TED & SYLVIA BLISHAK'S UPDATES
ON
AMTRAK, ROCKY MOUNTAINEER, AND VIA RAIL CANADA
May 7 to May 15, 2006
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Rocky Mountaineer's Fraser Discovery Route
May 11, 2006 Day 5: Whistler to Quesnel 311 miles
Today marks only the second time in several years that this route has seen a passenger train. Rocky Mountaineer ran their first train here last week.
BC Rail, which we thought of as Canada 's Wild West Railroad, ducked out of the passenger business a few years ago. While the rails are now used by Canadian National for freight traffic, and by Rocky Mountaineer for tour trains, there are still some BC Rail personnel who work on the operational side of the railroad.
Back when BC Rail ran trains here, there were a number of submerged boxcars that had derailed into the lakes. We did not see them on this trip, perhaps CN has salvaged them.
A fellow passenger once asked the BCRR brakeman, “What about your engine that fell into the lake?”
“Which one, the steam engine or the diesel?” he asked. Passengers who overhead this conversation began to turn pale.
“By the way, we lost about a dozen cars into the lake just last week,” the brakeman continued. The passengers turned paler still.
“Oh, don't worry, they were freight cars,” the brakeman said reassuringly. “We've never lost a passenger car.”
The BCRR engineer would stop the train so passengers could watch salmon swimming in a nearby stream, or to enable the crew to deliver groceries to the house of an 80-year-old lady who lived alone in a house next to the tracks. Children commuted to school on BCRR. Because of the unusually sharp curves along the route, there were airsick bags in the seat pouches – the only railroad we'd even been aboard that provided them.
The Rocky Mountaineer train awaits us this morning at the Whistler Station. We know nothing about today's destination, Quesnel. In fact, people in Whistler don't know how to pronounce it (the “s” is silent).
Today's route will take us through what is probably the most dramatic variety of scenery on any one-day train trip anywhere. We climb aboard our Red Leaf coach, pass along the shores of Alta Lake, skirt whitewater and waterfalls, gaze up at snow-covered peaks, trundle through lush forests, pass farms and ranches, cause a herd of buffalo to stampede, observe big horned sheep, travel through tunnels and a long steep canyon with avalanche scars on the sides of the mountains. The train follows curves sharp enough to make the steel wheels scream along the shores of lengthy, clear Anderson Lake and jade-green Seton Lake, once one body of water but now divided by a huge landslide that created a natural dam about 200 feet high. I remember the airsick bags on the old BCRR, and look in the seat pouch. There they are -- the tradition continues! But these are upscale airsick bags, deep blue in color and printed “Whistler Mountaineer”.
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The Red Leaf Coach class uses former CN equipment, with high-backed upholstered chairs that recline slightly and have pull-down trays. Tasha, our car attendant, provides commentary about the route and serves us a box breakfast of fruit, yoghurt, cereal and milk, muffins, and a croissant. There are small vestibules with Dutch doors on each end of the car; we are asked to limit the number of passengers standing in them to four – this still seems like a crowd in the cramped space, and one must jockey for position to take a photo or get a breath of fresh air.
At the end of Seton Lake is the town of Lillooet. Once a gold-mining boomtown of 15,000, now even with its vastly reduced population of 1,000, it is still the largest settlement we've seen since departing Whistler. Lillooet was important enough to be Milepost 0 of the old Cariboo Wagon Road then, and the communities to the north we'll be rolling through include 50 Mile House, 75 Mile House, etc – describing their distance from Lillooet.
Chocolate chip cookies are offered with a mid-morning coffee break.
A dramatic climate-zone change occurs here at Lillooet, with dry sagebrush and brown grass replacing the lush forested area we've been traveling through. We've seen countless rivers and streams, but now a big muddy brown river, running south, is the mighty Fraser. It has eroded its way into a steep canyon over time. The climb out of Lillooet is one of the most spectacular railroad grades we have ever experienced. On a narrow roadbed carved out of the side of open, dry, slopes, the rails are soon 2,000 feet above the Fraser River, and the view extends for miles. Cultivated farmlands on wide canyon shelves below grow mint, ginseng, and alfalfa. The horseshoe curves afford excellent views of our two locomotives ahead and the two Gold Leaf Dome cars behind.
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For lunch today we have a choice of cold chicken or cold salmon, each served with a fresh salad, roll, and coconut cake dessert. Coffee, tea, and soft drinks are included. British Columbia wine, ambrosia from the Okanogan Valley, is available. Superb wines from this area are apparently never exported outside Canada, so this is a rare treat.
Eventually, the rails curve to the east, away from the Fraser Canyon, and follow a small tributary, still climbing, up to the Cariboo Plateau, a wide flat area with tangles of woods and shallow ponds with no outlets. Beaver dams abound and, it is said, moose can be sighted. Suddenly we come upon a huge, deep crack in the earth, referred to as “The Gorge”.
Fraser River Canyon
To quote Royal Engineer Lieut. Henry Palmer, sent to survey the area in 1862, “It is difficult to find language to express in adequate terms the utter vileness of the trails of the Cariboo, dreaded alike by all classes of travelers; slippery, precipitous ascents and descents, fallen logs, overhanging branches, roots, rocks, swamps, turbid pools and miles of deep mud.”
Miner Samuel Hathaway describes it thus, “This is a hateful country, rain nearly all the time & all the country covered with a thick, heavy growth of gloomy firs, with the swampy, miry ground buried under fallen trees so that is almost impossible to get along.”
Today we cruise smoothly through this “vile” area in total comfort, thanks to the builders of the BCRR's predecessor, Pacific Great Eastern Railway, (PGE), whose woes have led to the following list of interpretations:
1. Prince George Eventually, due to the lengthy period that it took to complete, 1912 to 1956.
2. Province's Greatest Expense, when the government took it over in 1918.
3. Please Go Easy, due to its leisurely schedules.
4. Past God's Endurance, by impatient travelers.
We are in not rush today, averaging less than 30 mph, but treated to meals, beverages, snacks, and the lively banter of Tasha, who was born and raised in this part of the country and is very knowledgeable. This is only her second trip, but she is able to handle the duties of this entire coach with relaxed aplomb. She remained cheerful and energetic all day, with only a 10-minute break.
Hot canapés, prepared fresh in the Gold Leaf kitchen, are served at cocktail hour. Wines and liquors are available.
We roll past a passing siding and come to a halt, then back up one mile, then move forward into the siding to wait for a westbound freight. Normally it would have been a rolling pass, but the siding was blocked at the east end by a cut of covered CN gondolas.
A slice of cake is served as we are told that there are still two hours between this siding and Quesnel, (pronounced KWAW-nell.) Announcements are made about transfers to hotels and possible activities in town. After 12 ½ hours on a train, I will be ready for dinner, a shower, and a good night's sleep. All hotels in Quesnel are in the moderate category, the Red Leaf passengers will be staying at the Best Western. Since we are changing to Gold Leaf Dome tomorrow, we will be staying at the Sandman. Red Leaf passengers are on their own for dinner. Gold Leaf passengers have complimentary dinner provided at the hotel dining room.
The Sandman is flanked by two attached restaurants. We head for The Shark Club Bar and Grill. If you like scantily clad waitresses and six or seven large TV screens, each tuned to a different sports channel, all turned up full blast so that patrons have to yell over them, this is your kind of place. It is quite crowded with locals hoping to have a good time.
We quickly flee and discover that our complimentary dinner can be enjoyed at Denny's Restaurant on the other side of the hotel. It is quiet, and we are the second party to arrive. We tell the hostess about our experience at the Shark Club.
She simply smiles and says, “We were expecting you.” This phrase is repeated with the arrival of and more Gold Leaf passengers who've given up on the Shark Club. They say when in a strange town, go where the locals go, but that would not apply in Quesnel.
NEXT: Day 6. Friday, May 12, 2006: Quesnel, British Columbia, to Jasper, Alberta
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