North through British Columbia - Alaska and Points North: Tips and Tales from the Road - page 42

it is does canoeists and kayakers who consider the Bowron Lakes chain to be among the
best canoe circuits in the world.
Ranching is big in the Cariboo. It is not uncommon to see cowboys in the saddle, riding
around herding cattle. I most love driving through this area in the fall when the rolling
fields of green turn to gold and the combines roll the hay into fat round stacks.
But today it is still early summer. The fields are fresh and the road is smooth. We keep
driving past Williams Lake. There are lots of signs in the passing fields advertising rodeos
and country music events. I love stopping for local festivals, but these are still weeks away.
Quesnel is a remarkably clean little town - not a candy wrapper or cigarette butt to be seen.
On that Australia road trip I mentioned, we kept coming on towns with big signs erected at
their entrance, “ 2005 Tidiest Town in Tasmania .” Well, Quesnel gets our vote for Tidiest
Town on Hwy 97!
We head just a little further north to Ten Mile Lake for our first night in the van. I wish I'd
taken a photo of our first campsite. Too knackered by the long drive I guess. We did 646
km /404 mi today, which considering we didn't really get going until after a full read of the
weekend paper, is a lot of driving.
Ten Mile Lake is actually 12 km outside of Quesnel. Canada was not always metric. In
my school days we were taught inches, feet and miles so I'm assuming the name is a
throwback. It is a nice provincial park with some great trails around the lake and through