I have three things I want to get out in this post
1- The Bella Coola Valley
2- the 4x4 trip I took today
3- this place where I am staying
Last first
On top is a picture I took yesterday after setting up.
This is one of my top five camp settings ever.
Awe inspiring
Eagle Lodge
It is primarily a lodge which is a hotel or an upscale B&B... I dunno but click on the link and read about it.
Also read more about the Bella Coola valley later in this post to get a sense of what those mountain peaks do for this valley but I am alone in this RV park with wifi, water, and shore power on a flat spot for $18C... nine toonies is all (I have to write something soon on the monetary system up here).
And of course the hosts are as always BC congenial... the smoothest nicest people on the face of this earth are these Canadians.
And Canadians can be found all over Canada too!
So not to leave this subject too early let's talk about the grounds
Well mowed and clean
They have room for four RVs, four or five tent campers waaay back in the woods and away from the RVers and they have a cute little cabin to tent out... with a microwave.
Toilets are clean and cared for pit-types
No laundry but they offer a laundry service... I got my normal six dollars worth of maytag-quarters laundry done for $5C (two toonies and a loonie).
Showers?
Talk about showers
This is the cutest outside-ish shower I have ever seen... check it out.
That was a thrilling shower... well "thrilling"? ummm hell it was great to stand in the gigantic big room with no worries about getting anything wet... no shower curtains to pull... no skid strips in the bottom of the tub to insure you dont fall.. it was like a wilderness shower and it was sorta thrilling to me (gimme a break).
I wanted to go right back and take another shower but I dont think its part of the deal.
I'm going to watch for when the lights go out in the lodge tonight and sneak back in and do a wilderness shower in the dark!!!
... this is a long glaciated valley similar to so many on the BC coast. When looking at it from above (map) for the first time, and understanding that glaciers are plastic flows squeezed out of the bottom of thick and heavy ices fields, then it's obvious that the caribou plateau (Williams lake to Anahim lake for example) was the ice field that fed all of these grinding arms of movement. In fact this glacier gash extends far beyond the Bella Coola terminus as a salt water canal.
And this explains the heat!
This is sea level and the environmental lapse rate for temperature dictates high temps at sea level and low temps in the mountains. I thought that maybe since I was going to be "on the ocean" that a sea breeze would cool things off like it does along any coast. Well looking at the image you can see that the "sea breeze" is blocked so here we sit in 100 degree F heat with no breeze and lots of humidity!
I took a 4x4 trip of about 16 miles to Blue Jay lake... one of the best I've been on this side of Utah. I was going to launch the Kayak but the flies were awful!!!!
I could have gone further down the road but the going was over very sharp rocks and I didnt want to chance a puncture.
You can see a portion of the road in this image:
Here is the top of the pass
