July 23
Yeah we didn’t have to get up as early to catch the 1015 ferry back to Surrey. We did have to drive from Campbell River but 0600 getting up is better than 0500. The drive to the ferry was uneventful and we had time for a great coffee at the ferry terminal. Greg did think that a Nanaimo bar was good for breakfast. As we waited to board, Greg did a search on the history of the Nanaimo bar.
I know that we are just itching to know this history….The earliest confirmed printed copy of the recipe using the name “Nanaimo bars” appears in the Edith Adams’ prize cookbook (14th edition) from 1953. However, following research into the origins of Nanaimo bars, the same recipe was published in the Vancouver Sun earlier that same year under the name “London Fog Bar”. The recipe later also appears in a publication entitled His/Her Favourite Recipes, Compiled by the Women’s Association of the Brechin United Church (1957) in Nanaimo. In 1954 the recipe “Mabel’s Squares” was published in The Country Woman’s Favorite in the Upper Gloucester Women’s Institute (New Brunswick) and the ingredients list, quantities, and fabrication closely match the recipe found on the City of Nanaimo’s website. The first printing of recipes featuring Nanaimo bar ingredients is found in the 1952 Women’s Auxiliary to the Nanaimo Hospital Cookbook etc.
After arrival we headed to our RV and started to get things ready for our departure the next day. We were lucky to discover that the guy next door headed out to work at 0700 so our one big concern about getting out was a non issue. As we were thinking about the next few days we realized that we had met our goal … we actually did go sea to sea.
July 24
Now that our neighbour moved his van, my dear husband used his extraordinary skill and drove right out of our tiny spot and we headed out. We debated which route we would go … Hell’s Gate or Coquihalla. Finally as we neared Hope, a big sign near the highway indicated that there was road construction on the Coquihalla and to expect delays. That and the very heavy cloud cover helped us make up our minds and we headed to Hell’s Gate. Surprising there was little traffic and we zipped past Hell’s Gate with a wave. Margery told us that there had been a rock slide on the Fraser River the end of June and this posed major concerns for the salmon going up the river to spawn and we thought there may have been all sorts of activity along the road. They were dynamiting this area to widen the river. We discovered that the slide had been near Clinton which was further north than where we were going. We were quite pleased that the hills at Hell’s Gate posed no problem.
Then we got to Ashcroft. We should have realized as we went down the hill to the town (pretty) that we might have to go back up. That we did. There were no level spots. We would get to a corner and think this must be it but no…more hill… we went up to 1,728 meters. Ashcroft is at 335 meters, so yeah, it was a pretty steep climb out of the valley. The truck did well but it and we were glad when we reached the top. To help cool the engine Greg did his trick where he opens all the windows and turns the heater on to its highest temperature setting with the fan at top speed. You could actually see the motor temperature drop. This summit near Ashcroft is the Pennask Summit at 1,728 meters is second in BC only to the Kootenay Pass at 1,744 meters (which we also did on this trip).
By contrast, the notorious Coquihall Pass is only 1,244 meters. While on the topic of passes, we also did Crowsnest at 1,358 meters, Allison Pass at 1,342 meters, Sunday Summit at 1,282 meters, Bonanza Pass at 1,535 meters and Anarchist Summit (who comes up with these names?) at 1,236 meters. And they called those hills in “northern” Ontario mountains?
One of the draws on this route was the chance to have a look at the Highland Valley Copper Mine, which is not in the valley but up on the top of the Thompson Plateau which is just east of the Pennask Summit. This mine is huge like you cannot imagine. It is the largest open-pit copper mine in Canada and is one of the largest open-pit mines anywhere in the world. Ashcroft and Logan Lake exist primarily to service the mine. Mine ‘product’ is trucked across the Thompson Plateau, down from the Pennask Summit to Ashcroft where it is loaded on trains, shipped to Vancouver where they load it on ships to be transported around the world. The tailings pond is so large that it appears that around 48.5 million tonnes of tailings are pumped annually.
Logan Lake is the other community that exists to serve the mine. By any measure, Logon lake is a very new community as it came into existence in the 60s and 70s to support the mine. It is a very clean, neat and well maintained community which features a small lake on the north and east edge of town. Pedestrians have been considered right from the beginning which provides well laid out walking paths and walking routes throughout the community as we discovered while exploring. The area near the rv park has 24 hour security provided by a rather large flock of geese that seem to keep an eye on anything out of the ordinary. Logan Lake has developed a very unique solution to the distribution of cable tv and radio. Logan Lake has an all volunteer TV Society which re-broadcasts 27 channels of digital tv and 6 fm radio stations via airwaves. The system is run like a small cable tv company except that they broadcast via air waves and subscriptions are paid for through property taxes.
Our goal was Logan Lake and we were given a lovely spot right on the lake. Indeed the water seemed inches away from the back of the RV. If Greg could eat fish, we might have gone out and caught supper as the lake is stocked with Rainbow trout. Only paddle boats and those with electric motors are allowed on the lake so it is extremely quiet.
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