Friday, June 30, 2017

Ah, The Coq......

The rv park we're staying in, Canyon Alpine, is located in the heart of the Fraser River Valley about 45 miles north of the town of Hope, BC, where we turned north yesterday. Not knowing much about Hope, we wanted to visit there and satisfy a long standing curiosity, so today we got in the car and headed south.

Hope is the home of Jamie Davis, Motor Truck & Auto, LTD. (yeah...?) The subtitle is "Towing, Transport, Recovery". Jamie's business includes a number of tow trucks for automobiles and standard trucks, all the way up to big rig tow trucks called "Rotators". His adventures have been featured for years on cable television on the program "Highway Through Hell". The name refers to Highway 5 through the Coquihalla River Canyon during the winter snow months. This road is a fine four-lane affair, what we would call in the US, a "freeway". Unfortunately, there are several long, steep, grades in both directions that are a challenge to navigate even in good weather. Come winter, multiple feet of snow combined with ice and sleet, along with high wind and poor visibility, result in hundreds, if not thousands, of vehicle accidents, many of them involving large trucks. BTW, the over-the-road trucks in Canada are about 20% larger than we see in the US, both in height and width, and most have multiple axles, up to 14, the most we've seen in our travels! Multiply by 4 tires per axle.....

At any rate, Jamie became famous for the tv show, where he and his crews rescued people and equipment under the most dire circumstances. We had to see.



After scoping the tow truck storage yard, we turned around in front of a cool old barn, gently groaning itself into tomorrow.


Highway 5 splits off from TCH 1 in Hope, going east along the Coquihallia River.


Looking back toward Hope from the summit, at 4081 feet.


The pass is decorated with many granite escarpments left by the glaciers.


On the way "home", we stopped for a picnic lunch along the banks of the Sowaqua River.



Tomorrow is Canada's 150th birthday! We hope to celebrate with a couple of dozen of our new friends from Canyon Alpine!

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