CENTRAL BRITISH COLUMBIA - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 530

$16-24), a casual space with a standard menu of burgers, pastas, and BC specialties such as
salmon. The adjacent Sand Bar Pub has a large lakefront patio.
My recommendation for the best food in town is Table 24 (1460 Trans-Canada Hwy.,
250/832-5024, 7am-9pm Tues.-Sat., 7am-1pm Sun.-Mon., $18-26), on the eastern side of
town in the Podollan Inn. The emphasis is on local ingredients prepared in-house: The pasta
is made fresh daily, the meat is cut to order, and the produce is sourced directly from local
farms. The end result is a wide-ranging menu of delicious dishes at reasonable prices, with
the option of dining inexpensively in the evening from the Bistro menu ($10-17).
Information
Salmon Arm Visitor Centre (20 Hudson Ave., 250/832-2230, www.sachamber.bc.ca ) is
open 9am-6pm daily in summer, 9am-5pm Monday-Friday the rest of the year.
SQUILAX
Squilax lies at the turnoff to Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park, 48 kilometers (30
miles) west of Salmon Arm. The town's one remaining building was originally a general
store and is now the Hostelling International-affiliated HI-Shuswap Lake (250/675-2977
or 888/675-2977, www.hihostels.ca , mid-March-Dec., dorms $22, $48 d). The hostel office
and a store selling organic products are in the building, while the dorm beds and communal
kitchens are in three railway cabooses (the living quarters for railway workers in days gone
by). The carriages sit on a short stretch of rail line overlooking the west end of Shuswap
Lake. Private doubles are located in the main building. Guests enjoy free use of canoes, a
waterfront campfire, and u-pick herbs and vegetables growing on the property. Check-in is
after noon (Mon.-Tues. after 5pm).
ADAMS RIVER SOCKEYE RUN
Turn off at the Squilax Bridge to get to 988-hectare (2,440-acre) Roderick Haig-Brown
Provincial Park, named for noted British Columbian conservationist and writer Roderick
Haig-Brown, but best known for protecting in its entirety the Adams River sockeye salmon
run, North America's biggest such run. The salmon runs occur annually, but every four
years (2014, 2018, etc.), a dominant run brings up to two million fish congregating in the
river. These salmon are near the end of their four-year life cycle, having hatched in the
same section of the Adams River four years previously. Unlike other species, after hatch-
ing, sockeye spend up to two years of their life in a “nursery” lake, which in the case of the
Adams River run is Shuswap Lake. It is estimated that in conjunction with dominant runs,