Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Long Drive to Bella Coola

Today I was talking to someone who might move away from Bella Coola and it's because of the long drive to get in and out of Bella Coola.  Someone also posted a comment about the long trip today as well.  Last week while driving back to Bella Coola across the Chilcotin, I was thinking about the same thing.  There is lots of time to think when you are driving the Chilcotin because managing the traffic isn't especially taxing, keeping focused on cows and wildlife on the road is usually a bigger challenge.  I enjoy the long drive and was wondering what makes it different from other drives.   I decided it was because traffic isn't so bad, but also in this great province, we are really used to driving in the bottom of valleys, because that's how we get around when you live in a mountainous place.  A nice part about Highway 20 is that so much of it is in either small valleys, benches or over little plateaus and hills with dramatic back drops of the Coast Mountains that seem to come and go in the distance until suddenly you are close to them and then eventually just get swallowed up by them as you drop into the Bella Coola Valley.  The forest and landscape changes from the pine beetle ravaged stands in the west, to Douglas Fir as you go east and then finally the big Chilcotin Grasslands which are what the Chilcotin is famous for.  I always enjoy a good road trip across the Chilcotin.  Grizzly

3 comments:

  1. I used to drive in and out maybe once a year when I lived in the valley. I moved away in '85. Last century.

    I really missed the drive, more than I expected. When I drove up this summer, after so many years, I realized that it was all those miles of emptiness and silence that I had longed for. Time to do only one thing; drive. Time to think, to dream. To rest my eyes on far horizons. To "let my soul catch up to me;" something too rare down here in the traffic.

    And those dancing mountains! It was delightful to make their acquaintance again.

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  2. Sounds wonderful, I love long drives to clear my head. How long does it take?

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  3. Depends who you ask. Some people I know do the entire Bella Coola to Vancouver run in 6 hours. (I kept up with one of those to Williams Lake; my little Datsun never recovered.)

    I'm at the other extreme. I normally take my time, and stop for meals and to sleep overnight somewhere along the way. I'm not a speedy driver, anyhow. I'll leave around noon and arrive at the other end sometime in the afternoon.

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