Oliver, BC and the Hedley Mine Tour

Before leaving Jasper National Park, I need to show you what we do in the evenings. Of course Don does this too, but this picture is of me only because he is behind the camera.

There's nothing like kicking back next to a campfire outside the RV.

After leaving Jasper, we begin our trek toward home. As we approached Southern British Columbia we entered the Okanagan Valley.

This is a beautiful area with a chain of large lakes right down the middle of it. The area is built up on both sides of the valley. They grow an amazing amount of fruit, veggies and wine grapes in this valley. It sort of blows my mind that Canada has a longer growing season than we do in Oregon, but it's true.

The Okanagan Valley has a rather mild climate that is perfect for growing wonderful fruits and vegetables. Peaches I have bought are four inches across and are delicious! The produce is sold commercially as well as in hundreds of roadside fruit stands, open to the general public.

The other side of the valley is also beautiful with hills coming down toward the lake so the scenery is great in all directions.

 

Wineries are everywhere in the valley and at this point in time the vines are heavy with grapes.

The valley is covered with not only vineyards, but orchards producing all sorts of stone fruits. It is a veritable Garden of Eden.

 

 

Some of you may be aware that we are members of a RV group called, Coaches for Christ, the Oregon-Washington Chapter. We had made a reservation at a RV park in Oliver, BC a week or so before arriving there.

When we pulled up to the RV park, we were surprised to see a sign out front that said, "Welcome Coaches for Christ" The British Columbia Chapter was holding a rally at the RV park where we were staying.

We knew one of the couples because although they are Canadians, they are also members of the Oregon-Washington Chapter. Well, the group welcomed us with open arms and we spent as fantastic weekend with them, making new friends who we felt like we had always known.

They had already heard about Don's Nicodemus performance at the Redmond FMCA Rally last month from the Don and Diane Taylor, the one couple that we knew who also attended the Redmond, Oregon rally, so they asked him to do it there for them.

However, as Don got ready to perform, he discovered that his staff, that is part of his costume, was missing. It probably got left at home after the Redmond rally.

Anyway, needing a staff, so Don Taylor went back to his RV, took one of Diane's broom handles, a shower head and a roll of masking tape and very quickly built a staff. Don (Foster) then rubbed it down with coffee grounds out of our coffee pot to give it some character, and a brand new staff was born. It worked great.

His performance was very well received and they are a wonderful group of people and we felt so greatly blessed by all of them.

On the Saturday that we were in Oliver, we drove an hour and a half up the road to a tiny historic mining town called Hedley. There is an old gold mine there very high up on the mountain above Hedley. We went there for the Mascot Mine Tour.

When we checked out the information on the tour, there was a warning that it might be a bit of a strenuous hike to actually get there.

However, two years ago, on our way to Alaska, we had been in Hedley and looked up the mountain and saw the mine waaaaaaaaaaaaay up there and we wanted to go. Unfortunately, at that time they weren't doing the tours, so this was our chance.

We arrived at the appointed place and boarded a shuttle bus. It took almost an hour driving up a narrow, one lane gravel road with 39 switch-backs to get to the top.

From there, we walked down a steep gravel walkway of about a quarter mile or so. Then we reached the steps. THE STEPS...FIVE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY NINE going down to reach the mine! 589 STEEP steps at that!!!

That is the little town of Hedley way down below, taken from the top of the mountain.

This is a small section of the 589 steps.

This is the last part of the steps down to the mine.

When we were in Hedley, buying our tickets for this tour, the girl selling them, said, "Oh, don't worry. There are lots of landings and benches. It's really quite mild." MILD???? OK, she was a 20-something weighing maybe 110 pounds, but regardless, SHE LIED!!!

Five hundred, eighty nine steps is NOT a MILD hike. I thought I would die! My knees were total jelly by the time we got to the bottom of the steps. The scary part is that what goes down, must go back UP.

Well, we stayed down there a while and our guide and bus driver, Chief Rick, a former chief of the Similikeem band of Indians who own the land, talked about a wide variety of very interesting things concerning the mine, miners and the town that used to exist at the top of the mountain.

We struggled to get some strength back into our legs. There were about two dozen people on the tour. I could tell some of them were sweating out the return trip as well.

One young woman had a 6-month old baby strapped to her chest and didn't seem to be having any problem whatsoever. (I think maybe I am beginning to hate young people who flaunt their youth!)

Finally, a few us began to drag our lead-filled bodies slowly back up the stairs. It took a very long time and I felt SURE I would not survive the process. However, the Chief told us to look out for bears and mountain lions, so there was definite motivation to not get left behind on the mountain.

That is Headley taken from near the mine. Can you imagine the commute this was for miners?

This is the valley from about half-way back down.

The thing I want to say about this mine tour is that in spite of the pain associated with it, (and our leg muscles are still complaining) is that this was a great tour. Not only was it a beautiful trip to the top, but it was just a great tour in general (that is if you don't count the 589 steps, of course!!).

When we got back down to Hedley, I took a picture of the mine from town. You can barely see the mine on the side of the mountain and I zoomed in the camera. Yes, it was definitely a long way up the mountain.

It was a most memorable trip! Want to go with us next time?

Look closely. The mine is there at the very top, right in the middle of the ridge line.