HaveKidsWillTravel

Now there’s a big difference between private RV parks (which are all you have in the cities) and campgrounds in state parks – the RV parks have plenty of facilities – power, water, WiFi, swimming pools, hot showers, laundry, but all you have in the way of personal space is a concrete pad and a square of grass in what is basically a big RV parking lot – filled with retired couples in matching shell suits who can talk for a long time about their gas mileage. State park campgrounds vary, but tend to have limited facilities – a long walk to a rustic toilet block with luke-warm showers, but are often in spectacular settings – with your own firepit, picnic bench, and you’re more likely to see marauding raccoons than nosy neighbours.

So we settled in and hardly moved the next day. The mossy pine forest was still damp from the past few days of rain, and there was a cold, cold wind coming down from the snowcapped mountains around us – the kids rode their bikes around the campsite and the lake, while we sat around with our guidebooks planning the next stage of the journey and poking at the campfire.

With some kind of plan figured out, we stopped at Whistler the next morning for Fiona to find an internet cafe to try and book ferry tickets while I kept the kids occupied on a cultural tour – showing them what life will be like for them someday as a penniless backpackers working on the ski fields. Digby was a bit disappointed there was no snow in the ski village, but the road North to Lillooet just seemed to keep going up and up, so we stopped for lunch close to the pass – where there are still feet of snow. Digby was ecstatic, and instigated some serious snowball fights on the walk to the lake where Evie sank through the ice into knee-deep freezing lake water. Angus won the snowball fight with a direct hit to the back of my head that slipped all down the back of my shirt. Till next time.

We made it to ‘Historic Hat Creek Ranch’ and shared the communal campfire with a bunch of German travellers. For the first time in days, we had some warm sunshine, so spent the afternoon riding, and wrestling on the grass. Angus discovered the ancient art of Frisbee while Digby scared off the only other toddler with his over-enthusiastic friendmaking. We had a lovely big grassy campsite, so Angus and I set up the new tent for the first time as a bit of a test run and actually got a pretty good night sleep (although I think Fiona and Evie got a better one, getting the whole beds inside to themselves!)

Next morning we toured the historical village, did the obligatory stagecoach ride and headed up into central BC. Down out of the mountains, the landscape through this part of the country is beautiful this time of year – spring blossoms and new growth the aspen contrasting with the dark green of the pines, scattered lakes, rivers in full flood, broad green rolling hills and distant snowy peaks.

If only it didn’t just seem to go on forever…