June 1 2016 - Old Hedley East Recreation Site

May 31st  - Hedley

 Goodbye White Rock until September. We managed to get on the road by 9:30. It sure feels great to be on the road again after 2 months. Being Sunday, there's very little traffic as we made our way out of the Lower Mainland. We stopped in Flood (Hope) at the Flying J and fueled up the coach and shared a Subway sandwich. Once we got into the mountains there where a few sprinkles, so now the clean coach is dirty again! Carrying on, we made good time and found a great campsite at the Old Hedley East Forest Service Site along the Similkameen River. The sun came out and we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon. By 5pm the clouds came over again a bit of rain fell for the rest of the evening. It's quite cold overnight and so we went into Princeton on Monday to get some propane for the heater.  The lady there said that it went down to 0 C. overnight. Burrrrr! Princeton is only about 15 minutes back down the highway and there's a lovely Save-On-Foods downtown for groceries, a Shoppers Drug Mart and a Home Hardware. The day stayed sunny and we spent another afternoon sitting in the shade looking at the river flowing by.

The campsite charges $12/night ,but no one came around Sunday night and only Monday night someone came so we only paid for 2 more days. Still pretty cheap. Freya is sure enjoying the freedom after being confined on a leash for 2 months. 

Monday, we went back to Bromley Rock Provincial Park a short distance back on Highway 3 for some pictures. A cute picnic site and very small campground we would not fit in along the Similkameen River.

Monday night proved to be not quite as cold, so we didn't even need the heater. Tuesday turned out  quite warm all day especially when the high clouds came in around noon. It stayed about 27 C. and did not cool down even at night. Inside the coach is still 20C all night. A little too warm for me until I get used to it again. In 3 nights it went from 13C inside to 20C for sleeping.

Tuesday morning, we decided to take a drive to Tulameen and Otter Lake Provincial Park. Along the way we drove into Coalmont and checked out the Granite Creek Forest Service Site along Granite Creek. The highway going in is quite windy and a couple spots went to only single lane for a short distance but very doable. It took us about 30 minutes in the car from Princeton, but probably would take an hour with the coach as we would have to go much slower. The campsite is only 2 km down a well-maintained gravel logging road. A very lovely spot with a large open grassy field and Freya loved chasing her ball. I managed to score some left over firewood for a fire back at camp. We definitely would keep this spot on the list of places to camp. 

Next we continued to Tulameen, where some old friends, Shirley and Norm Morrison, Ray used to work with in Squamish nearly 29 years ago who moved to this little town. Ray went into the General Store/Post Office and they gave us their address. We stopped by but unfortunately they were gone for a trip in their motorhome. Ray left our card in their door … won’t they be surprised when they get home seeing that “ghosts from their past” stopped by. They have a very cute place and a lovely backyard.

Otter Lake Provincial Park is just a short way further and is a typical provincial park set in heavy trees and mostly small sites. We would only fit in about 3 sites and with the limited generator hours it is not the place for us.

Otter Lake Picnic Area

Wednesday we decided to stay for another night. Had to pay another $12. It is hit and miss, because no one came to collect yesterday, but we paid the day before for 2 nights. We are enjoying just taking life at a much slower pace after the 2 hectic months in Vancouver. Ray hoped to go into Hedley and take some pictures of the old mine today, but we woke to cloudy skies so probably not a good picture taking day. It may change later though. I may just have to make him cookies instead, as I charge the batteries as the solar does not work as good with the clouds.

News Flash! It did clear up somewhat late afternoon so off Ray went into Hedley to take some pictures and I did make him cookies. It was about 25 C all day with the cloud cover and stayed warm all night.

Old Mascot Gold Mine above and below

Another abandoned gold mine closer to Hedley

Nickel Plate Mountain

Old Homestead

Similkameen Valley above and two below

More Nickel Plate Mtn above and below

Hedley Townsite

Thursday morning, we woke up at 6am with sprinkles on the roof so we had a mad scramble to put away the mats and outside stuff in the car in preparation for leaving later this morning. All this before coffee! Lol. Today our destination is ???? we will see how we do. You can see by the blog Ray is back to doing what he likes ... taking pictures.