Trip Report: May 3 - 18, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Through the Pacific Northwest and Canada
by Amtrak, BC Rail and VIA Rail Canada
WHISTLER TO 100-MILE HOUSE, DAY TWO OF THE INAUGURAL OF THE WHISTLER NORTHWIND
By Sylvia Blishak
May 7, 2001.
Travel Tip: As we learned yesterday, passengers cannot depend upon the Lion's Gate Bridge, the shortest route from downtown Vancouver to the BC Rail station in North Vancouver, to be open due to ongoing construction work. The SeaBus ferries are not an alternative today due to an ongoing transit strike. So if you are traveling on BC Rail, either leave an extra hour to get to the station, or stay overnight at a hotel in North Vancouver the night before departure.
We board a motorcoach for the half-hour ride to Pemberton to catch up with the Whistler Northwind. Since there is not an appropriate siding in Whistler, the train has been stabled overnight, and serviced in, Pemberton. A half-hour on the highway with trucks passing us and RVs crawling in front of us reminds us how much more pleasant rail travel is.
One feature of the BC Rail line is that the scenery is always interesting and provides great variety. Passengers remarked on that yesterday as we left the yards in North Vancouver and were immediately passing parks and upscale residences, sometimes seeing into beautifully landscaped backyards. All the industrial part of North Vancouver is on the other side of the station.
As we depart Pemberton we are among the snowy peaks of the Coast Range, and travel for miles along pristine lakes. This is a sparsely populated and undeveloped part of British Columbia. We are stopped for some track work next to maintenance of way workers, and further up the line, next to a lake, we are put on a siding while the also-northbound Cariboo Dayliner, consisting of two self-propelled Budd cars, passes us. Every window seems to have a passenger aiming their cameras at our train. The Cariboo Dayliner makes the trip from North Vancouver to Prince George in one day. We have taken it to Lillooet in the past and were knocked out by the scenery, but are amazed at how much more we can see from our dome car there are more and higher mountains to be viewed from our train.
A light snack is served at our seats soon after we leave Pemberton. At noon, lunch is announced. Our menu is described as we enjoy the view from the dome car. There is a choice of two salads, three entrees, and two desserts. Then all 56 passengers are called into the dining car ahead for a two hour sit-down lunch. Many of the passengers appreciate the opportunity to move about the train to the diner to be seated with other passengers and to make new friends. Others mention that they would appreciate the option to have lunch delivered to their dome seat so that they would not miss any of the dome viewing. Actually, this is the type of service available in Panorama Class. The dome cars are identical to the domes of Summit Class, and the menus are similar, the difference being that everyone's meals are delivered to their dome seat. The fare for Panorama Class is roughly $200.00 less than Summit Class.
Our onboard staff are charming folks who have hospitality skills rather than career railroad backgrounds. They make occasional comments about the areas we are passing through, but are not constantly chattering in an obtrusive manner. We learn that the Cariboo Country, which we are entering, is not named for the animal with the similar name (Canadians spell the animal "caribou"). We also hear that our domes were originally used on the short-lived Florida Fun Train, then completely refurbished for BCR.
The Whistler Northwind, which is clearly based on the concept that Peter Armstrong of Rocky Mountaineer has used so successfully between Vancouver and the Alberta mountain resorts, was implemented by BCR's former president, who has since resigned. Employees are unclear about how the new president will view the Whistler Northwind, but it has been budgeted for a three-year period. This should prevent the often-repeated scenario in which a luxury train starts, runs for a few months, and then gives up due to financial losses. It takes awhile for a venture such as this to get rolling. BCR is a Crown Corporation with no prior experience in operating luxury tour trains and has not yet determined how much marketing and advertising it will take to make this train a success.
BCR, a corporation which focuses its energy on freight, spends less than 1% of its budget on its passenger operations, which include our train, the Cariboo Dayliner, and the seasonal runs of a steam excursion and a dinner train.
One enjoyable feature of these single-level domes is the extra headroom they provide. Even Ted, at 6' 3", can stand up at his seat. This gives passengers the opportunity to stand and chat with other passengers without blocking the aisles, or to stand and look down as we pass over bridges.
Wildlife is plentiful in this part of the world, and we observe a black bear and some mountain sheep, as well as deer and eagles.
As we approach Lillooet we are almost instantly in a different climate zone, as the pine-covered peaks and verdant undergrowth give way to a high-desert landscape with sagebrush. We have never traveled north of Lillooet, so from now on it will be unfamiliar territory. As we leave this little town, we enter the Fraser River Canyon and follow the course of this muddy river. Soon we cross a trestle to the east side of it, and climb to a height of about 2,000 feet above the river itself.
The rails wind along the eastern edge of this canyon for over an hour. One passenger, a private pilot, notes that the view is not dissimilar to that from a light plane. A faint discontinuous trail is noted across on the western side of the canyon, suggesting a long disused wagon road. The crew narration tells us about the old Cariboo Trail, a route of the gold miners from Lillooet to the gold strikes of 1859 north of Williams Lake. A vast plateau high above the western shore has fields covered with black plastic sheeting. We are told that this area has a nearly perfect climate, except for excessive sunshine, for the cultivation of ginseng. Thus the plastic sheets protect the delicate plants from the harsh British Columbia sun.
We soon turn up a side canyon into a high desert country reminiscent of Klamath County. In fact, Highway 97, which traverses this territory, is an extension of US 97 which runs north and south through our town. By six PM we arrive at 100 Mile House station. During the gold rush days, this location was 100 miles south of the gold fields. As we disembark we are greeted by a chamber of commerce presentation of youthful can-can dancers kicking up their heels to the music of Offenbach. As we applaud these shivering girls, (the temperature about 45 F. and windy), our bus arrives to transport us to the Hills Health Ranch, our overnight stop. The ranch has a very extensive spa, but the dinner menu is right up my alley. A salad bar, an outdoor Bar-B-Q with steaks to die for, chicken, and salmon, and huckleberry pie. I'm sure that if we were staying at the ranch, there would be an exercise program which would work off the pounds, but I enjoy it even though we are returning to the gourmet meals about the Whistler Northwind tomorrow.
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