Trip to BC Interior – 2013 (Part 3)

The next destination was Joffre Lakes Provincial Park where greenish blue waters of Lower, Middle and Upper Joffre lakes can be seen. According to web, the blue colour is caused by glacial silt that is suspended in the water and reflects green and blue wavelengths of sunlight.

Let’s take a look at the shiny blue glacial lake with glacier-capped mountains behind. The lake did not only attract male swimmer, but also doggie swimmer.

After Joffre Lakes Provincial Park, we continued travelling along the highway. In the middle of the road, we were recommended to get off and take pictures of these valleys.

Then we discovered an interesting plant which was like a jumbo sized dandelion 超大蒲公英. If I recall correctly, the actual name should be hypochaeris radicata or catsear 貓耳菊.

Here we visited another lake which is just west of Lillooet called Seton Lake. It is part of BC Hydro’s Bridge River hydroelectric complex.

Looking up can see the mountains and glaciers

Looking down can see me in front of Seton Lake

Getting close to the lake by going downhill was a challenging task, at least for me. It was quite steep. Luckily a lady in our tour asked if I need her to hold my hand. At that moment, I had a warm feeling 人間溫暖. I still would like to thank this lady and at the same time to thank another person (I believe was a lady also) who held my arm. Without them I might have fallen already or given up to go down.

There were quite a few swimmers since the day was much hotter than usual. I recall Joseph told us that there was a railway on the right side of the lake.

Can you see? Swans in the middle of calm Seton Lake, isn’t it like a fairy tale?

Trip to BC Interior – 2013 (Part 2)

Here’s Pemberton Museum in Pemberton where we continued our lunch. Pemberton, located just north of Whistler, is famous for its virus free seed potato industry. It developed the first commercial virus free seed potatoes in North America in 1966. Before highway 99 was built in mid 1960’s, the only way to access Pemberton was by foot, horse or train.

Here’s the brief history of Pemberton. After that, let’s visit the first house there …

The natives, including Lil’wat, are very skillful in making beautiful baskets such as weavers of Cedar root, Inner Cedar Bark and Pine Needle basketry.

Just an example of how a house looked like back in late 1800’s or early 1900’s. This house is located in Pemberton Heritage Museum. It was similar to Burnaby Village Museum where heritage buildings are exhibited.

According to its brochure, the unique isolation offered by the mountain ranges surrounding the Pemberton Valley allows for the control of fungi, bacteria and viruses that cause potato diseases.

We could see the mountains behind this museum.

An example of a classroom of an elementary school in history. One of the pictures I included here was taken at Pemberton Meadow School in 1941.

Compared to Seaforth School in Burnaby Village Museum, they both have an apple on the teacher’s desk. What did it represent? Sorry no idea. Also both have ink bottles on students desks, remember ballpoint pens were not common until 1960s.

Trip to BC Interior – 2013 (Part 1)

I’ve been planning to write about my summer trip to BC Interior but something has always been bothering me in the past. Let’s put all the matters aside and try to recall my beautiful, meaningful trip this summer. My note for the trip is lost so I can only write based on my memory.

British Columbia, my home and native land, is full of beautiful natures. I have lived in BC for more than two decades but never had a real chance to explore its pure scenery until I joined Green Club which is organized by Joseph Lin, a retired pediatrician and family doctor from Taiwan. It was a worthy 2-day eco-tour on June 29-30, 2013 starting from Vancouver all the way to Lillooet, about 250 km one-way.

In the early morning of June 29 after everybody had been picked up, our 25 passenger bus was driving through Sea-to-Sky Highway. The bus was completely full and I was the only one from Hong Kong while the others were mainly from Taiwan. It was my first time joining a tour by myself and luckily most people were very nice and friendly.

On the highway, our driver turned on some relaxing pure music which was very enjoyable. I never had this special experience before – listening to spa music while watching the sea and mountains on a sunny peaceful day. It really healed and brightened my soul.

After we stopped at Shannon Falls Park for a very short while to allow everybody to go to washroom, we continued our trip to Green Lake where we could see different mountains including glacier. We could also see Olympic Village across the lake.

Next stop was Nairn Falls Provinical Park, a mixed forest of Douglas-fir, western red cedar, western hemlock and paper birch. The walking trail to Nairn Falls is in a very special shape since it represents the ancestral route of the Lil’wat Nation as it was long a spiritual site for the Lil’wat Nation. Lil’wat was one of the Four Host First Nations for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.

Our leader, Joseph who is also the organizer of Green Club, was very well-prepared and knowledgeable about the forest. He told us a lot about this Park while we were walking on the trail toward Nairn Falls. I didn’t remember all the details, or maybe I didn’t get everything he said since it was in Mandarin. When he mentioned about “pine tree” 松樹, I almost interpreted it as 嵩樹 or 兇樹 “fierce tree”.

One interesting fact he pointed out was a type of insect that would create foam on the stem. I believe it is called spittlebug (or froghopper) and it is encased in foam for protection.

Here is the amazing Nairn Falls which shows example of water erosion in the pothole that have been created in the rocks.

The area was very different 150 million years ago in which it was near the shore of an ocean. The surface movement crushed nearby volcanic islands against the shoreline, and further movements changed this area from seashore to a mountainous area.

In order to get closer to the waterfall, I walked downhill which was kind of slippery for me. That’s why I was holding the wire fence when I went uphill. Joseph saw it and said I could hold trees instead, at the moment I felt I was like a criminal trying to escape but being discovered.

View of Nairn Falls from downhill. I could hear the strong sound of this powerful water moving continuously into the Green River.

At noon, we were supposed to have lunch in this park. While I had a chance to talk to others and answered their curious questions (they didn’t expect a Hong Kong girl would join this tour alone), we were informed that a small plane and a glider (滑翔機) crashed together above the river in Nairn Falls Provincial Parks. Police asked everybody to evacuate since empty space was needed for the emergency.

Finally it was decided that we should head to our next destination Pemberton and continued our lunch there …