Clearwater

Day 215 – An introduction to winging it

This morning Jeff took the wheel and we headed off north from Whistler, taking the scenic route toward Kamloops.  Our eventual destination was Banff, but we had a couple of days to cover the distance so we decided to go for the scenic option rather than direct up the Trans-Canadian Highway.

Lake Lillooet, our first rest stop of the day.

On the outskirts of Lillooet we stopped in at a winery, but they’d not yet had their own harvest and were instead selling wine made from grapes from the Okanagan Valley a couple of hundred kilometres away.  It wasn’t bad stuff but it was a little pricey.

For lunch we stopped at a fruit winery in Cache Creek.  Their wine was made from a wide variety of fruits (some of which we’d never even heard of), most of which were grown on their farm.  Varieties included Salmonberry, Raspberry, Apricot and Honey. 

In Kamloops we tried to stop at a microbrewery to round out the hat trick, disappointingly the brewery was gone, so we turned north and headed up the Upper Fraser Valley in search of accommodation for the night.

At first Marg was a little hesitant about winging it, but we convinced her it would be OK for one night.  When we got to the little town of Clearwater we decided that we had travelled far enough for a day and went in search of accommodation.  The first place we looked at was right on the lake, but a bit too pokey for the six of us.  The second place was a bit more rundown, but much roomier, cheaper and also over-looked the beautiful lake, quite a winner in the end.

Standing on our balcony.

It turned out that not much happens in Clearwater on a Sunday afternoon.  We found the one place left open with beer (crisis averted) but ended up having to acquire dinner ingredients from the service station, not great but we got by.

Provisions obtained we headed down to the little beach on the lake.  Jeff and I each had a swim and then Erin, Kat, Elliott and I sat around on the shore for a while.  The temperature was still in the high 20s, quite a pleasant change from the cool coastal weather.

 

 
Out for an evening stroll.