I went to Williams Lake this week to see some of my family. Of course, I had to go out in the Cruiser while there!
My step father George and I set out on our 12 hour mini-expedition across the steep mountain terrain and pristine alpine meadows that make up the Barkerville Wagon Rd (Now Yank's Peak Snowmobile Trail) in the central Cariboo. Around 2,000 meters elevation;
The scenery was SO amazing I cannot begin to explain or illustrate with pictures. But I thought I would share these.
Enjoy!
We left Williams Lake about 10:00AM and drove up the Likely Rd until and made a detour to Quesnel Forks ghost town, where we had lunch.
After which we set back out and crossed the Cariboo River on our way to Keithley Creek.
The "back way" to Barkerville most people know and refer to is a dirt super-highway. This is what's marked on the maps and on the road. Turn right to Barkerville... we of course went straight, on to Keithley Creek.
Met up with Cariboo Lake... and then stopped at the Keithley Creek cemetery.
It took us a while to find the right trail to take out of Keithley. A lot has changed in the time George had been up there last. In fact, he supervised the planting of a LOT of the reforested area up there... now full grown trees. I asked him the last time he had been that way, his answer: 35 years.
Needless to say, the exact trail he remembered was not there anymore. A local miner directed us to "Hampton Trail", which ended up to be a deactivated ATV trail through the bush and up the side of the mountain.
Hampton Trail emptied out onto Barkerville Rd (the old wagon route between Keithley Creek and Barkerville from the 1800's). Not sure exactly where, we got lost 3 times. While we were lost though, we did run across an old mine which was cool.
Had some fun with axles...
After a while the trail turned into mostly a dried up creek bed that eventually went right up the mountain side into the alpine.
The road wasn't bad at first, but quickly became steep shale, slippery rocks and boulders. I didn't manage to get a pic of the steepest part (should have, damn it...) as I was concentrating too much on the sky while driving
After a while we entered the alpine.
And my... how ************ ing amazing was it.
My step father George and I set out on our 12 hour mini-expedition across the steep mountain terrain and pristine alpine meadows that make up the Barkerville Wagon Rd (Now Yank's Peak Snowmobile Trail) in the central Cariboo. Around 2,000 meters elevation;
The scenery was SO amazing I cannot begin to explain or illustrate with pictures. But I thought I would share these.
Enjoy!
We left Williams Lake about 10:00AM and drove up the Likely Rd until and made a detour to Quesnel Forks ghost town, where we had lunch.
After which we set back out and crossed the Cariboo River on our way to Keithley Creek.
The "back way" to Barkerville most people know and refer to is a dirt super-highway. This is what's marked on the maps and on the road. Turn right to Barkerville... we of course went straight, on to Keithley Creek.
Met up with Cariboo Lake... and then stopped at the Keithley Creek cemetery.
It took us a while to find the right trail to take out of Keithley. A lot has changed in the time George had been up there last. In fact, he supervised the planting of a LOT of the reforested area up there... now full grown trees. I asked him the last time he had been that way, his answer: 35 years.
Needless to say, the exact trail he remembered was not there anymore. A local miner directed us to "Hampton Trail", which ended up to be a deactivated ATV trail through the bush and up the side of the mountain.
Hampton Trail emptied out onto Barkerville Rd (the old wagon route between Keithley Creek and Barkerville from the 1800's). Not sure exactly where, we got lost 3 times. While we were lost though, we did run across an old mine which was cool.
Had some fun with axles...
After a while the trail turned into mostly a dried up creek bed that eventually went right up the mountain side into the alpine.
The road wasn't bad at first, but quickly became steep shale, slippery rocks and boulders. I didn't manage to get a pic of the steepest part (should have, damn it...) as I was concentrating too much on the sky while driving
After a while we entered the alpine.
And my... how ************ ing amazing was it.
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