I don’t have much to say about the drive between Eastern BC and the Fraser River Valley other than it was truly amazing. I will live here someday. The area renewed a passion of mine I have ignored for a couple of years now–skiing. Several hours after leaving the major national parks–Jasper, Banff, and Yoho, we were surprised when we entered Canada’s Glacier National Park. It was incredible, but interestingly it was different than the others– it was more like a ghost town. It seemed like a national park that never was. It’s facilities were abandoned, entry gates non-existent, and there were no visitors in site. The only vehicles we passed were logging trucks and state workers. But it was phenomenal. The mountains were tall, rivers were wild and and glaciers were more visibly present here than from anywhere along the well-known Icefields Parkway. From there, we entered into Revelstoke. If there was one place that felt like home immediately, it was here. The trails I ran on there even felt like the ones I used to run on back in Amherst along the corn fields and the town itself was like Northampton–just with way bigger mountains. It’s proximity to the mountains, good rock climbing, skiing, mountain biking, and lively mountain town atmosphere make this a place I’ll be sure to call home someday.
Like traveling throughout the Western United States, the Canadian landscape is diverse. The area surrounding Revelstoke was quintessentially British Columbia–it’s green, mountainous, dense, and you can see snow anytime of the year. But just traveling a few hours west, Canada changes slowly as a new landscape slowly unfolds out the windows of the car. mountains are slowly replaced with a vast hill country, trees grow sparser and are replaced with spotty shrubs and sage, and the overall color of the landscape changes from a multi-hued palette of greens and greys to sand brown. When we got to Kamloops, I couldn’t believe how the landscape had changed. It was like driving from the high mountains of Southwest Colorado to the desert of Southeast Utah, although not as extreme.
Highlights: REVELSTOKE. Main Street Café. The Modern Bakeshop and Café. Finding out that street library book exchanges are a thing. Taco Club Food Truck. Climbing at “The Beach” in Kamloops. A piano on the street in downtown Kamloops. The Art We Are, a Kamloops “artisan tea joint.” Fraser River area. The Rugged Bean Cafe in Lillooet.
Joseph Lawrence Olbrych 
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