Day 4 - Lynden, WA to Williams Lake BC

Got up early this morning and were on the road just after 7:00AM. We wanted to get to the border which was only 10 miles away. Only one car was in front of us when we got there. Walt was first to cross the border. He made it straight through. Don and I both got pulled aside for more paperwork.

Agent: Where are you going?
John: Alaska
Agent: Citizenship?
John: US
Agent: Carrying any firearms?
John: No
Agent: Ever been arrested?
John: No
Agent: How about DUI?
John: No
Agent: Anything else you'd like to tell me?
John: (Is this a trick question? What does his computer say?) Ummmm, nope!
Agent: Pull over and go inside. (handing me a piece of paper)
John: (drat!)

Just had to get a couple of things stamped and I was out in less than a minute. Don took a couple more minutes and we were cleared.

Walt explained that he told the agent that his parents were born in Canada and that he visits frequently. I guess that makes Walt an almost-Canadian-citizen.

Once we crossed the border we stopped at a bank to get some Canadian money and have some breakfast.

The ride from the border to Hope is what I thought all of British Columbia would look like. (It didn't!) The mountains were heavily wooded, lush, and green. From Hope we turned north the ride up the Fraser river. The river was very full with a fast current. Must still be lots of winter runoff coming down.

Surprising to me was the change of landscape just after Hells Gate. The landscape changed to look like the eastern side of the Sierras. Dry, brown, brush, gravel, desert. It stayed that way until we got to Cache Creek.

(Quick side note on Hells Gate. If you can tell from the picture it is a gorge with lots of water going through it. A sign nearby said that there 200 million gallons of water per minute goes through at peak times. That's two times the rate of Niagara falls.)

From Cache Creek north the landscape changed to what I think we'll expect a lot of. Rolling hills, wooded, but not dense. It feels "northern". The days are getting longer now.

Weather is still being quite good to us. Riding temperatures are in the 60's. It feels good to be all bundled in riding gear with the fresh cool air.

I'm finding that my mind is not as active as it was the first day. I can pass a lot of time not thinking about much but the scenery and counting miles/time.

(P.S. I gave up checking gas mileage and gas costs. With gas prices in Canadian cents per liter and the conversion rate it wasn't worth bothering with. Gas prices have been from 85 to 97 cents so far. You can figure it out if you want.)

My pet paranoia: I'm going to lose something. With all the unpacking and packing every day something is going to get left behind.

End of the day, the laundry is all done, we've all caught up on our email from home. Just a little more tech business, trying to get my GPS recognized and loaded with maps from Walt's computer, and we'll be off to bed.