27 Years!

Our latest trip was an annual event for us. It was our 27th wedding anniversary and we went on our favourite kind of trip... a DA trip.




Now if you've read my other blog you already know what DA stands for - it means drive aimlessly.

That is a bit of an overstatement... we do have a plan of sorts. But normally we set a particular destination in mind and then we just head in that general direction. Often (and I mean often) the road will have other little roads attached to it... those roads just beg to be explored. There may be a geocache (or two or three) along the way. OK who am I kidding? I plan the entire trip around finding geocaches alright?

Where we sleep the first night is usually a mystery and we love our trusty 4Runner and SUV tent. Best invention!

This trip took us to the area around Barriere and Maclure. After the devastating forest fires there a few years ago we wanted to see what it looked like now. It was pretty amazing to see... I had no idea the fire was so big and that it jumped the river!


We found some pretty cool caches... one called Black Pines Vista that had the most breathtaking view of the North Thompson Valley. As we were travelling up the gravel road to get to this cache Tony kept saying... who is crazy enough to put a geocache here? And I said... "well we're crazy enough to go find it!" If you're ever doing some caching in this area make sure you get this one. The view is worth the bumpy drive.


We travelled all the way up the west side of the North Thompson, crossed over the bridge at Barriere and made our way down the East side of the river. We treated ourselves to a lovely night at the Howard Johnson & dinner out but the best part of our day was the spectacular sunset that we shared from our hotel room patio. Absolutely breathtaking.

The next day we decided to travel west to the #1 and go home through the Fraser Canyon instead of taking the Coq. I love the Coquihalla highway when I'm in a hurry but for spectacular scenery the Canyon is my favourite route.

Of course, before we even hit Cache Creek, we had to take some side trips. Tony haD always wanted to explore the area around Deadman Creek so we took a little detour. Except for spotting a young eagle on the hoodoos it was pretty uneventful. Then as we turned a corner we saw something 'slithering' into the bushes in front of us! It was a very big rattlesnake!! I have only seen one rattlesnake in the wild before this so this close encounter jaggled my nerves just a
bit...especially when Tony decided to try and 'coax' it back out with a stick! crazy man....












After a wonderful lunch at Herbie's in Cache Creek we meandered down the Canyon, finding new caches all along the way. Before we knew it we were crossing the bridge at Agassiz. "Hey!" I said, "That's the beach where we camped the first night of our honeymoon!"



The man I married 27 years ago looked at me and said, "I know... I thought you'd want to see it today so I drove this way just for you."

Awwwww.......