LILLOOET, BC

The morning before we left Whistler, we decided to go back up to Olympic Park to do a little shooting at the Olympic Biathlon range.

This black bear cub was meandering around near the road. We watched out for his mom but didn’t see her anywhere near. This is definitely bear country!

For $15.00 you can try your hand at Biathlon shooting at the range where the Olympic contenders did the shooting portion of their race. 

If you are not up on the sport of Biathlon (and I wasn't) the athletes Nordic ski a cross-country route with rifles on their backs, then with heart and lungs still pounding, they ski up to this rifle range and while still standing on their skis, shoot at these targets 160 feet away. 


Of course their shots are rapid fire, as this is a timed event. Then they flatten out on their stomachs and shoot again at the targets which have now been changed from the size of a softball to the size of a golf ball. Wow!

Don and I used the same rifles they used and shot at the same targets as the Olympians. The results just were a bit different.

First off, they had us shoot at the larger (softball sized) targets from a prone position as you can stabilize the gun easier in that position. (We needed all the help we could get!)

Don shot first (I didn’t want to show him up right off the bat) at target number eight.

Don did a great job of hitting all five of them, one right after the other.  We had five bullets each, so there were no second chances.

Since the next round at the Biathlon, is to make the target the size of a golf ball. Don gave it a shot, or five shots as it happens.  I won’t show you his results this time. Lets just say it wasn't quite as impressive as his first round.

Now it was my turn. I am shooting at target number nine.

This is my score. Need I say more? Except to say that I was smart enough not to try the golf ball-sized targets.

Basically we were both pretty happy to have gotten five out of five first time around.

That was really fun and we got a much better appreciation of the talent and expertise of the Olympians who compete in this sport.

Then we continued on our trip. We are still on the infamous highway 99 and we are driving it to Lillooet, BC. It is about a 2-1/2 hour drive on a very narrow steep and wind-y road. It is really a beautiful drive, and is best done and appreciated in a car (the smaller the better!) than a 41 foot motorhome with a tow car.

This route is full of 12%-15% grades with hairpin curves, not to mention several single-lane wooden bridges. I have decided that Canada apparently thinks that any road that can be navigated by a mountain goat should be declared full access to all vehicles.

The upside is that it is so very beautiful. My camera was not able to even come close to doing it all justice.  There are lakes and mountains all along the way.

Notice the actual width of the blacktop. Not very wide!

We loved the beauty of this area. Of course Don has to be super-vigilant driving this type of road. It is not a relaxing ride for the driver.

This is the first time we have seen this on this trip so far. We will see a lot more of this as we travel north. Canadians like to take rocks and write their name or declare their love for someone on blank slates like this on the side of the road.

More mountains, lakes and mountain streams next to narrow, winding roads.  It’s all so beautiful.

Yeowww! One of several wooden single-lane bridges.

Oh, did I mentions hairpin curves, usually at the bottom of super steep grades? At least on this one, we can see if someone is coming from the other was. Not so on most.

The outside edge of this hairpin curve (and most of them) is…thin air!

Finally we arrive at the little village of Lillooet and at our RV Park next to the Fraser River.

Lillooet is one of the oldest communities in British Columbia. Many First Nations people (the St’at’imc) live here.  The Cariboo Gold Rush of the 1850’s and 1860’s turned this little village into a boom town with a population of 15,000 for a brief time during the Gold Rush.

The first trail to the Cariboo gold fields came through here. In fact, Lillooet is Mile Zero on the original Cariboo Road. All Road Houses on the road north of Lillooet, such as 100 Mile House, were named for their distance from Lillooet.

The Bridge of the 23 Camels (next to our RV Park) which spans the Fraser River, is named for the camels used, with a spectacular lack of success, as gold rush pack animals.

With the camels gone, the only thing left is the barn they were kept in.

Except for brief periods of prosperity, Lillooet has remained a quiet community.

Jade was also mined in the area and there are huge jade boulders placed here and there around town. There is still jade available, however due to the lack of nearby water sources, jade is no longer mined.

Part of Lillooet’s history is the “hanging tree,” (Yes, they did hang people here!) which due to safety reasons had to be cut down after it died.

However part of it is still in a park that overlooks the town and river.

The town is surrounded by magnificent mountains on all sides.

The original bridge over the Fraser River was a suspension bridge which was used until the Bridge of the 23 Camels was built in 1981.  I was fighting the sun on this picture, but on top of the first girder across the bridge is a nest.

Baby ospreys posed as I took this picture.

We also stopped at a Farmer’s Market on Main Street, just looking for a little local color.

One little lady was selling a variety of odds and ends…

On her table was a cockatoo and a small bunny. I’m not sure what the bunny was supposed to be doing, but if you gave the cockatoo a coin, he would drop it in the donation jar. It was not clear what the donations were for but the bird was certainly into collecting donations. Ah, yes. I love 'Local Color.'

Next on our agenda was about a 4-hour loop drive to see more of the area. Part of the road we will be driving in the motorhome tomorrow, and part was marked in green on the map. I wondered if it might be a good shortcut to take tomorrow…

That question was answered as soon as we got on the ‘green’ part of the road. It was one lane and dirt but really beautiful. You know what that means…steep and curvy…nothing you could ever take in an RV. This part of the route took us at least an hour. Slow going, for sure.

As we ascended to the top of the mountain, the wildflowers were spectacular. Depending on the altitude, the color changed and there was everything imaginable blooming.

Then is was time to head back down the other side of the mountain. This was a very, very long and wind-y 15% grade down to where there was once again pavement.

Once back on the blacktop, we drove into the town of Clinton for lunch. On the edge of town we passed the ‘Clinton Emporium’ and immediately decided to stop there after lunch.

These places are always interesting to walk through just to see what is there. There was tons of stuff out in front, in back and two floors inside. Most of it was just junk that was yearning for a landfill, other things were of at least some value…just not to us. 


However, the business is for sale if you would like to move to beautiful British Columbia to begin a new career….

The road back to the RV Park runs along the top of the Fraser River canyon and brings us to a spot in the road just a few miles outside of Lillooet. This is a spot where we will be traveling through tomorrow in the 41 foot motorhome with tow car attached. Oh, Boy!! Can I do this with my eyes closed???

This is one of those spots where you drive down a 15% grade and then are faced with a tight and blind 45 degree turn under a railroad underpass.

This picture is facing uphill (which has a better view of the road ahead). Tomorrow morning we will be coming downhill and trying to navigate this turn. It is on the edge of the canyon lined with K-rail, so there is no room for error. You might notice the damage to the concrete walls where a few others obviously came a little too close.

We are hoping not to leave any of our motorhome on the wall… There are times I wish our rig would bend in the middle and this is one of them.  Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how it went.