Photo: The view from our deck at home in Kamloops, BC.
Departing our home in Kamloops, BC, on May 31, 2010, we were secure in our ability to make some miles both, because we’d done a lot of homework, and because our friends, and neighbours, Michael and Ellen Smith, were there to oversee us hooking up the rig. While Janice and I had towed both a tent trailer and a somewhat smaller travel trailer than the twenty-five footer currently hooked to the back of our Ford F-350 4X4, Michael, being a highly educated writer, philosopher, and trucker, wanted to double-check for those last minute details that relative novices like us might overlook.
Because we wanted to explore territories unknown, and because we’d traveled British Columbia extensively in the past, we had a plan to be inAlbertain just two days so we had already decided to spend the first night in Golden, always an excellent choice. Golden occupies a wonderful natural setting at the confluence of the Columbia and Kicking Horse Rivers. It’s also an easy and scenic four hour drive past the silvery beaches of the Shuswap Lakes, through Salmon Arm, (home of the infamous Roots & Blues Festival) and Revelstoke, where the Columbia River is dammed, forming the enormous Kinbasket Lake.
Photo: We started our trip in Kamloops, BC, circled on the map, driving east to Alberta.
The city of Golden is just an hour or so from the Alberta Border and is large enough to support some really good gourmet restaurants, including the Top of the World Restaurant located at the ski hill overlooking the town site.
The RV Park in Golden is a nicely maintained municipal park conveniently located mere blocks from downtown, right on the glacially fed, ultramarine Kicking Horse River. We spent a pleasant evening strolling along the wide riverbank trail and later had a quiet campfire, but were woken several times during the night by trains rumbling along the other side of the river.
Photo: Tim at our campsite in Golden with the Kicking Horse River.
In the morning we got out our new fold-up bikes and rode around the historic, and flat, part of town, stopping to purchase a bow saw at the hardware store. Already, after the first night, I knew an axe alone was not going to do the trick for preparing all of the firewood I planned on scrounging from here on out.
Less than an hour after hitting the road we crossed the Alberta Border…