1st day on our own-Vanderhoof to The Chasm--Aug.6

Marvin and Dee left about 5 a.m. I put an envelope with a note in it on their door window but he didn't see it until he was already down the road and the note had fallen out. He thought it might have been something the staff put on there and was worried. We stayed for the staff prepared breakfast of hotcakes and the owners brought over a warm coffee cake made of saskatoons (like blueberries, I think) and boy was it good. We said our goodbyes and left and it so happened that Linda and Darrell left before us and Ira and Bev were behind us and we were all going the same direction--down Hwy. 97--so we travelled together the rest of the day. It was fun. Bob and Ira and Darrell enjoyed talking on the CB.

We saw a helicopter with a water bucket going to or from a fire. We went in and out of smoke pretty much all day. There are quite a few old restored trucks and cars on the road. We saw an early 50's chevy pulling a small old camper all painted a light green to match. Saw 2 hawks sitting on posts and one sitting on a hay bale, a farm raising a number of white turkeys and a llama. There are more farms with cows,horses and lots of round hay bales and more growing. There is lots of logging going on here also. There are no mile markers along the road. This used to be a wagon road, I guess, and they had roadhouses so they name them by the mile. They are different distances apart maybe 30 maybe 10 but that is how you find out where you are using the Milepost.

I guess Linda and Darrell stopped for fuel somewhere and they ended up behind Ira and Bev so we had our own caravan. We stopped in Quesnel at a train depot for lunch in our coaches and before we know it here came Jim and Evelyn. They missed the turn so they turned around and came back and talked for awhile. Then Jeff, Noreen, Bill and Marilyn passed us in their rigs. I think they are also going to the Rally in Redmond, OR like Dee and Marvin. We drove on to Williams Lake and the 3 coaches had to stop for a DQ. There was lots of construction on this road. I also saw our first deer grazing on the roadside--he never moved.

Just below the 70 mile house we cut off to go the "The Chasm" supposedly a Provential Park. I am not sure what those are but this was just a pull off on a loop road. This is where we were going to spend the night and it was beautiful. We drove down first to make sure we could all get in there and then used the CB to call in the others. After we parked other people came just to view the area. It was dug out by a receeding glacier and waterfall and is now quite a sight. Bev brought out hamburgers to grill and buns and the rest of us added potato salad, macaroni salad, chips, dip, cheese, pickles and condiments. As we were sitting on the edge of this chasm having dinner and talking we heard something near the edge and thought it was an animal but it was a small rock slide. A little later we heard a loud and long noise from the other side, another rock slide. It sounded like a glacier calving. That was really something. There were a couple of other small ones before we finally broke up the party and went to bed. During the night it rained a little but I never heard a sound.