Hitting the open road

Friday evening, we did the usual rush to prep for a big overnight hike deep in the wilderness of beautiful British Columbia. That included MEC for a brand new headlamp (very important), grocery stores for the essential foods, including some post hike chocolate (also very important), and finally to Canadian Tire for our first ever purchase of bear spray! Considering we were planning in sleeping in Grizzly Bear territory, we figured it wouldn't hurt.

Saturday morning we awoke to some heavy smoke from the fires raging in Oregon and Washington. Click to donate:

https://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief/wildfire-relief.html

The probability of hiking didn't look good but we were optimistic and set out anyways. The always picturesque "Sea to Sky Highway" was unrecognizable. As we approached Pemberton, the skies were clearing and the sun was shining. Although conditions looked to be good at the time, we knew the smoke would eventually make its way up North. Also knowing its not very smart to hike a mountain when the air is filled with smoke, we decided to continue driving.

The Vancouver-Pemberton-Lillooet-Fraser canyon loop was a drive we have always wanted to drive but had never actually set aside any time to do it. One of those things you say, "yeah, one day we should do that", but never actually do. Well today was a good of time as any! We set off on one of the most scenic drives we have had thus far in B.C. With no agenda or place to be, we were free on the open road.

We weaved our way from Pemberton to Lillooet with temperatures reaching well into the mid thirties (Celsius). We had many pit stops along the way. Balancing on floating logs at Duffy Lake, cooling off our feet at multiple points along Cayoosh Creek and observing some Big Horned Sheep grazing along side the canyon highway to name a few.

Sometimes when your day doesn't go as planned, there may be an opportunity for an even greater adventure. Take advantage of any situation to explore the open road, because you never know what hidden gems await you.