ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, DAY II

 This morning we got up in Whistler and reboarded our train.

Because of the wildfires, our route for today is somewhat altered.  We will be going on the normal route as far as the village of Lillooet.  The train cannot go from there on to Quesnel as planned due to these fires.  From Lillooet we board busses and travel to Sun Peaks Resort, about an hour above Kamloops.  From there we will continue to Jasper tomorrow.

This improvised campground is one of the staging areas for firefighters from many countries who have come to fight the wildfires.  Beside the field of tents was another one of campers.  On our way we also watched a helicopter dip a giant bucket of water from a lake beside our tracks and head out toward the nearest fire.We learned that there are firefighters from all over Canada here, plus 300 from Mexico,  more from Australia and New Zealand, but there are no firefighters from the United States…why?

Most of our day today we followed right beside a series on very long lakes.  You can see some haziness in the atmosphere (and reflection in the window) as we travel on the windward side of the fires.

The lakes seemed endless and were exquisitely beautiful. There are cabins along the shores, some of which can only be reached by boat.

Wonder what people do who live way up here?  Lumber is one of the biggest industries.  We passed numerous log yards along the lakes…floating the logs is the easiest way to move them…with yards of milled lumber resting beside them.

 By the end of the day we had passed all of the smoke.  When we head to Jasper tomorrow there will be clear skies all the way.  The temperatures here go to the eighties in the afternoon with no rain in sight.  The fires are still a long way from control.