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BC Canada

Posted: Thu Oct 25, 2012 6:07 pm
by hockeyjoe92
We visited our two sons in Canada last September. One son went with his in-laws on a trip across Canada. Their highlight was Yellow Knife in the NWT, where the got to see the northern lights. Pretty Spectacular, they said! Well worth seeing if you don't mind staying up late.

We went around BC with our other son. Took the Sea to Sky Highway, (don't miss the Copper Mine tour at Squamish) up to Whistler, then up Whistler mountain to the top on gondola and chair lift. Took the Peak to Peak gondola ride. It is the first lift to join the two side-by-side mountains. It holds world records for the longest free span between ropeway towers—3.03 kilometres (1.88 miles) and highest point above the ground—436 metres [1](1,430 feet.). The trip across took 11 minutes.

There is a bald eagle park near Squamish, where the eagles come in November and stay for the winter to feast on the spawning salmon. In the record year, (January 1994) they counted over 3,769 bald eagles. We didn't see any in September.

Another highlight was the five Othello Tunnels. "Originally part of the Kettle Valley Railway, five tunnels and a series of bridges give a spectacular view of the Coquihalla River as it passes through the river's narrow gorge." (Wikipedia). All this within about a hours walk, round trip. Its by Hope, BC, where the first "Rambo" movie was filmed. There was a tour of the Rambo film sites, but we took a pass on that.

The other highlight was the hiking trail along the former Kettle Valley Railway line is the section through Myra Canyon. Myra Canyon is located South of Kelowna on Okanagan Mountain. When the railway was built, the section of railway between Myra station and June Springs station required 18 wooden trestles and two tunnels. This one was longer, and, though we walked, there are bike rentals available. We did about half the hike in about 2.5 hours.

Just a hockey post script. My son was able to watch the hockey riots in Vancouver from his office window when the Canucks choked away the 2011 Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins. Word in Vancouver, though, was that very few of the rioters were actual hockey fans. Most were just people looking for a chance to riot.

jh