Mt Robson...

After leaving Whistler our drive to Kamloops was pretty spectacular.

It took longer than the expected 4hrs as we had to wait at least 30 min at a bridge crossing. A truck had apparently been through and knocked out one of the overhead support beams. We were happy to wait for them to repair it, rather than fall into the icy glacial-melt river. Mark wander up to suss out what was going on, then I got out of the car too. I ended up chatting to a lovely woman from much further north in Canada. She was dressed in shorts and t-shirt and thought it hilarious that I was cold in the 3C temperature. We ran into her and her husband again at a service station up the road. Another friendly chat - I silently decided their accent (and many northern Canadians) sounds to me like a cross between an american twang and the Swedish chef off the muppets. Lots of yoddly yoddly sounds in there! >>> Kamloops turned out to be a surprisingly large city. A population of around 100,000 it is the hub the surrounding towns come to for provisions. I had searched out an organic supermarket to stock up on food for our next 3 nights in a cabin. I figured if we went to a shop that only stocks healthy-ish food, then we would eat healthy-ish!

Again we had about 290km to drive from Kamloops to Mt Robson. However, because of the winding roads, it took more like 5 hrs. We also stopped along the way to sight-see and eat lunch. We didnt bother getting out of the car as it was cold enough that we drove through a couple of small snow flurries. We bought this sandwich at the supermarket. We figured with so much turkey on it, one was enough between the two of us.

As luck would have it, the cafe we stopped in on the premise of buying a coffee but really to use their toilet, sold this irresistable home made apple pie. Lucky we had only half a sandwich each and had the room to share a piece of pie!

We arrived at our gorgeous cabin in Mt Robson around 4pm. Unpacked, a glass of wine, and I soon had the chicken roast going. ($32 for a raw chicken - very big OUCH!! - more than double home prices)

We are getting in the maple syrup where possible.

The cabin is just fantastic. Kitchen, dining, lounge and bathroom w/ shower downstairs.

Upstairs 2 bedrooms and a bathroom with large bathtub. Lovely for soaking after being out in the cold.

To get here it was just a 100m drive up a small road that was directly off the main highway. Then our cottage is just inside the driveway entrance.

Set in the trees, it is a lovely quiet refuge for a few days. The owners have a house further down the road and completely out of sight.

We took a few short walks in the area. The property borders Swift Current Creek. Apparently in late summer occasionally the salmon get this far up for spawning. They said only the strongest get this far up, which also means the biggest. It would be incredible to see them leaping up these rocks.

Part of the walk near the creek was real 'Hansel & Gretel' country. The ground was spongy under foot from the depth of fallen pine needles and leaves. I was more than a little bit hesitant to walk past this cave. It was big enough for Mark & I to crawl in to and is clearly a place where bears hibernate. The literature at the house says there are ALWAYS bears around here. They even provide the bear spray to take with us walking. It is actually capsicum spray but is only useful at 6m. Personally Im happy not to have to use it!!

These yellow leaves on the track are all from birch trees. They are rounder than our birch leaves at home.

We walked up to this elevated section for a look at the surrounding mountains. Mt Robson is the highest in the Canadian Rockies. We are actually in a valley surrounded by snow capped mountains. A rare sight for us aussies! The water puddles also had a fine layer of ice on them! Brrr! As we headed down the hill I could hear some rustling in the trees. I looked a couple of times but didnt see anything. When looking for bears you not only check the ground as they are often in the trees too. ALOT of neck craning & hand clapping goes on! I did however work out what the rustling was. I saw what I thought was a large dog take off through the trees. On discussing this later with the owners, they assured me it was no dog. More likely a coyote or wolf - and a rare sighting!!!! yikes!!

This hill is covered in dark pine trees. Here though they are all dusted in snow.

We then walked down to the highway to see if we could get another view of the mountains. Our glamourous looks in this blog are never ending huh!! But at least we are warm. I must be slightly aclimatising as my chin has not turned purple here.

Across from our street is this view.

The splendid (& often hidden under clouds) Mt Robson. The far side of the mountain has a glacier feeding in to Lake Berg. We hear it is a gorgeous sight with often icebergs floating in the lake. We chose not to take the 23km each way hike in & up, up, to see it.

Looking up our street another aspect. The owners offered for us to pop down and see the view from their place any time. We wandered down around 3pm yesterday and WOW.. its an amazing view of Mt Robson from their upper balcony and inside their big log house. They kindly invited us to share a wine with them. 2 bottles and cheese and crackers later, we thought we better leave them alone. It was lovely to share their company for a couple of hours.

Mark was happy to settle in after getting our fire going. For warmth it's not essential as they have amazing heating throughout and under floor heating in the bathrooms. No cold tiles to walk on! In all it has been just a perfect place to stop, cook, read and walk.