100 Mile House

My journal still needed attention, so I settled in for a morning - which quickly turned into an afternoon - blogging session at the Owl Street Cafe just down the street from my motel. I love places that serve breakfast all day. The proprietor dished me up some scrambled eggs, hash browns, and sausage for lunch.

I stayed a full day longer than expected in Hope, but it was a great place to get organized and recharge. I rolled out of town in the late afternoon with a full stomach, alert mindset, and just a vague idea of how far towards Alaska I would get. Before I left Minnesota, I constructed a travel plan on an spreadsheet that included dates, destinations, and distances. I did it in order to get an idea of how long the trip would take me - and I sent a copy to my parents so they would have a rough idea where I was along the way. Because I was meeting up with friends along the way until now, I was exactly on schedule. But from this point out, I was free to roam and go wherever the road took me.

I drove the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) north towards Cache Creek. From there, I switched to Highway 97 north towards Prince George. I had never seen scenery like it; Evergreens were everywhere and the hills rolled gently in every direction. At the crest of each hill, all I could see were more hills of trees. I arrived in 100 Mile House, BC, in search of a comfortable tent pad for the night. 100 Mile House, like its neighbors 93 Mile House to the south and 150 Mile House to the north, was named for the distance from Lillooet, the starting point in a 300-mile trail prospectors followed to the Barkerville gold fields in the 1860s. Parts of the trail can still be seen from the highway.

I located the 100 Mile House municipal campground just off the highway, quickly pitched my tent and prepared supper. My neighbor strolled over to introduce himself. Originally from Hannover, he had been living in Vancouver for the last 25 years. He showed me his jury-rigged sleeping area in the back of his fuel-efficient VW Passat wagon. He complained about the traffic and the crime in Vancouver and then told me that the US should never have invaded Iraq. He declared that 9/11 could have been avoided because the airplanes could have been overridden and controlled remotely from the ground. Then he predicted that the US would nuke Iran in the fall. So time for bed!