Glacier NP, Canada

We stopped at Giant Cedars trail on the east side of Revelstoke NP today as we drove toward Glacier National Park. It’s a short boardwalk-and-stairs trail through an old growth giant cedar forest. In the afternoon we hiked the Loop Brook Trail which features railroad history and is a National Historic Site. The trail follows the giant stone trestle supports of a pair of curved trestles forming two switch backs that were designed to gradually climb Rogers Pass. The section of track was abandoned by the Canadian Pacific RR when they built the Connaught tunnel under Mt. Rogers to avoid frequent avalanches in the area. It was an enjoyable hike that crosses a rushing stream, goes through a mixed forest, and had info along the way about railroad history.

8/31/07 We drove through Glacier N.P. to Rogers Pass Visitor’s Center where we really enjoyed the displays and videos. The building itself is designed to resemble a snow shed, and exhibits there focus on the role of the railroads in opening up this rugged area of Canada. Incidentally, A. B. Rogers, who discovered the pass, was an American with an engineering degree from Yale. George especially enjoyed the video of railroading in the area in the 1950’s. There were also displays of animals native to Glacier Park including grizzly bears, caribou, and elk. We stopped at the Rogers Pass marker which commemorates the completion of the Trans-Canada highway thru the pass in 1962 and drove past the Stony Creek Bridge, a much photographed railroad bridge.

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Revelstoke, BC

8/28/07

Today we continued up TC 1 passing by Lake Shuswap which is a big resort area. The CP railroad again was our constant companion. We stopped for lunch at Craigallachie which is the “golden spike” location for the Canadian Pacific Railway. George bought a map of the western Canada railroads at the gift store. We spent the afternoon at the Revelstoke Railway Museum. Soon after our arrival, we had the pleasure of seeing the Rocky Mountaineer pass by. We rode this train two years ago with our friends Jim and Hope Tarpley. We went through a 1928 parlor-sleeper car that had seen service on the “Trans-Canadian,” the crack passenger train across Canada in the 20’s and 30’s. George drove a diesel locomotive in the locomotive simulator and spoke at length with a retired CP engineer from the steam era who was a museum docent. We enjoyed the information about the engineering challenges faced by RR pioneers as they considered how to build a RR through the Canadian Rockies. The history of the railroad is very much an integral part of the history and present lives of the people of this area of B.C.

8/29/07 Today was spent exploring Revelstoke National Park which is just right outside the town of Revelstoke. We drove the 12 mile Meadows in the Sky Parkway which goes almost to the top of Mt. Revelstoke (steep, curvy, many switchbacks). Then we took the shuttle to the top where we did some short hikes, one of which took us to the peak. The views are marvelous, and neither words nor photographs quite capture it – but we tried! The wild flowers which bloom in July and August are beautiful. Here we realized why people come to the Canadian Rockies.

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Trains Trains Trains

We left the rain behind and enjoyed a mostly sunny day as we headed to Kamloops. Trans-Canadian Highway 1 passes through 7 tunnels to get through the Fraser Canyon. It’s a beautiful drive but obviously hilly and curving. We stopped near Lytton to see the Cisco Bridges spanning the canyon where the Canadian Pacific and Canadian National railroads cross the river and swap sides. In Lytton we saw the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, one muddy and the other clear. Here the railroads part ways with the CN going up the North Thompson river to Jasper and Edmonton while the CP heads up the Thompson Canyon to Kamloops, Revelstoke, Banff and Calgary. Via's passenger service follows the CN while the private Rockymountaineer serves the CP route to Banff. There were a number of awesome overlooks along the way, and almost continual freight trains snaking through the canyon. The scenery changed quickly as we approached Kamloops which is in the high desert.

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Hope, BC

We drove from Everett, WA, to Hope, B.C. on Friday, crossing the border with no problems at Sumas, WA. We had a great view of snow capped Mt. Baker on the way. First, though, we stopped at the IGA to buy Tillamook Chocolate Mudslide ice cream which we learned about on the Tillamook Cheese tour in Tillamook, WA. It’s chocolate ice cream with large chunks of chocolate in it. As we approached Hope, the mountains rose up around us – some large jagged peaks, others more rounded. It was a marvelous view. We arrived at our RV park shortly after lunch and were awed by the views – the same large jagged mountains, lots of tall conifers, and a beautiful sunny day. During the afternoon we drove to the site of the Hope Slide where, on Jan. 9, 1965, a mountain peak collapsed sending tons of rock, mud, and trees onto the highway southeast of Hope. Four people were killed when their vehicles were caught up in the wave of mud which swept back into the valley from the south side. At the pull out along the highway, travelers have an awesome view of the damage cause by the slide which filled up the bottom of the valley to a depth of 200 feet and absorbed all of Outram Lake. The portion of the mountain that remains standing is a bald dreadful reminder of the power of Mother Nature.

Hope and the Othello Tunnels 8/25 Today we headed to Coquihalla Canyon Provincial Park to hike the Othello-Quintette Tunnels. Here one of the most difficult sections of the Kettle Valley RR has been turned into a park where visitors can hike through the tunnels and over the trestles through the Coquihalla canyon. Many said it was impossible to build a rail road through the canyon, but Andrew McCulloch, a talented Canadian Pacific railroad engineer, did it. He was a fan of William Shakespeare and named many of the stations after Shakespearean characters. He lowered himself into the canyon in a straw basket in order to survey the route for the tunnels which turned out to be perfectly aligned. The Kettle Valley railroad was built just after the turn of the twentieth century in a competitive bid to outsmart the Americans who were trying to build rail road lines from the US into the fertile region of Canada. The Kettle Valley railroad won the contest by building a shorter but more difficult route through the mountain ridges rather than going up the level valleys between them. The tunnels, trestles, and old road bed made for an enjoyable hike along the Coquihalla River on a cool pleasant day. We returned to the truck shortly before a light rain began. We stopped in Hope to see the chainsaw carvings that a local artist began when a large tree died in the local park. There are over 30 carvings about 12 feet tall throughout the town including bears, raccoons, salmon, and mountain sheep.

Sunday was a cool rainy day – we actually had the heat on in the RV – but by afternoon it was mostly clear and we headed to Hell’s Gate, the deepest and narrowest point on the Fraser River with very turbulent waters. Spanning the canyon at this point is the Hell’s Gate Airtram which descends 500 feet to the other side of the river. Canada's two rail lines run on either side of the river, and there are fishways built to help the salmon get upriver to spawn because the water is so turbulent there. It was always narrow but became even narrower after a landslide during railroad construction. There's a display about the construction of the railroad and the International Fishways. We also stopped for a short walk at historical Alexandra Bridge across the Fraser River, now a part of Alexandra Bridge Provincial Park.

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Boeing Tour

The Boeing plant tour leaves from a modern aeronautical-styled museum built in 2005. Neither the museum nor the plant tour are free as Boeing is a money making business not only in the air, but on the ground too. The museum had exhibits that demonstrated how conventional Boeing jets are fabricated. It was interesting to see the inside story of the jets that we have flown on our entire adult lives. The aluminum skin and frame of the fuselage are fastened mostly with counter sunk rivets that are pressed on with tools applied simultaneously from the inside and outside by Boeing workers. The basic fuselage framing consists of circumferentials that are circular frames connected by “stringers” running the length of the fuselage. This type of structure flexes and is subject to metal stress and thus has a limited service life. On the other hand, we saw how the new 787 (Dreamliner) uses a radically different construction technique pioneered in the aerospace industry. It uses carbon fiber strips that are “wrapped” around a fuselage jig by special machines. The strips are applied with a bonding agent and the completed fuselage sections are then heated under pressure in special ovens. The result is a structure that has 100 percent fastening area whereas the conventional constructed fuselage is fastened only where there is a fastener (rivet). The new fuselage of the Dreamliner is consequently much stronger AND much lighter than previous models. The 787 is 40,000 lbs lighter than a same size plane of conventional construction technique. The additional strength allows for larger windows and a lower altitude cabin pressure. The only question about this technique is it’s rigidity since it does not flex. The company is currently using a large vice-like device to squash the fuselage to test its breaking point. It is also dropping finished out fuselage sections with a crane to test its integrity all while the FAA watches closely. Other exhibits showed how the Dreamliner cabin is laid out, and there were exhibits about the new avionics and flight deck design including “heads-up” instrument displays. There was a full size Pratt and Whitney jet engine on display and an actual vertical tail section from a retired Boeing 747 that had put in 28 years of service. The plant tour was fairly brief due to the fact that visitors cannot go on the floor of the plant area due to safety reasons. Instead, we rode up on a freight elevator and viewed the factory floor from an elevated platform. The Everett plant builds 747’s, 767’s, and the new 787. We got a close up view of the 747 line. The planes were surrounded by huge gantries and “saddles” that allow workers to reach all surfaces of the plane. The factory building is the largest building in the world (68 acres) and employees are issued bicycles to get around the plant. The building is so large that clouds were forming in the ceiling in the early days. This problem was solved with the installation of fans that mix the warm and cool air in the building and prevent cloud formation. The building was constructed in 1968 for the 747 project. 27,000 employees work at the Everett plant. The plant has doctors, nurses, and nineteen cafeterias. We were fortunate to see two of Boeing’s fleet of four specially modified 747’s called Dream Lifters that are capable of holding any of the 787 assembled parts including the wings that are made in Japan. The planes fly parts for the 787’s to the Everett plant from all over the world where they are made by a multitude of international subcontractors. A 747 takes about four months to build, has six million parts, and costs about 200 million dollars. Customers must pay a third down on order, another third when the plane goes to the paint hangar, and the final payment upon delivery. Delivery is a big ceremony customized to the customer’s culture. We saw quite a few planes painted in their owner’s livery awaiting delivery or being tested by the owner’s test pilots after already having been thoroughly flight tested by Boeing test pilots. Boeing’s lead test pilot is female and forty percent of the workforce is now female. All-in-all a very informative and interesting tour that took a half day. After the tour we had lunch at a bay side restaurant as we watched ferries go and come from the ferry landing. We also checked out the Mukilteo light station and enjoyed an ice cream and the sunny weather.

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Portland

We drove to Portland on Saturday morning – a sunny pleasant day. We spent the afternoon on tasks: buying groceries, washing the RV, and taking the truck to a carwash which we saw on the way to buy a new connector plug for our tow vehicle wiring. Our repair job with new fuses had not lasted – fuses were blown again, inactivating the turn signals and brake lights on the truck. With the new connector installed, we are hopeful it is in fact fixed, but we won’t know until our next day on the road when we drive north to Washington. George worked on the blog some Sunday morning and we both did email, having finally reached a park where the WiFi works properly. After lunch we went to the Portland Saturday Market which is both Sat. and Sun., despite its name. It was billed as an arts and crafts event but was actually more like a big flea market. There was music and food as well as the articles for sale. But the most interesting part of it was the people. Many of them are what people of our era would call hippies – lots of tattoos, stringy braids, and a few panhandlers, the most interesting of which was a man reading a book beside his cardboard sign reading “Out of pot. Please help.” From the market we took the historical trolley which didn’t go very far before it reached its turnaround point. We had arranged to visit Cliff and June Bagwell’s son David and his family at 4:00 so headed there next. We enjoyed seeing David and Emily and their children Blakely (almost 8) and Will (almost 4). David’s dad, Cliff, and George are lifelong friends, and George told David about some of his and Cliff’s youthful indiscretions, misadventures, and exploits. We found the roads and traffic in Portland – especially for Sunday – to be challenging. The expressways are multilayered, and many of the surface streets are one way. And the traffic was moving! At one point, turning from a one way street, and knowing he was coming to another one way street where he would need to be in the left lane, George ended up on the wrong side of the road. At this point, we decided to use Portland’s public transportation on Monday. Monday was not a day for visiting gardens – it drizzled on and off all day – but that was our agenda and we headed out to Washington Park to the International Rose Garden and the Japanese Garden on Portland’s light rail called MAX. We boarded the train at Gresham, the east terminus of the system and only a few miles from our RV park, and rode to the Portland Zoo where we transferred to a bus that took us to the Rose Garden. The Rose Garden, one of the oldest and largest in the U.S., was established by the American Rose Society in 1917. Covering 5 acres on a hillside and containing 7000 roses, it is a sight to behold – all colors, types, and sizes of roses. It was exhilarating to see acres and acres of roses. Next we visited the adjacent Japanese Garden, beautiful and tranquil, and one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. There are 5 different styles of Japanese gardens covering 5 ½ acres. Wood, stone, and water are important in creating the gardens. Walking through the garden was a delight – calm and tranquil with much attention to scale so you feel a part of it. Our last day in Portland took us to both the tallest mountain and highest waterfall in Oregon – Mt. Hood and Multnomah Falls. When we arrived at Mt. Hood, the top was hidden by clouds so we went in the lodge. As we walked in, a ranger was beginning a tour of the lodge which we joined, and it was so interesting to hear about its history. Timberline Lodge, a classic Alpine ski lodge, was constructed during the Great Depression by the WPA and overflows with craftsmanship. The grand stone fireplace goes from the bottom floor up thru the public areas, and the tall wooden columns were carved from huge Ponderosa pine trees by one man. The original rugs were woven from old CCC uniforms and blankets, and a mosaic mural near the entrance was made from discarded glass from the Blue Ox bar at the hotel – all using materials that were available. The original handmade wooden furniture is still in use (with new cushions). We had a delicious lunch in the lodge’s Cascade Dining room with views of the mountains. After lunch we hiked a short segment of the Timberline trail and were greeted with views of Mt. Hood between floating clouds. As we returned to the lodge, we heard music from the amphitheater and stopped there to enjoy the music (and rest a while) before driving to the Columbia River Gorge. We took the Historic Columbia River Highway which opened in 1915 and was a marvel of engineering at the time. It opened the gorge to the casual visitor by making it accessible to the automobile, and, interestingly, it was the dream of a railroad man. We stopped at overlooks along the way, the most impressive being Vista House on Crown Point which was built as a rest area. Unlike today’s rest areas, it was a tall palatial building with stained glass windows and Alaskan marble floors. There were displays about the history of the highway, but the views up and down the Columbia River Gorge from Vista House were even more impressive. Our next stop was Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet the highest falls in Oregon and Oregon’s most visited natural attraction. It was quite impressive and falls in two sections, one quite long and the other shorter. There is an arched bridge directly in front of the falls part of the way up. From here we continued on the scenic highway past Horsetail Falls and then returned to our RV park on I-84. It had been a full and enjoyable day. Click HERE to see more pictures.

Astoria

The Lewis and Clark National and State Historical Park was our first stop in Astoria. The visitor’s center tells a great deal about the Lewis and Clark expedition and the winter they spent camped near at Fort Clatsop, a stockade they built and named after the local Clatsop Indians who befriended them. The displays were excellent and gave a real sense of the expedition’s struggles and accomplishments. The Columbia River Maritime Museum gave a real appreciation of the role of the Coast Guard in keeping boats and passengers safe in the very treacherous waters of the Columbia at its mouth flowing into the Pacific. High seas and constantly shifting sands make the Columbia one of the world’s most difficult rivers to navigate. The lightship Columbia, the last seagoing lighthouse ship to serve on the West Coast, is docked at the museum. We had good views of Astoria from the Astoria Riverfront Trolley and the Astoria Column. The trolley runs along the riverfront and includes a narrated tour. The Astoria Column is 125 feet high with 164 steps leading to the top. It’s patterned after Trajan’s Column in Rove and on the exterior wall has a mural depicting the history of the area. Yes, we climbed to the top and the view was spectacular! The photo shows the bridge to Washington and The haystack rock at Cannon Beach. Click HERE to see more pictures.