Sunday, August 21-23: Prince George Costco and Manning Park

 Costco is always a good choice when traveling, although all we really needed was gas and time for Betsy to finish getting a few geocaches. So we also stopped at a grocery store for some small things like TP. Can’t fit 32 rolls in the RV so a grocery store is a better option. 

Then it was on to Manning Park, a BC provincial park known to thru hikers as the northern terminus of the Pacific Crest Trail and to visitors from Vancouver as The Playground (I made that up). There really were a lot of people from Vancouver there as most campsites were full at the most popular campgrounds, even if campers didn’t show up. That’s a reoccurring problem at campgrounds near populated areas. People make reservations and then don’t show up, especially if it only cost them just $23 to reserve a site and twice that to drive there in a small car. However, it was nice to see so many camping with tents, a lost art it seems in the states. Lots and lots of kids too. They ride bicycles back and forth on the campground roads in small bands. I can imagine their high pitched voices laughing as they run over and devour an unsuspecting senior camper unable to outrun their marauding bicycles of death! Actually it’s fun to watch the little critters on the prowl. 

Not everyone has a tent. We saw and exceptionally well restored GMC camper van from the ‘70s. These were the campers to have for the jet set (i.e. Jetsons). 


We did a little geocaching, of course, and ran into a beautiful buck as we attempted a night cache. 


Night caches require that the searcher use a flashlight of some intensity to locate fire tacks (reflective tabs or prisms) located in the environment. In this case the tacks were prisms nailed onto trees at head height, during the winter, so ten feet off the ground. The search took us deeper into the forest along a path that I took the following day, a part of the final steps along the Pacific Crest Trail. 

Nice job of placing a bridge over especially wet areas on the trail. 

Using natural resources to make another bridge. Awesome chainsaw work! 

My kind of trail. 2650 miles to Mexico!
I only did 4 of it one way, then a little over 13
 to visit the fire lookout and 
get back to civilization. 


From the fire lookout I could see the clear cut that shows where the PCT crosses the international border and the long clear cut that traverses mountains 78 miles to the sea.  You might have to expand the picture to see this. 

More wet area bridges. 

Fire tower. 


The spotting scope used by fire spotters. 

We spent another day in Manning doing a few geocaches and relaxing. Three in all. 

The geocaching was fun! 

Larry and Trey on the way to find a geocache 
at Lightning Lakes. 

The Rainbow Bridge 
where Betsy searched and searched, 
but all Larry had to do was point 
and say, “There it is!”




Some Before and After pics:
2017

2017


2022
45 pounds heavier and five years older, 
almost to the day. 





 

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