Lac Le Jeune

As we continue to make tracks from the Rockies to Vancouver, we are getting a better sense of the highways through this region. I get the impression that I don’t like traveling on Trans Canada Highway 1. This is based on the fact that this particular travel day involved a perceived shortage of passing lanes or turnouts, high speed limits, trucks, and a whole lot of wind. Now, the highway is not responsible for the wind conditions, but in general, if there is weather that makes me want to go slow, it really helps to have passing lanes or pull outs so people who want to go fast can get by me. We had a confusing time navigating through Revelstoke to get gas, and right away the wind picked up. It made for a stressful departure from the Revelstoke area and though I noticed the objective beauty of the landscape we were passing through, I couldn’t enjoy it at all. When we later got onto Highway 5, there were passing lanes consistently and I was a much happier camper. I’m not sure if that impression holds true in general, or if it was just this stretch of road. I’m noting for future travel, that it might be better to try taking 16 out of Jasper and hooking up with 5 to do most of the southbound traveling. It also makes a difference whether we are traveling vs visiting. I think there are lots of beautiful things to see in the Revelstoke area, but then we would plan for stays of several days and shorter travel times. All of those factors combine into less stressful moves from one place to another.

In any case, we really liked this provincial park. It has nice private sites and I accidentally picked a great one with views of the lake and lots of solar. There is a trail that goes around the lake, and as soon as we got set up, Richard went and did that while I decompressed with crochet projects. I really love my new hobby, but I got spooked by a hand strain after overdoing it with my initial enthusiasm. I will for sure see a physical therapist when I get home, but in the meantime, I’m on my own with the internet and YouTube for advice. I’ve really pulled back and have implemented self imposed time limits and a bunch of stretches. I also picked up a compression glove thing and an ace bandage to try to keep from re-straining the base of my thumb. Camping is a very physical endeavor, with potential for pulling that specific hand area every time I bike, hitch/unhitch, make the bed, use hiking sticks, open wine bottles, all the normal things you do for enjoyment when you travel. So I keep it wrapped out of an abundance of caution. I also ordered a specific CMC thumb joint brace and had it delivered to my friend on Whidbey Island for pickup in a couple of days. Welcome to your 60s. Now you get to be excited over picking up a hand brace. Jeez.

We got to stay put for 2 nights here and that really helps with travel fatigue. We decided to spend the day checking out the relatively large city of Kamloops. We drove about twenty miles back on Lac Le Jeune Road, which is a nice road and a nice quiet way to get to and from the campground from Kamloops. There is a paved bike trail along the river we wanted to check out, so we parked at Riverside Park and got our bikes out. This is one of those trails that hugs the river as much as it can, and then skirts busy roadways when it can’t. It’s simultaneously a nice trail, and not a nice trail, if you know what I mean. We checked it out along the northeastern arm, across the bridge, which was about a ten mile ride. At that point, rain was threatening and we were hungry, so we paused and put the bikes back in the car.

Kamloops is a fun town, with lots of restaurants and a big community park where they were getting ready for big festivities to celebrate Canada Day. We chose Klasske’s Bistro, which serves Donairs. I’d never heard of these, but they are kind of like gyro wraps. Delicious! We got a steak donair with lots of fillings inside and a really delicious tahini and hummus sauce. So good. For our ice cream fix, we went to Scoopz, which is right by the park and has a great variety of flavors.

We were good at that point to call it a day and head back, but also wanted to get gas in town without Dory in tow. It turned out there is a Costco in Kamloops that that made us irrationally excited. We are simple people. Give us the familiarity of a Costco, with somewhat less expensive gas, a $1.50 hot dog, double chocolate chunk cookie, and a caramel brownie sundae, and we’re super happy. For the record, the caramel sundae in Canadian Costco is way better than our version in Concord, with far more sticky caramel sauce and superior amounts of brownie chunks. Just so you know. Also, there is poutine on the Costco food court menu in Canada, so that’s fun. This is the kind of information I know you depend on in reading this blog. When you’re planning your vacations, I know you’re thinking, “But what is the caramel content in the sundaes at the Costco food court in Kamloops??” No worries. I’ve got you covered. You’re welcome.

Then it was back to Dory where I finished horse hair and Richard did another loop around the lake going the other direction. Also for the record, he ate most of that caramel sundae. He needed to work it off and I had a horse to finish. I can’t show you the other project I finished because it is a gift for a friend who actually reads this blog. But suffice to say, it came out cute.

We would stay here again happily. It’s a super nice park and the proximity to a biggish city means lots of things could be restocked, purchased, what have you. Also nice to have cell service. Kamloops is central to a lot of routes to and from the Rockies, so I could see us staying here again. Good stay.

Total miles from Martha Creek PP: 168.0, 15.1 mpg (headwinds), 4 hours 8 min. Site 108 no hookups. Good dump for $5. Good cel for both. Lots of solar in this site. Most sites shady. Trail around lake. View of lake. Lac Le Jeune Road is very nice.