Wild camping at Similkameen River

Similkameen River, British Columbia,

Canada
May 15, 2019

 

What a fantastic day it’s been since leaving Vancouver. I feel more confident with Buddy now. We purposely didn’t go too far in the first week or two. That allowed me time to get a better feel of Buddy and to feed back to Jim any small issues we came across. With us not venturing too far it was easy to get back to Vancouver and with Jim’s fantastic help and generosity we now feel more confident heading further afield into the great unknown.

 

With Buddy all sorted nice and early we headed East out of Vancouver. Past Chilliwack and Jones lake and on towards the small town of Hope. Hope is a very small town indeed. Only a few streets, the usual Tim Horton’s and Subway etc. and with the weather taking a turn for the worse we decided to keep on moving East to see what we could find.

Once out of Hope and on Highway 3 the cloud started to clear and we were treated to quiet open roads. It was starting to feel like a road trip now. Mile after mile of snaking tarmac cutting it’s way through dense forest and rugged hills and mountains. My portable speaker I brought with me has broken somehow and with no radio signal this far out we had to settle for the one and only CD that had been left in the van when we bought it from Jim……Aerosmith’s “Big Ones”. It certainly fitted the mood. Cruising along the Highway, occasionally passing huge 18 wheel trucks that were hauling impossible amounts of lumber across the country and Aerosmith blasting out of the speakers. This was the life.

 

After a few hours driving we started to pass a few signs for places of interest to stop off at. We had passed one for a Rhododendron trail, so we turned off the highway and headed back to take a look and see if there were any in bloom. As we got out of the van and were reading the notice board another car pulled up and a guy hopped out and came over to talk to us. He introduced himself as Cody, a Geologist from Alberta who was headed to Vancouver for his daughters wedding. He was a really friendly guy. From what he was saying he was a geologist within the oil industry. Sometimes dropped by helicopter in the middle of the arctic to asses areas for potential oil drilling. He was a bit of a character. Dressed in his jeans and immaculate waist coat, round John Lennon glasses and slicked back hair. He has passed this trail before when it’s been in bloom but this time of year is a little too early. As we stood chatting he produced a joint from his waistcoat pocket and offered it around. This guy talked and talked and talked. All very interesting as well. Everything from politics and the economy to the quality of smoke down in Mexico! He said he was 65 but didn’t look a day over 50. He looked like he should be off to a Grateful Dead gig, this guy was your genuine stoner hippy and it was cool to spend some time hearing his stories and various bits of advice on good places we should check out. The Canadians we have met so far have really lived up to their reputation of being immensely friendly. With time getting on we bid our farewells and cracked on up the Highway to the theme tune of Aerosmith for the 10th time that day. 

When we had checked our map at Hope we had decided to try and aim for the small frontier town of Princeton. As we cruised along Dani checked the Ioverlander app again that we have been using to find camp spots. We have been using it with the wild camping spots turned off, assuming that the wild spots were those that were only accessible by hiking into the wilderness. It’s something we plan on doing when we grab a small tent but as she turned the wild spots on we realised that lot’s of these spots are accessible by vans and there was one a little further back down the highway that we had just passed. We decided to check it out and swung the van back around in search of a small forest access road. 

 

Sure enough we found it no problem and as we crawled our way down a short gravel track  the trees gave way and we were greeted by the sight of a small clearing on a river bank surrounded by beautiful forest. We spotted another couple of vans parked further up the river bank, we were definitely at the right place, and what a place it was. We parked Buddy up right next to the river and as Dani started making some food I went off in search of wood to build a camp fire. This was great, the real Canada that we have come to find. There is something very satisfying about pulling your own wood together and getting a camp fire going from nothing. Maybe a blokey kind of thing I’m not sure but hey I felt good providing us with fire and warmth for the night!

The whole experience was stunning. The river gurgling and flowing past us, the occasional humming bird hovering around nearby and a roaring fire going to keep us warm and to help ward off any bears or cougars that may be nearby. It was at this point that I suddenly realised that we have forgot to pick up any bear bells and bear spray. Oops! We really don’t want to become the idiot Jonny foreigners that make the front pages because we get mauled by some bear and weren’t prepared to encounter one. Strangely enough all the wood I had pulled together was thrown on the fire at this point. Let’s make that fire nice and big eh? We were fine though. We sat out looking at the stars until the early hours, chatting away and just generally enjoying where we were. I have a feeling we will be searching out a lot more of these wild spots now that we know a lot of them can be accessed by Buddy.

It’s felt like it’s taken quite some time to get this point. The point where we really start to get a feel for the road trip and the great Canadian outdoors. I guess looking back we haven’t done too bad in the first two weeks really. We have managed to buy a van, get it insured and have breakdown cover sorted. We have everything we need in the van now so that we can live off grid for several days at a time and all these major expenses are now out of the way. We can now focus on enjoying the trip as much as we can and keeping it going as long as possible. It’s starting to turn into all the great images we had in our heads and more. I’ve a feeling this will be one of our best trips yet and we can’t wait to see what each day brings.