Feb. 17 - First Day of our Trip to Seattle and to China

After my appointment with the Ophthalmologist, we left Kamloops about 2:30 pm on Monday, Feb. 17, to travel to Doug and Stella's place in Abbotsford.  The Coquihalla was pretty good from Kamloops to Merritt with only a bit of slush in one lane in a couple places.  Moving on from Merritt to Hope, things were much the same until Larson Hill. As we rounded the corner at the top, and headed down, the snow started, but it was more like hail than snow.  Moving farther South, the clouds moved in and the snow started staying on the road.

Then, within a few kilometres, the snow on the highway got worse and the clouds/fog got thicker.  Soon it was down to single lane that was generally being driven on, and the other lane being used once in a while, but only by those passing the rest of us who were driving much slower by this time.

As we got closer to the Toll Booth area, the snow got deeper on the road, the other lane got harder to see, and with the fog, it was difficult to see where to drive.  The signs above the highway indicated that the road was closed at the snowshed, so we thought we were going to have to wait for a while.  It was snowing pretty heavily by this time.

When we got to the brake check pull-out at the top of the snowshed hill, all the big trucks seemed to be pulled off there, but the car traffic was still moving, although very slowly.  We discovered that the road was very slippery, and it appeared that there hadn't been much in the way of plowing and/or sanding.  However, going down the hill, there was a sand truck leading the cars down (at least those who were patient enough to  drive slowly - some weren't).  We pretty much crept down the hill and through the snowshed.

There were lots of trucks stopped on the way up the hill (travelling north), and very little movement.  We did see a big tow-truck pulling a semi up the hill, a grader plowing the road, a few plow trucks with sand, but again, not a lot of movement that direction.  We assumed that was the part that was closed, not our side of the road.  We wished we had taken some pictures, but it was getting too dark for photos, and I wasn't interested in stopping.

Within a few kilometres past the snowshed, the snow had pretty much turned to rain, and by the bottom of the hill, the slush was gone, even from the wipers on our car.  Then it was just driving in the rain (heavy at times) until after Hope.  When the rain stopped, we drove at speed the rest of the way to Abbotsford with no problems - in fact the road was great; it was dry and not very busy.  We arrived at Doug and Stella's at about 5:00, just in time to sit down to a chicken dinner.

Avalanche on the Coquihalla

Up this morning (not too early) to drive into Richmond to pick up our passports at the tour company office, and then drive to Seattle for the Paul Simon/Sting concert tomorrow.  It rained all the way to Richmond, all the time we were there, and about half the way to Seattle.  Then the rain stopped, and by the time we reached Seattle, the sun was shining and the sky was blue - go figure.  I'm not sure if it is between storms, but it is still nice at 5:45 pm.  We heard on the news that the Coquihalla was closed due to an avalanche, so we were quite happy we drove to the coast yesterday.  Here is an article about the avalanche.

I just spent some time looking at Google Maps, and we are about a 12 minute walk from our hotel to the Key Arena.  We have thought about walking to the concert, but we may look at a taxi.  Not too sure about walking home in the dark, after the concert.

Enough for now.  At least we have started our next holiday.