Curious Hoary Marmot |
My morning walk around the campground and along the Fraser River was bracing, with the sun not yet clearing the high mountain tops and a chilly northerly blowing it was bitterly cold. The first wildlife of the day was a Hoary Marmot sentry, one of the group assigned to watch the ground and sky for predators, and then let out the shrill piercing call of impending danger, which this one did! After the initial alert, the Marmots curiosity generally takes over and we both sat and watched each other for a short while before I moved on, really fascinating animals.
Friendly Gray Jay! |
Our drive today takes us to our final campground, where we’ll spend our last two nights of this tour before heading into Vancouver and our flight home Saturday evening. The route as you head from the dizzy heights of Lillooet takes you south along highway 99 and has some of the most breathtaking scenery of the whole tour. In fact, some of the gradients heading down are so steep we stopped on two occasions to let the brakes cool down, smoke bellowing from the rear discs!
Golden-crowned Sparrow |
Having done the sightseeing of what is Whistler Mountain, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics on our previous tour, we continued on past to Squamish and The Paradise Valley Campground. This is a stunning place set in complete cover of Pine, Birch and Maple and offers several trails, some of which run alongside the Cheakamus River and Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Cheakamus is better known for its wintering Bald Eagles who feed off the Salmon carcases post spawning and can contain over 2000 birds some years.
Red-Breasted Sapsucker (Record Shot) |
Squamish Estuary (Friday) and Maplewood Bird Sanctuary (Saturday) before sadly heading off back to the UK on Saturday evening, so its likely my next two posts will be slightly late and probably written when back in the UK!