Day 11 – Tuesday, July 11th (325 miles, Bellingham, WA to Williams Lake, British Columbia, CA):
Crossed the border today! I left my brothers house in Bellingham around 11am and headed towards the border crossing in Sumas, WA, a short ride of about 40 minutes. I made it through the border with no problems and then drove to the welcome center in Abbottsville, British Columbia to get information and maps before heading further into BC. The first hour and a half of my trip into Canada was on a major highway, Highway 1, with some heavy traffic at times but overall a smooth ride. As I began to ride further into BC and away from the cities, the landscape changed to beautiful mountains and the road followed a river for several hundred miles. There was heavy cloud cover all day, which provided some cool weather, but I was thankfully able to avoid any rain.
A few hours into the ride, I made a quick stop in Yale, BC to walk down to the river to take a few pictures and soak in the beautiful scenery. I then continued on my way north towards Williams Lake, BC, my final destination for the day. The ride overall was amazing and had plenty of rivers, mountains, and farmland to enjoy.
I arrived in Williams Lake around 8pm, got a campsite at the Stampede Campground, and headed to bed. Excited that I am finally in Canada!
Just north of Yale, BC.
Beautiful scenery throughout the day.
First night camping in Canada, at the Stampede Campground in Williams Lake, BC.
Day 12 – Wednesday, July 12th (385 miles, Williams Lake, BC, CA to Smithers, BC,CA):
I woke up this morning at what I thought was about 6am due to the amount of light already in the sky. I got out of my tent and noticed that no one else in the entire campground was awake yet, which seemed unusual to me because again, I thought it was at least 6am. I had no watch and had yet to turn on my phone to actually see what time it was until I had already been packing up my things for nearly half an hour, still wondering why no one else had gotten up. When I finally turned on my phone to see what time it was, it was only 5am!! It now made sense why I was still so tired and I only had to laugh at myself for forgetting that it gets lighter this far north much earlier than I am used to. Although I was extremely tired, it was nice to get an early start on the day.
It was much colder in the morning than I had been used to on the trip up to this point. I had all of my cold weather gear on and began riding towards Prince William. I got into Prince William around 10am, got breakfast at one of the hotels, filled up my gas tank, and then continued west.
The ride for most of the morning and early afternoon was flat and slightly boring with not much exciting scenery to enjoy. As the day progressed, the temperature warmed up nicely and the scenery became, as I began riding through mountains and thick forests. Although I was very tired most of the day, because of the lack of sleep from last night, the day ended well as I arrived in Smithers, BC. Smithers is a fairly popular skiing town with mountains and glaciers in the surrounding area.
I decided not to camp tonight because I wanted to make sure I could get a good nights rest before heading into the part of the trip that I have looked forward to the most since initially planning the trip, the Cassiar Highway.
I got a room at the Silvern Lake Trail Bnb, a house that a couple from Germany had turned into a Bnb, with incredible views of a glacier and several mountains. After dropping off my things at the Bnb, I headed back into town to grab some pizza (ate at Boston Pizza – mediocre pizza at best). I then headed back to the Bnb to call it an early night!
Couldn’t be more excited to begin my journey on the Cassiar Highway tomorrow!
Not a bad view from the Silvern Lake Trail Bnb!
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