Journey Day 15 - Golden to Savona

Woke to a sunny clear sky and the last of our brand hotel breakfasts. Tonight is an independent and our Vancouver hotel doesn't offer it.  We both actually enjoy the hotel continental breakfasts. Most of our mornings start with coffee, orange juice and cereal followed variously by bagels, English muffins, croissants, and the fun bit the waffle machine is sometimes on offer. Fruit and yogurt to finish. Occasionally they will offer crispy bacon, scrambled egg and sausages but we often ignore them as too heavy before sitting in the car for hours.

Through Mountains

Leaving Golden we were quickly in a wide flat bottomed valley with mountains rising both sides. Highway 1 was again a single carriageway at 100 kph for a while.  The 4 laning program which seems to be working along the highway in random bits continues and we had two lanes each way separated by a concrete barrier then back to single and climbing steeply

Highway 1 proceeded up and down through forested foothills with high mountains ahead, some  highlighted with patches of snow at their summits.

Another random piece of time travelling as we drive passed an insignificant road sign telling us that that we have entered a new Time zone; we have moved from Mountain Daylight Time to Pacific Daylight Time and should set out watches back one hour.

Highway 1; Trans Canadian Highway, continues to wind through the mountains with many "snow sheds" to keep it clear in snowy season.  Looking up to the tops of the mountains glaciers are visible in the saddles.

A brief period of pleasurable interesting driving is brought to an end as we enter 15 km of construction work and crawl along  at 30 - 50 kph

Rogers Pass

After climbing for miles we cross over Roger's Pass, so named after the surveyor who found this route over the mountains for the Canadian Pacific Railway which was the key to linking Canada together as en entity from the days when Western Canada threatened to be lost to the US.
The Visitors Center was underwhelming other than an excellent film about bears, their behaviors and how to react to them. It does play on your mind when you walk in bear country; if you get the wrong bear in the wrong mood they are lethal.
There was also a model of the railway route through the pass which used many short tunnels and clung to cliff edges; a heck of an engineering feat for the time.

A brief stop at Rogers Pass summit view point for  photos forward and back

Stopped Again

Onward and yet another construction works sign. The second sign warns of someone holding up a sign board; every roadworks has people employed at both ends holding a small diamond shaped sign on a post, usually yellow with the word SLOW, and waving if people haven't noticed them. I does seem a soul destroying job standing in the heat of the day dress in vivid yellow overalls ans wearing a hard hat.

It was lunchtime and we had nothing with us so we pulled off to Revelstoke town. It was an attractive little town with lots of shops but nothing obviously a sandwich shop. After a tour twice around, we stopped at a bakers but, though they had amazing looking pastries, they only had a few wraps and bits left. We settled for a Three Meats Croissant and a huge Almond Croissant.

Meadows in the Sky Parkway

Returning to the highway, and our National Parks pass still valid till 16:00, we entered Mount Revelstoke National Park of which the central point is high meadows which are covered in snow for much off the years but burst into flower meadows in summer. The Meadows in the Sky Parkway is a  26 km zig-zag climbing road up to the car parks from which a shuttle runs to the summit meadows.

Various pullouts allow views to the surrounding mountains including the Snow Forest mountain ridge below which the Columbia River makes it's way along the valley bottom.

To road edges  as we climb are full of flowers and promise much of the meadows to come.

Unfortunately after 26 km of climbing we encounter a full car park and realise that we must abandon our visit to the meadows as time does not allow walking from further roadside parking and waiting for shuttles. Still, the Parkway drive itself has been lovely and we have had a taste of the meadows in the roadside verges.

Descending again we stop and walk 100m to Panorama Point, a gorgeous spot which we have to ourselves.  The distant mountains are stunning and the ground around us full of flowers.

Half way down, we pull over and in our now habitual way reverse onto a view and sit on the tailgate to eat our meat and sweet croissants which were really good. Though the the Three Meats one did inevitably have a slice of white cheese on it. What is it with this side of the Atlantic?

Highway 1 to Savona

Back at the park entrance it was now 1:30 and we still had 250 km to go so it was time to drive and reduce our photo stops.  The hills became lower and crops and the occasional vineyard appeared in the valleys.  We passed several big lakes which advertised beaches and the feel was that they were the equivalent of us going to the coast for the day- seaside holidays inland.

Still we continued West on our travels along Highway 1. The land became more parched and the hillsides barren. Oddly, the contour and colour of the hillsides became very reminiscent of North Western Scottish Highland and lochs.

With less roadworks and concentrating on keeping moving we arrived at our lodging in Savona in good time. Margaret and Domm run the Lakeside Inn and Margaret welcomed us enthusiastically and showed us to our room on the front of the house with use of the veranda.

End of Day

Self catering tonight, we drove to a Italian takeaway run by the very Italian Maria and ordered pizza. While the pizza was prepared we drove to the other end of town to a small Supermarket who had just what we wanted; Beer, Milk and Ice Cream. It seemed an excellent supermarket for the community.
Back to the room to set up, we though we may eat in the garden at back which runs down to the lake but the time of evening the flies were lifting from the grass and we've both had so many bites in the earlier parts of this trip that we didn't fancy it.
I nipped out and collected the pizza and we settled in two comfy chairs on the veranda, first to eat and then, still connected to WiFi,to write and research.

We have often seen people passing warm evenings outside there houses sitting in covered verandas and now understand why. It was very pleasant.

After the brands, who for some reason insist on putting warm quilts on beds when the nights are warm, it was refreshing that here we had a simple blanket with a top sheet and with an overhead fan available, we turned off the air-con and had a good night's sleep with gentle air movement.

My last action before retiring was spending a while calculating our remaining fuel requirement, a sure sign we are reaching the end of our journey. The rental is full to empty and I don't want to return it with anymore fuel than I have to.

Today's Statistics

Final Timezone crossed

Statistics: Miles today: 295; Miles so far: 3486 ; Fuel added so far: 308.5 litres, 67.9 imp gals; Provinces: British Columbia; Time Zone: UTC-6 Mountain Daylight Time (MDT) and UTC-7 Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)