Day 7: 9/22/2010
Green Lake Provincial Park, BC-Tacoma Washington, USA! 415 miles
http://goo.gl/maps/3cfK

I was up about an hour before Mathew for a change, and I kept hearing things falling on the tent. We had the tent under a big spruce tree, so I thought it was just bits falling from it. But when I got out of the tent, I was nearly hit with a spruce cone and looked up in time for eye contact with the kamikaze squirrel who was trying to get rid of us. It quickly launched more cones down at the tent, and that squirrel had some great aim! Squirrels throughout our travels have seemed to be faxing our photos ahead to warn the next batch, so I think this was the final act of warfare. Hilarious way to wake up :-) We late saw he squirrel sprinting across the next campsite away from us holding a couple cones in its mouth. Also in the tree for a bit were the first crows of the trip! Before that I think it was all ravens. That means we're going south! At some point, I think the first day on the Cassiar, we crossed some hills/mountains and left fall behind abruptly. The folliage went from golds, yellows, and oranges back to greens. So... back in time or heading south?

Now that it was light, we saw the first cattle guard things in the road back to the highway... ranching territory! We took Highway 97 to Cache Creek and then took Trans Canada Route 1 to the border!!!! Route 1 is gorgeous! We drove through the Thompson Canyon and the Fraser Canyon, and saw railroad tracks from the Canadian Pacific Railroad on one side of the river and the Canadian National Railroad on the other. We stopped at Gold Pan Provincial Park in Thompson Canyon to get photos of the railway tunnels, which was beautiful! Mostly the guard rails were in my way, so I was happy to stop.

Between the two canyons we saw fruit stands!!!! We finally stopped and got apples and a pear from one, and yummy! And then we went on the Hells Gate Tramway! Complete tourist trap. You take a tram 500 feet down across the river to where they have gift shop, restaurant... lol, and nice museum and great views! It was totally worth it, and made me laugh thinking of places I go all summer. There's a suspension bridge to walk across there, with metal grating. If I wasn't taking photos I doubt I would have gone far, but no fear will stop the photography! Lol, it was very pretty.

And awesome history!! The main attraction there is seeing the Hells Gate portion of the canyon, named by an explorer in the 1800s after he made it through on logs hung from the walls by the native peoples. He said he had "passed the gates of hell." Very apt name! When the railroads came through in 1931, they caused an avalanche that narrowed the river enough that the salmon could no longer make it back up to their spawning grounds. Sad! In the 1940s Canada started putting in fishways, and completed a few more in the 1960's. We saw some of the salmon using the fishways! It was really amazing, and this is the first year the population numbers migrating through are back to where they were before the avalanche! Very exciting!

Then on to the border, back in the USA... Almost... First we had to dispose of all the contraband (apple cores) and... er... I mean, we made it back just fine... Lol. We headed down some highway (we got lost a bit and took small roads back to Highway 542 to Bellingham, where we got some dinner and internet at the Barnes and Noble in Bellingham. And then Interstate 5 to Tacoma! Willa's advice to not look at the Boeing Airfields near Seattle while driving was well taken, (apparently Bill likes to watch the planes instead of the road at that point, lol. Love him!) Mathew looked and I drove, teamwork! Mathew saw a 787, a new plane made of carbon fiber!

We made it to Willa's house in Tacoma!! There was a bit of confusion when Willa tried to find us in front of the door and we were on the other side of the corner, but one of her housemates pointed us in the right direction. It was very funny because we were talking on the phone saying "No, you're not here because I'm standing right here and I can't see you!" "Yes, we are, we're on the exact streets you told us to go to!" Classic Willa Bonnie moment. Many hugs from home for Willa and then some fun talking inside with Lucy Moore and Willa before heading off for a late night campus tour. It seems like a great campus! Along the way we got held up in typical small school fashion while Willa ranted with some classmates from her favorite class... Rat Lab. Willa's rat Mikey is well loved... ish. Then we got the sleeping bags onto the couches and headed for bed! Night All!