100 Mile House to Whistler

Chilly with heavy skies to begin with, brightening to a fabulous hot sunny day at Whistler

On the road with full tanks of Husky 92 octane fuel by 8:30. Road fairly straight to begin with, moving up and down with the surrounding undulations. Continue to climb, passing over Begbie Summit at 1,232 metres. More farmland producing hay, plenty of horses and we do see a few - but only a few - cattle. As we get closer to Cache Creek, the countryside changes quite dramatically. It starts to become more mountainous and we start to lose trees. Had we continued into Cache Creek and headed further south from there, we would have entered a desert region, with no trees and the appearance of cacti, albeit small ones.

However just before Cache Creek, with just over 100 km notched up, we leave the 97 and join the 99, headed for Lillouet and Whistler. This is a fantastic road, albeit narrow and in need of repair - probably a lot of winter damage. It twists and winds its way for the remainder of our 200+ km to Whistler. We find a little roadhouse and pull in for coffees and (packaged) Danish pastries. The local nutter, obviously a descendent of the original indigenous peoples, engages us in conversation, clearly impressed that two people from London riding on British-registered bikes have actually deigned to stop at this tacky (but friendly) place.

Fraser River
As we head towards Lillouet, following the Fraser River, we can see - and smell - a great deal of smoke from the many forest fires that are burning in the region. Many helicopters are flying above with huge buckets suspended beneath them. The fly low down to the river, hover, scoop up water then quickly rise and disappear to the particular fire they are fighting. All the valleys around Lillouet are filled with smoke, making it difficult at times to make out the mountains. As we stand in a pull-off near a bridge leading into this small town, we are joined by another motorcyclist pleased to see other Englishmen. He bought his bike in California and has been travelling since last September. He's headed to Alaska, so we warn him about the fuel!

Now the road follows the Cayoosh River down to Duffey Lake, taking us through narrow gorges, with forest either side and the incredibly turbulent river right beside the road. We frequently switch sides, crossing the river by way of right angle turns across narrow wooden bridges. All the mountains here are snow-capped. Duffey Lake is pure picturesque: blue lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains with forest coming down to the lake edge, with a big log jam at the end of the lake thrown in for good measure!

Pemberton
We stop at Pemberton, just 35 km from Whistler, for coffee - we're both gasping for caffeine. Just before arriving in this little town, we passed through the 6,000 km mark of cumulative distance. Then it's a short ride to Whistler where, by pre-arrangement, we meet up with Ron and Jennifer by a restaurant at the entrance to town. We are warmly greeted like long lost friends.

They lead us up the mountain side through secluded residential properties all hidden by the surrounding forest. We keep rising until we're very high up. We walk down some steps to their log cabin and onto their deck, to be assailed by the most magnificent view: it's like we're looking down into a basin, with Green Lake at the bottom, forest all the way up the sides and then snow-capped mountains at the top. Mount Blackcomb lies straight ahead and Whistler Mountain is to the right.

(Graham loved Whistler, Jeffrey hated it - comparing it to Butlins!)

Back to the log cabin, with its fabulous view, and drinks on the deck, the sun now behind us and thus illuminating the mountains on the far side of the lake. Ron is the chef in this household - and he's absolutely brilliant. We had chicken in a hot spicy sauce with rice - and fresh broccoli cooked al dente. Fresh vegetables. Oh bliss!

And we drank Canadian wines all evening. We talked and talked until we realised it was gone midnight. They are marvellous hosts.

Jeff 27.06.04