August 6th Early start……Hah!

 Between goodbyes and a slow wake up we didn’t get on the road until 11:40. I knew this would be a problem since we planned on random camping over night and we had to get within 3-4 hrs of the ferry terminal at Tawassen. We also had to detour through Kelowna since there was an active fire at Kamloops and we couldn’t risk having the #1 highway closed. Lots of smoke haze on the trip.

Gratuitous mountain photo

Jon & Megs rig in front of us.

Smokey sunset near Vernon

More gratuitous mountain photos

So we had cell phones and the 2way radios to try and stay in touch. We had told J&M we were stopping for fuel in west Kelowna then turning up the Coquihalla connect to Merritt. All of the road signs say stay on 97C. You just drive towards Peachland and there is lots of signs. Well the connector is 97A and the overhead sign says Trepanier Wilderness Area. Not only that we found a recommended BC rec site called Brenda Mines rec site on iOverlander. The problem is there are 2 Brenda Mine roads listed on Applemaps! 

Jon & Meg went down to Peachland and up through the suburbs then up Brenda Mine road into the mtns. And out of cell service. We meanwhile went up 97A to the Brenda Mine, got turned around on the Brenda Mine chain up area, also out of cell service. The new and improved 97A is a freeway with no chance of U-turn for 10 kms. Back toward Kelowna we go! We pull off on the Paridice Road chain up area which now has some cell service. Jon & Meg realize they are not in the right spot, but have driven up into cell service. And so begins a long and sometimes frustrating conversation of “Where are you?” in the dark!

We eventually determined that Jon &Meg were east of us and they proceeded to head west up 97A. 

We were pooped and thought we could just stay overnight where we were. Yet one more wrinkle! On our way up we passed a dead MCI bus rv conversion on the side of the road. A few miles later we saw a guy sitting on the traffic control barrier along the edge of the road. When J&M arrived we started discussing where we should set up camp, then Meg asks, “did you see the sketchy guy walking this way a few miles back?” We immediately decided to head 10 kms further down the road to the Brenda Mine chain up area. When we arrived there was one other vehicle parked on the edge with people sleeping in it….fogged up windows! It was after 10:30 when we finally had J&M set up. It rained lightly during the night and since our location was about 6m lower than the highways east bound lane we didn’t hear much highway noise. Except for the teenagers who came to drink and left when they found out it was now an RV Park!

Our camp in the early morning along side an asphalt planer.