Travels on the Cariboo Road

Right after crossing the border into Canada this morning, we stopped at the Tim Hortons in Abbotsford. It has become our official “Welcome to Canada” since 2006. We enthusiastically rolled up the rims on our coffee cups and read, “Please Play Again.” Oh well. Then we made a right turn up the Fraser River Canyon through Hope, Yale, Boston Bar and beyond. Today we traveled on a paved highway, but once this was the Cariboo Road. Starting in 1858 (this year marks British Columbia’s 150th anniversary) with the discovery of gold in the Fraser River, wave after wave of eager gold miners advanced northward into British Columbia’s interior. This influx presented transportation problems that led to the construction of the Cariboo Road begun in Yale in 1861. Then it was mule trains, freight wagons and stage coaches that rumbled through the Fraser River and Thompson River canyons and passes. Now it is cars, trucks, and the Canadian National Railway. We are spending the night in 100 Mile House. It's name comes from those gold rush days when a stagecoach stop was set up to refresh travelers 100 miles from "Mile 0" at Lillooet, the starting point in the 300-mile trek to the Barkerville gold fields. We just drove a little bit of history.

Canadian National Railroad carrying ship containers along the Thompson River
(photo shot through the windshield)

... P. L. Morningstar
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