After leaving rainy, overcast - as usual - Vancouver, and braving really awful weather on the way up thru my favorite route of Whistler, Pemberton, and Duffey Lake on the way to Lillooet, I pulled into a campground in Lillooet to lick my wounds. I’d even decided to brave the Bears and Cougars and make the hike alone up to the Joffre Lakes and Glacier, just before Duffey Lake. (for some reason, I’m absolutely terrified of bears - Black or Grizzly. Snakes, spiders, and the like are fine, but even with a club and a can of Bear Spray, I’m like a stray cat at the dog pound when thinking of Bears) Anyway, I mentioned awful weather. Wasn’t much point in hiking up to the scenic lakes, Bears or not…………

This was on Saturday. I’d hoped and planned to launch the boat at scenic Seton Lake, just outside of Lillooet on Sunday, then travel to Nimpo Lake on Monday for the Beaver floatplane ride on Tuesday. Nope, not to be. I stopped at Seton Lake (I asked locally, and it’s pronounced “See-ton,” not “Say-ton.”) on Saturday, when I arrived, and it was socked in with heavy clouds, so I camped at Lillooet, a scruffy town in a really fantastic setting, had an excellent dinner at Dina’s Greek restaurant, and crashed for the night. In the morning, same-o, same-o. In good weather, I’ve been told, this is a beautiful boat ride, about 25 miles each way………..

Not much point in going sight-seeing here this morning, so I fired up the Diesel Dodge and headed north to Williams Lake, then west toward Nimpo Lake. This route is on Hwy 20, thru the rugged Chilcotin District of British Columbia, and is a great drive. As you go west, the giant mountains of the Coast Range begin to dominate the western horizon, and by the time I’d got to the Kleena Kleane area they were really impressive………

After taking this shot, I thought it’d be a lot better looking over the lake without the trees, so grabbed the Bear Spray, and the monopod to use as a club, and headed down thru the 100 feet or so of brush to get a better view. Fine, got down there, took my shot, and turned around to start back up the steep hill thru mosquitoes and brush, and suddenly heard something whimpering nearby. Stood my hair right straight up on end. Bear cubs, on TV anyway, have more of a squall than a whimper, and this sounded EXactly like puppies. Puppies ?? Oh, Mercy, this country is full of wolves, too, and I needed real bad to get between Mama & Papa Wolf and their kids. Temptation was strong to sneak in and grab a quick picture. Noooooo………ol’ Lar weaseled out (got sensible for once) and beat feet back up to the truck. The pic of the lake and mountains did come out well, tho’……….

Finally, after a good long day, I pulled into Nimpo Lake, almost at the edge of the Coast Mountains. I went into Tweedsmuir Air (this is right near the edge of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park) and introduced myself. This shot was taken from the porch of Stewart’s Lodge, home of Tweedsmuir Air. What a setting, eh ??……..

The weather was clearing some - finally - and the weather-guessers forecast for Monday was hopeful. Once again, slept like a baby in the camper that night. Lar.

Larry Bourne
Santa Fe, NM
www.gogittum.com

Posted: May 25th, 2008 under 07 British Columbia, 07-6-16 To Lillooet.
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