May 27, 2017, Day 6, Boston Bar to some little government campsite with no running water or flush toilets just outside of Spence’s Bridge. 87.9km

We’re getting into a little routine now. We get up, pray and then Charlie makes breakfast while I flap around a bit trying to figure out which of my very limited collection of very dirty clothing I’m going to put on for the day. I’m glad that we will be going home. Some things I’ve brought I’ve worn nonstop; this long sleeved merino underwear shirt and some merino long underwear pants. I’ve worn them to bed and then in the early part of the day, over my biking shorts and top. Then in the evening, on they go again and then I just strip off my biking shorts and bra, and go to sleep. But then I’m too hot…..  I need a light pair of shorts and a T shirt specifically to wear to bed. There are a few other things I’m going to switch around too. Anyway, tomorrow we will do laundry. I’m excited!

So we left just before 8am this morning, which was a good decision because it was about 34 degrees out today. Our first challenge was Jackass Mountain. Friends from Calgary had warned us about it and we kept hearing about it all along the way. Funny thing is, we asked 6 different people who live in Boston Bar about it. Jackass Mountain is 10 minutes drive east from BB. Nobody could tell us anything. They all said that when they went anywhere, if they went anywhere, they went west.

(There’s a story about Jackass Mountain and how it got its name. One version is that one of the pack mules got fed up and jumped over the edge to his death. The other story is that someone brought over camels to use as pack animals and donkeys don’t like camels. One of them became agitated when it smelled the camels and kicked up such a fuss, it fell over the cliff. I dunno. I wasn’t there, although right now I feel like I’m old enough to have been.)

Well, we went up. And up. And, you guessed it, up. We figured that we must be doing JAM but we didn’t see any signs. And then we went around a corner…..and there, unmistakably, it was! We won though, after a long slog, and we celebrated at the summit with some Cliff Bar gummies that Curtis had given us.
The scenery is spectacular! We actually did have more time to look around as the pavement, though far from smooth, was somewhat less perilous today. If we took photos of everything we thought was awesome, we’d get nowhere. Much of today’s route was alongside the mighty Fraser River. (My Fraser was named after this river by his paternal great grandfather.) Its running pretty rough today as is the Thompson, alongside which we are camped tonight.

When we got to Spences’s Bridge we went to a coffee shop called “The Packing House”. The food looked good but we had just had sandwiches that we’d made ourselves. So we had a beer instead. 🙂   That’s where we learned about this free campground. We had planned on going back after we’d set up our tent, etc., because there was live music but instead we sat around and talked with our camping neighbors who are in their 70’s. They have spirits of adventure , have travelled the world and have stories to tell. Oh, yeah, and they’re Calgarians too!

It’s interesting to watch how the terrain and vegetation change to as we move further inland. On the coast everything was green, lush, thick and blooming. Moving inland, everything was still thick and well established, like mid-summer growth, but there we smelled that foresty smell; mossy, cedar, layers of vegetative decay. The mountains were thick with trees, not a patch of land was barren. Then today, a little east of Lytton, I noticed that the trees were becoming sparser on the mountains, with significantly less undergrowth. We began to see sagebrush and open dry areas.  The desert is coming. Tomorrow we will be in it and if we are smart, we will leave very early in the morning to beat the heat.

We are tucked away in our tent for the night. There’s a train track just up a bit and only about  50 yards from us, if that. Trains are running around this province almost nonstop. I’m not feeling tired but it’s unlikely I’ll get very far into the book I downloaded onto my iPad. Feeling dirty though and cultivating the Neanderthal look.

Goodnight!  Tika-Tika-tika-tika…..choo-choooo!