HOPE BC WITH SOTF

Our time at home before driving up to Canada was the best idea! We were rested, cleaned up, fed and ready for our next adventure.

Our arrival day was to set up camp, get all our gear ready for the four day stay, and walk around camp to informally meet some of the other other sisters.

It is a very different set up from any campground we have been in. The camp is private, owned and run by the Seven Day Adventists. Our leader knows someone who knows someone with inside info and was able to rent the grounds for our outing. Now that they (and apparently we) are known to them, a phone call will let us reserve and camp here.

There are no very obvious sites with numbers, and you just drive around the grounds looking for a good spot that also has an electrical outlet for your rig. That makes for a rather scattered number of trailers, vans, motor home, tents, and in one case school bus, facing in all directions of choice. Not until much later did I notice that there are site numbers on the ground.

We must be in site #204…

Lisa’s “schoolie”…

This facility has 24 acres and ‘they’ say can house 10,000 people! During a fire that had evacuated an entire town, the evacuees were housed here and helicopters dropped in food for them. It was also a place of refuge for those who were stranded due to a huge landslide that closed the highways in both directions.

In addition to all the beautiful camping, there are dorms and cabins on site.

Now that they are “in” and can return anytime, the SOTF wrangler holds an outing here every year.

We began our first full day here with continental breakfast that was provided every morning. Good place to gather and socialize as well as to eat and drink our morning beverage.

This was our schedule of activities for the day #1

The first activity for me was Ukelele lessons. I am not musically inclined when it comes to playing any instrument. So I had, and was, a challenge.

I don’t think ukelele is going to work for me as my fingers do not change and move quickly from note to note! By the time I find the note, we are past that part!

BUT, you will see later, our class will be ‘performing’ in the talent show that is scheduled, oh my!

After my lesson we were going on a bike ride ;’-). Another sister, Fran, who lives near Vancouver, joined us and it turns out that she has the exact same bike that we have. What a coincidence.

As we rode past a fenced pasture just outside our camp, we saw the bears that everyone was talking and warning us about.

Mama and her cubs… very near our camping area

Our bike route is along the highway but has very wide shoulders for bikes, and intermittent, rather than consistent, traffic which was courteous to us.

We rode into the town of Hope where Susan and I stopped for a quick lunch and Fran meandered though town. We met up at the exit from town to continue back to camp.

Three alike bikes…

Susan and I are not beyond Hope…

The entry into town was rather traffic laden and squirrely so we were happy that Fran found a different, better way to exit town. Part of which took us on a brief, hard packed trail where Susan found this sign to be “scary”!!!

We did have to cross the bridge over Fraser River again, but this side had a protected bike lane we has not seen on the way into town.

Lone fishing on the Fraser River..

We three Tern riders ended our day on a very happy note.

Time to get in at least a minimum of (frustrating) practice.