A Loop of British Columbia, The Fishing Highway

Days in Idaho were trending hot and smoky as we approached the end of July, August was looking hotter and smokier yet. It was time for an extended trip, and we set our sights north to British Columbia. British Columbia is huge. At twice the size of California, well, yes, it is that huge. Thinking of going to tour it for three to four weeks, it is hard to come up with a plan that will really give you a perspective on the province. We weren’t going to “see it all” but we had a few thoughts: try to see some bears in Stewart (BC) and Hyder (Alaska); drive the Cassiar and Alaska Highways (the BC portion of the ALCAN, at least), and generally try to stay out of crowds and away from wildfires. Then I ran across the British Columbia Recreation Sites. Numbering about a thousand, BC Rec Sites are minimally developed sites scattered across the province, with a lot of them being small campgrounds at lakes, and most of those being free to stay at. Our trip planning was done. I downloaded a copy of the waypoints, saved them to GAIA GPS and we had all the info we needed to head north on an extended road trip.

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Backpacking in the White Cloud Mountains, Idaho

Summer was turning into a scorcher and I started looking at the weather map for anywhere we could escape the heat for a few days. It appeared the only place in Idaho that might still stay in the 80’s during the day and cool into the 50’s overnight would be the high elevations of the Sawtooth and White Cloud mountains in the middle of the state. The White Clouds had been on our list as a backpacking “want to do” for a while, so we loaded the packs and headed that direction.

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