May 18 - 19, 2024 The Road to Barkerville

On May 18th, we got some stuff done around here like laundry, groceries and other stuff.  The laundry setup is very different than I have seen before.  You pay $20.00 for the key to the laundry and you have it for four hours.  (If you are done before that, it is prorated at $5.00/hour.)  The laundry has 2 huge washers and 2 huge dryers that is now free. It sounds like a lot of money but I can tell you that it is not - based on the last few months of using laundromats.  Plus with the exchange rate, that comes to $14.50. WOW!  So, yes, I did our regular stuff and a few afghans and rugs too.

On another note: Safeway in Canada is not the same as the US as in I needed a new/different rewards card.  This week, they are having a sale on steaks.  The price looked good so I got a package and we had it for supper.  All I can say is that it melted in our mouths.  Haven't had a good steak like that in a long time.  Tomorrow I will pick up more and freeze (with thoughts of steak over a campfire - YUM).  Anyway, the cost comes down to about $8.00/steak ($7.25/lb).  Haven't seen those prices in a very long time.

When I picked up the steak today, there was a gentleman filling his basket with them.  He told me he goes camping most of the summer and also has a cabin on the lake and he intends to fill his freezers.  What a hoot! 

Today, May 19th, we headed to Barkerville.  Barkerville was the main town of the Cariboo Gold Rush and is preserved as a historic town.  

"Billy Barker’s legendary gold strike on Williams Creek triggered a multi-billion dollar industrial revolution that literally built a province. Today, the extraordinary historic town of Barkerville stands as a living testament to BC’s golden beginnings. With its unique streetscape of more than 125 heritage buildings, period displays, satellite museums, restaurants and shops there is still so much to explore."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barkerville

The brochure that I had said they were open in mid-May and I figured since it was Sunday, everything would be open and they would have docents and storytellers.  Well, I was wrong - but that is for later.

The road to Barkerville is beautiful and remote.  There are a few rest areas where we stopped but very few pull overs to stop and get pictures.  We had very little traffic so at times I did stop in the middle of the road (Sue W - yes, we still know that Bruce is watching us).

So follow along:

It was steep - 8% grade for 2 miles.

The Barkerville road - beautiful trees along the way:

The gorge:

The road at the gorge:

Guess who is waiting for me:

And it truly was a lonely spot.  We did not find his gravesite.  When we got home, I looked at one of the maps and it is near here but we could not find the markings:

The road and the views continue:

Lakes - so many lakes:

In the very center are the tailings from that mine:

Wouldn't it be great to camp here:

The rain and some snow falling:

We were not prepared for the cold - it was 40 degrees here.

Interesting sign - notice the characters on the bottom:

We stopped at the visitor center near Wells.  Actually the visitor center is right near the tailings and there are many signs about not disturbing the soil on the one end.  If you know about gold processing, there are many chemicals that are just dumped into the tailings - arsenic, lead, etc.

Sadly, when we came back thru Wells on one of the side roads, their baseball field has those same signs and we wondered about their water and the lake.

The gentlemen at the visitor center were a hoot.  We loved talking with them about ourselves and the area.  That is where we found out that Barkerville is not fully operational until June 1st (so much for the brochures).  He told us that we could walk around the town but there were no restaurants open.  Well - what a bummer.  We planned to have lunch there.

But, he did tell us about Wells, just up the road, and what was open in the town.

Leaving there, I did want to head up to Barkerville (cause hopefully, we can check it out on our way back).    Made it to the parking lot and decided that we did not want to walk around with nothing open.

Heading out of Barkerville:

We stopped in Wells at Diggys Diner and had a wonderful burger.  It was piled high with cheese, mushrooms, lettuce, tomato and a pickle.  Highly recommend.

https://whitecapmotel.godaddysites.com/diggys-diner

Wells BC is also a mining town.  There is an active gold mine at the end of town.  Also another active gold mine, not too far down the road.  It is a cute little town and also very remote.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells,_British_Columbia

On the way out of town, just had to stop at the visitor center again and take a picture of their toilet houses.

A beautiful lake on the way back - the pictures do not do it justice.  The water was clear and a dark blue green.

As we continued our journey back to Quesnel, we decided to take the side road to the old mining towns of Stanley and Van Winkle.  It was a 2 kilometer dirt loop road and we did not know what we would see.

The first "house":

This was the Lightning Hotel in Stanley.  From doing my research, it said that it was the last standing structure in Stanley.

Interestingly, right down the road we found this and a handmade sign that said this was Stanley so who knows.

We think this is where the mine was located and if there would have been a walkway, I might have more pictures.

A little further down the road was the cemetery:

This is the board once I reached the cemetery.  It had a list of some of the people buried here with their story. (Thank God for Historical Societies.)

The cemetery - each grave was surrounded by a fence:

One of the graves:

One that I found interesting.  Every Chinese descent person was exhumed and sent back to China except her - I wonder why.  

 I may need to get that book.

I took pictures of all of the information here so if you want it, let me know.  But I will post one more:

They were here until the late 1980's.  Would love to know more about them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wells,_British_Columbia

https://heritagebc.ca/chinese-canadian-location/stanley-cemetery/

We made our way back to the highway.  A beaver lodge:

And this little girl:

The picture is kind of cloudy because I took it thru our windshield.

We also saw two black bears today in two separate places.  Did not get a picture.  I don't know if they scared me or I scared them - LOL!

We made our way back to Quesnel, stopped at Safeway for more steaks and then fuel for the truck.

I wanted to get this posted tonight because I am not quite sure how much internet I will have over the next week.

Tomorrow we head north and then west so stay tuned and enjoy today.