At Sunshine Valley we met a wonderful couple who have been RVing for some time and were familiar with the area. They told us about the Lightning Lakes and a steep and curvy drive up to wonderful alpine meadows near a place in Manning Park. We drove there and the road was steep with many tight switchbacks. There was a viewpoint but the road continued as a gravel road…we had to go higher – We were rewarded with some spectacular sites…sorry for the many photos.
Our first view of the meadow.
There were these beautiful wildflowers.
We climbed higher and there were more meadows.
Linda on this trail head. The Paintbrush Trail is named for the Indian Paintbrush Plant that is growing alongside the trail…the red flower in the wildflower photo above.
The trail continues and goes very very far and over some mountains…not this time for us.
Heading back down…more views.
and more wildflowers … so much variety.
We then went to the Lighting Lakes park and found this…
There was a funny Dam sign.
It was time to move on and try dry camping…no hook ups. We had planned on going to Cultis Lake as many people said it was very beautiful … it was and that beauty was being shared by a great many people – we couldn’t get a campsite. We thought Chilliwack Lake campground would provide us with a better chance of finding a nice place to camp. When we arrived, even many of those camps were getting filled so we hurriedly found one in a dark corner. We camped there and found the refrigerator was not working. No lights and completely dead. Once again, no cellular service at this campsite so we had to wait until the next day…we were being watched by this guy.
The next day it was raining and we hooked up again. We left chairs and things on the site so we could keep it, despite having the site tag and drove back to Chilliwack to Escape Trailer to have them look at this. Once we found cellular signal (about 40 minutes into the drive) we called them and they told us to stop in and they would fix the problem. They knew what the problem was and the 6 cubic foot 3 way Dometic refrigerator was fixed. The problem affects 20% of the 3 way refrigerators and the issue is a fusible link from the 12 V system. They replaced it and we decided that we didn’t really use the 12 V system and would give disconnecting that part a try. It was worked since on propane and 120V AC power.
We drove back to Chilliwack Lake and found a better campsite with some sun to be able to test out the solar panel on the roof. The campgrounds were nice and we did some hikes. One to Lindeman lake.
The blue of Lindeman Lake.
Logs and the rock fall.
The rocky trail.
And the nice foot bridge.
When we returned to the park on Friday…it was full.
Luckily we were already there.
We did a nice hike to yet another footbridge and Linda made sure that there was a goofy photo of me by the lake.
and the shameless selfie.
We found a bridge that had many salmon underneath getting ready to spawn.
A trail to Radium Lake…we decided that it was too far this day to do the full trail, so we only went a little ways.
We did some bicycling.
Many others that were part of the Trans Canada Trail. I’m sure we’ll do more.
Linda did some cooking…
Puck seems to be adjusting to all this and has become familiar with the trailer as we were in one place for 4 days.
Now it’s time to leave and head up to Camperland!
