A CANADIAN WINTER ROAD TRip
Albeit, a western canadian winter road trip...which is really not that bad
Last week our family took a trip up to Sun Peaks, BC to ski and eat and generally have a bunch of fun.
We head up there about once a year after Christmas to hang out with family and friends, and it's always a really great time. We live on Vancouver Island, so to get to Sun Peaks, which is just outside of Kamloops, BC, it's about an eight hour trip...including the ferry. We took the BC Ferries from Nanaimo to Tsawwassen (please, try to pronounce that for me), which took us two hours sea travel, an hour and a half wait time, and my soul. After that, it's not so bad because it's just driving and you don't have to give up control to the extremely expensive and inefficient ferry system (can you tell I have a grudge?).
Traveling styles.
Off the ferry, we took Highway 1 (the Trans Canada) through the bustling lower mainland to Hope. Hope is located at the meeting place of a few major highways throughout BC, and therefore it is a most wretched hive of scum and villainy (imagine that said by Sir Alec Guinness). Of course, I'm basing this solely on the one road with a million gas stations....and I could be wrong. Which I often am.
We continued from Hope and took Highway 5, also known as the Coquihalla, or the 'Highway Thru Hell' (if you ever watched that terrible show). It was snowing quite a bit as we headed out from Hope, which meant that the Coquihalla, which I will refer to from now on as 'the Coq' because I am cool, was probably pretty gnarly. As we gained elevation, the road began to disappear into compact snow and people started to slow down as their panic rose. However, a bunch of slow vehicles balled up in a giant line of traffic on a mountain pass is really not very good.
Luckily, my husband (who is a professional driver) was driving, and he deftly passed pretty much everyone with (as you might have guessed) our small, brave Corolla. Winter tires make a difference, people! It was amusing to see that after we began to overtake car after car, many other vehicles began to make passes as well. Come on everyone, if the Corolla can do it, WE CAN TOO!
We were about half an hour or forty-five minutes on the Coq, which was more than enough time to feel like we had had enough of driving in the snow with idiots. Once we lost elevation and came in to Merritt (country music heaven, look it up), the snow had gone and was replaced by the BC interior's usual COLD AS HELL. Actually, I'm lying. It wasn't as cold as I have previously experienced, perhaps -5C°. From Merritt to Kamloops, and then to Sun Peaks, the drive was uneventful. But then, we were there! Vacation time!
Sun Peaks is awesome. It's made up of three mountains that provide amazing skiing for even the most discerning of skiers. At least, that's what I understand. I, myself, am not the greatest skier. I used to snowboard, but having hurt myself one too many times, I decided to never do it again and take up downhill skiing instead. However, taking up a sport like that as an (extremely nervous) adult, is a lot harder than I thought. It's difficult to hurl yourself down a snowy hill on skis as an adult beginner because now you think "what if I break everything?", or "what if I die?", or "I probably look like such an idiot"...which of course you do. Anyway, I do want to become a better skier because this visit my daughter became obsessed with skiers and snow and now I think I may have to let her ski or run the risk of being an 'uncool Mum'.
The village in Sun Peaks is really pretty neat. It's quaint, and small, and there are dogs everywhere. I'm not sure if that's an all the time thing...but I was very impressed at the (cute) dog population there when we visited. The village is sort of Bavarian looking (I could be wrong in that, see above text about how wrong I am most of the time), but with a lot of colour and comfort. It feels very friendly and welcoming, and everybody is happy there because hey, vacation!
On New Year's Eve watched a torch light parade come down the mountain, which I took a picture of but it just looks like a bunch of red dots on a black background (read: dumb). After the parade they had fireworks, and man, seeing fireworks light up the background of snowy trees was beautiful. I had never seen them before and they might be my favourite fireworks I have seen to date.
Dirtiest car in the neighbourhood, by far.
After a lot of food, laughs, and Mario Kart, we departed and began our journey home. The roads were clear, it was -27°, and exceptionally sunny. Kind of an unexciting trip home, to be honest. We arrived home to a driveway covered in thick ice, a car that is the dirtiest thing I've ever seen, and the stomach flu. I forgot that post-vacation times are the absolute worst. Oh well, at least now I know my daughter wants to ski, and I have a new winter goal for next year: no crying on the slopes.
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Comments (3)
Awesome! Come another 2 hours down the road to revelstoke next time!! the snow just keeps getting deeper!!
Petrol Mum it was awesome!
That sounds like heaps of fun!