After several dull days, the forecast for the day was for an overcast start with clearing to sun and clouds, and this proved to be the case.  As 12 cars gathered for the 10:30am start from Car Park # 7 on the UFV Chilliwack campus it was getting brighter and the consensus was it was that it was worth while having decided to come along. The route out of town was via Chilliwack River Road, Airport Road, Broadway, and on to Fairfield Island to the Scouts Hall for a re-group – nobody had got lost en-route and one more car was there waiting to join. Whilst the drive east through the Island was full of pretty peeps of the properties across the slough, the mountains over to the right were still a bit hazy and Mt. Cheam had it’s hat on. Getting out onto H/way 9 was not too difficult and then it was over the bridge and round Agassiz to go off east along H/way 7 for a steady cruise at 90kph for a while. Looping off to join H/way 1 into Hope was easily achieved – not much traffic, and we arrived at Dairy Queen at 11:50am with some blue sky.

We set off again at 12:10pm and up to 6^th Avenue to join Old Hope-Princeton Way and then onto H/way 3 with its 100kph speed limit, down to 50kph on several of the quite steep bends. It was mostly uphill with scenic views onto the Skagit and the Similkameen rivers, on over the crest of the Allison Pass at 1,342m and along to Manning Park Lodge to arrive with at 1:10hrs and 133km from the start. The car park was not that full and we were able to all park in line for a nice photo. The weather had cleared to be blue sky with some clouds and for the picnic lunch chairs were set up around a bench in a shady area. Though burrows were in evidence, no chipmucks were to be seen… perhaps they came out afterwards to search for crumbs? As was the habit for the return journey, cars set off in ones and twos leaving around 2:15pm. No reports came in of any problems, so all were taken to have arrived home without incident.
Michael Hamilton-Clark
Run Co-ordinator

Photos by Michael Hamilton-Clark
and Shirley McCullough