Into The Mountains

Janos served breakfast as the Fraser Valley slipped past our window. The river was muddy and swollen with snow melt from the distant mountains. Not much ice and snow yet, but plenty of rugged scenery in places with evocative names like Hell’s Gate, Avalanche Alley and the Jaws of Death Gorge.

At Cisco Crossing, the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National tracks swap sides of the Fraser River. Until now, each track followed its own side of the river. Here, in a series of remarkable trestle bridges, the tracks swap sides and our train swapped tracks.

Late in the afternoon, we followed the Thompson River into Kamloops where it was hot and sunny, around 33 deg C.

The Sandeman Inn motel was a 15 minute shuttle bus ride from the station. We decided to skip the musical show laid on for the tourists and instead walked downtown to the restaurant strip and chose a Greek place for dinner.

It’s an interesting town with a small population that explodes two days a week as both eastbound and westbound trains meet and disgorge their passengers for the night.