Leaving Vancouver the sky was already heavily filled with smoke because of all the forest fires in BC and Washington. We drove up the Sea to Sky Highway to Whistler, famous for its amazing views of the sea and mountains, but the smoke just got thicker and thicker so that we couldn’t really see anything at all. Riding on direction Kamloops the road was closed because of the forest fires and we had to divert south, leading us through the desert of BC and Indian reservations.
Over the next days we woke up to ash all over tent and our eyes and lungs burning. Just a day later BC also banned off-road riding, so we could not follow the roads we had planned to. We decided to head south-east to the USA as fast as possible to get away from the smoke..
Highlights of our trip heading south were riding along a logging road passed Mabel lake and camping at Frog Falls, visiting remote natural hot springs in the middle of the forest – Halfway Hotsprings just north of Naksup- and taking a dip in the hot water overlooking the mountains – just awesome! We also found a great camp spot at Crawford bay and camped out with a polish guy riding his motorbike around BC, swam in the lake, had a few beers and exchanged travel stories.
Finally reaching the boarder town of Creston we stayed there for a few days, visiting the local brewery, dining out and planning our next hopefully smoke free adventure: crossing into the USA and tackling the Continental Divide trail.
