2020 Run # 3 – Sunday, 23 August 2020 to Manning Park Lodge

Despite a rainy day on the Friday and an indifferent Saturday, the Run day on Sunday was mostly clear and sunny. By the stated 10:15am meet-up time at the Mt. Cheam Golf Course the parking area was already quite full and there were not many vacant slots. As more of the Run cars arrived, we were resorting to double-parking when a groundsman came by and advised that we should please leave. By then there were 18 of us and it was just on 10:30am so we lined up and set off east along Luckakuck Way. There were 12 FVBCC cars, 4 from LAMB and 2 who came along as friends of members. Everyone found their way ok to Prairie Central then north on Gibson to join Yale out through Rosedale to Route 9 to skirt Agassiz and join Route 7 for Hope. We reached the Hope Dairy Queen for the scheduled Pit Stop around 11:20am. John Walkden in his 1957 Ford Meteor arrived a few minutes later, having stopped for gas.  By 11:40am we were ready to leave for Manning Park. We took the Old Hope-Princeton Highway to join Route 3 with its eastward scenic route and climb to the Allison Pass at 1,342m, then the final 5 miles on down to Manning Park Lodge at 1,194m. Just a few miles short, the green MGB invited as friend, had to pull over with a clutch problem. Several cars stopped to offer assistance, but were waved on. The car eventually arrived at the Lodge and was able to set off ok for the return journey. When we arrived at around 12:30pm there were spaces available, but here and there, so a grand line-up was not possible and there were 4 to 5 person socially-distanced queues for the washrooms. As to picnic benches, there were several available and the rest of the Drive set up in socially-distanced groups, mostly in the shade, though with the temperature at around 18 deg C and the breeze, some found it quite pleasant to be out in the sun. By 1:45pm people began to pack up and leave and the last cars left at 2:15pm. The return route from Hope was driver’s choice – join the speeding week-end return traffic on H/w 1, or take the more sedate Route 7 to Route 9 and then through Rosedale. Some who took H/w 1 got into a crawl just after Annis road and this lasted to Chilliwack where they could branch off to go home, but the crawl was seen to be stretching further for the LAMB cars. The odometer reading for a Chilliwack ending was 161.4 miles run.

Given the number of cars that came for the start at the Mt. Cheam golf course parking was 18 and the groundsman’s comments, it would seem we should find another start venue…. Perhaps the Cottonwood Mall parking area just a mile or so to the east after the Evans overpass might serve….

Michael Hamilton-Clark, Runs Co-ordinator
Photos by Michael Hamilton-Clark