Yes, I know it is not the traditional spelling but that’s the way they spell it here. The Cariboo Highway, also known as the Cariboo Trail back in the day, has some celebrity. It  is actually the route that gold seekers took to seek their fortune, or so I was told by the hostess at the restaurant where I just had supper. Nice place by-the-way. She also mentioned that there was/is no gold around here but the trail led to Dease Lake which is/was also on my route, but more on that later. In my case, once I left Cache Creek on the Cariboo Highway this morning, the country changed to amore greener landscape, not as arid and it became more rural and in places, a little remote. Just right. There was a brisk cool wind I rode into but by the end of the day, some 350 miles later, it had warmed up and was quite pleasant.

Not far out of Cache Creek I passed the Hat Creek Ranch Heritage site. The name rang a bell from back in my ranching days so I turned the big two wheeler around to see what this place was all about. Sure enough it is the same place I’d heard of before. The ranch was originally established as a roadhouse on the gold trail but the owner, a retired Hudson Bay man realized that the money was in the grazing lands and began to raise cattle to feed the miners, etc. and thus the roadhouse became a ranch. The ranch passed through various owners and at one time was co owned with the famous Gang Ranch which for a long time was the largest ranch in North America. It is currently second behind the Douglas Lake Ranch. It was fun reading the history and looking about for awhile. Unfortunately it has turned into somewhat of a commercial tourist attraction. I’d like to thing that behind the facade is still a grand working ranch in the traditional sense.

The remainder of the ride to Prince George was great. The Cariboo Highway is marked along the way with settlements known as 50 Mile House, 75 Mile House, 100 Mile House, etc. actual roadhouses along the trail that grew into communities. The scenery was good, a lot of heavily forested rolling hills with hay fields along the river. Very nice. I’m saving my superlative adjectives for later as I know there will be just cause to load this blog up with them. If I use them all now I won’t have anything left in my word arsenal. Suffice it to say the landscape was great.

In Prince George I turned left and headed to Vanderhoof where we stayed last year. I am beginning to feel the effects of the long distances up here. It’s frustrating. I’m still 450 miles or so from Prince Rupert where I hope to stay for a couple of days to paint. I’ll make it to Terrace tomorrow where friends Mark, Chantal, Teale and Lander hosted us last year with the best Salmon fry I have ever experienced. It was the highlight of our ride last year. I plan to stop and do a painting or two of the Skeena River. There’s several turn-outs right along the highway that give a good view of this well known river. On Sunday I’ll move on to Prince Rupert. There are several motiffs that I am going to look for there. More on that, then.

In the mean-time, because of the vast distances up here in the North Country, I doubt I’ll make it to the Yukon. I’d prefer to spend some quality time in certain places than to just hit the high spots to make distances.

I’ll be in touch. Mike out.