NW USA but I'd never seen that before. It is a really old technology that is still cost effective and obviously used.

 The second image is of Mount Baker. I used a photo taken by Erna Louisa on flicker  because it was much better than any I could have taken and because her picture was also taken in August (2008). Mount Baker is about 40 miles south of the rail line used by the Rocky Mountaineer (and about 30 miles east of Vancouver) but was clearly visible and had a lot of snow on it even though it is late in the season and the mountain is only about 10,800' high but it got a lot of snow last winter (back in 1999, a recording site at the Mount baker skiing area received about 95' of snow- probably not that much last winter but obviously it was a lot).

The third image is of "Hell's Gate" a place where the Frazier River narrows significantly. The stream velocity is thus ferocious.  Simon Frazier named it back in the early 1800s.  It is about 110 miles from Vancouver along the rail line. 

We saw an osprey nest (on an abandoned telephone pole), an eagle on a nest (high up on a dead tree) and several packs of female long horn sheep.  This was on the Thompson plateau about 1000' above sea level. It is between the Cascades and the Rockies and is semi arid, receiving about 10" of precipitation a year.  These sights passed much too quickly to taken an picture.

The fourth image was taken when the train stopped. A coal carrying train was going in the opposite direction and we had a good view of what is called "Tranquil House". This was used from the 30s to the 50s as a sanitation house for victims of TB. Later, from the 70s to the 80s it was used to house the mentally ill. It is now considered a 'great haunted house' (as the guide said, 'one of the most haunted houses in all of Canada, he also joked that it was where the crew sleeps while the passengers are in 4-Star hotels - click on it to get a good look at the decay of the building).

 

 

 

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