Day 2: June 13: Lillooet, Bella Coola & Hagensborg
Rise and shine, it's 4:00am and we woke up to overcast clouds. It started raining around 4:30 as we drove towards Lillooet. We saw six deer in the first hour before getting to town as we stopped at Reynold's Saloon for breakfast. We overheard a conversation between some loggers about being laid off and having problems with insurance benefits. 
It didn't sound like a good time to be in the lumber industry in British Columbia after listening to their conversation. Breakfast was so-so but it filled us up and we continued on. I took a gravel road about five miles out of town to show Cindy the other side of the Fraser River. This road eventually leads to Carpenter Lake and Gold Bridge where there used to be mining a long time ago and many places to camp these days. It would take an hour to get there today so I said we could go some other weekend when were not going to Bella Coola. We started back and I showed Cindy some drying racks along the river that the Indians would use for fish that they caught out of the Fraser river. We went over a steep pass and thru Pavillion about an hour later and would pass Clinton at 8:30. Clinton is a little farming community with nice homes and green hills. We also stopped at a old cemetery that had been established here in 1861. 
A couple miles north of Clinton I turned off the main road onto a gravel road that was a shortcut to Bella Coola. Cindy wasn't thrilled about this but I told her it would cut off a couple hours of driving. We drove for about ten miles before coming to Big Bar Lake. This was a long narrow lake that had many campers. There were many people out fishing in small boats. In just the short time we were there we saw three fish in the lake that were at least 12 inches long. We left Big Bar Lake and went next to Little Big Bar Lake. There was no one around here and there were campsites that were larger and spread apart. 
We drove to the end of the campsites and came to a dirt road that led to an unfinished log cabin by the lake and also an abandoned house with an outhouse. It looked like it had been quite a while since anybody lived here as there was no personal belongings here and the house was kind of falling apart. The lake was partly marsh land with lots of birds, dragonflies and mosquitoes. We walked around for about fifteen minutes and then left. Three other vehicles pulled into campsites as we left the lake
Back on the gravel road we were driving next to a cliff overlooking pasture area. At one pont I had to make a sharp right so I did not go over the cliff and then steer back so I didn't hit the side of the hill as we lost traction. Needless to say
Cindy had a couple kind words for me after that but I reminded her that it would be something we could laugh about in the future. She told me to slow down before we don't have any future. We came down to a one lane suspension
bridge where we would cross the Fraser River and then be entering the Gang Ranch Property. 
This is a ranch that has been in existance since 1865, they used to put people up in rooms for the night but have stopped this service since 19??. We kept on gravel road for another 30 miles as we reached Big Creek where there was a telephone booth in the middle of nowhere on a four corner gravel road. We continued north and stopped at Fletcher Lake to look at campsites
a then continued until we finally reached Hanceville on Highway 20 where there is a little roadhouse . We had bypassed Willams Lake and probably saved about 100 miles by going gravel road and able to go just as fast on pavement as there is very little traffic. It has actually turned out to be a nice day as the temp is in the 70's with few high clouds. On highway 20 we drive next past Alexis Creek which is kind of dumpy and we don't stop for anything. There is a nice campsight about five miles out of Alexis creek called Bull Canyon. 
This is right next to the Chilka River which is fast moving at this time of year with the snow being melted from the mountains. A couple miles past the park is an old Indian Cemetary near the town of Redstone. The Indians still fence in the area that surrounds the grave sight. The community of Redstone live about one mile away from the cemetary. There are new houses on the other side of the highway from the cemetary and then the older community is about one mile in from the highway on the same side as the cemetary.
For the next 50 miles it is nice scenary as there is alot of flat land and lakes along this area. We stopped at Tatla Lake to get some coffee and gas. 
The people at the station had good service as they cleaned the windows, offered us free coffee and gave us a forest map for the area we were driving to. We left there and drove on gravel road for about another thirty miles before coming to Nimpo Lake on our left side which was kind of a resort area. 
Along this area there wer also nice views of the mountains that are south of here. There were also quite a few cabins that were half built and left for whatever reason. It reminds me of people who came here with high hopes and for some reason had to move on.
We drove into Anaheim Lake and drove around the community. It is a nice little area that is is about five miles away from Tweedsmuir Park. 
Richmond Hobson also had a home at Anaheim Lake as he came to the area in 1934 and had one of the largest ranches in the area. He has three books that would be great reading for anybody who wants to know more about this area. We drove around a couple blocks at Anaheim Lake and then continued on as after you pass the actual lake you start on gravel road again. There are signs that warn there is a 15% grade coming up as we will reach Heckman Pass in a couple miles. 
There is nobody else on the road right now and we finally start going on down the gravel road highway. It's a nice view overlooking the mountains and Bella Coola River. The road switches back and forth and gradually gets to the bottom about six miles later. This whole time Cindy is saying that she will never come here again. She new there was a gravel road but not this steep of a grade down. The road was completed in 1953 and it reaches an altitude of 5200 ft at one poijnt and will drop to 1000 ft . There are signs for warning of avalanche and always make sure that you have chains at all times. We finally get on pavement again and Cindy seems to relax a little bit. We stop at a large rock on the right side of the highway. The rock has been split in half and there for many years because trees have been growing around it. We take of picture with Cindy in front of it to show how large it is. We drive to Hagensborg which is a small Norwegian community about 10 miles before Bella Coola. It has nice scenary of Mt. Saugstad that seems to just be a couple miles away from the road. We decide we will come back here later for dinner.
Bella Coola is the next town and it is right on the water of what is known as the Right Bentinck Arm. It seems to be half indian village and half canadian community as there are small hotels and a couple restaurents and stores here. We drive out to look at the park and government dock that are also by Clayton falls. 
By the falls there is also a gravel road for recreational driving that goes up into the mountains. This road was covered with snow two months ago. I told Cindy that lets take this road for a little while and see if we can get a better view. We drive for about five miles in second gear and were starting to get good views of the mountains and inlets. About five miles later I realize that my canopy door is loose and we have lost our ice chest which had nothing in it. No big deal, lets lock the door and conitnue on since I don't see the ice chest. The gravel road on the recreationa atlas says that it will goe to another south water inlet and by the shore. 
What it doesn't show is having to ziz-zag back and forth over Mt Fougner and then start back down once we reach the top. At the top I finally decide to turn back as Cindy has been wanting to turn back for the last five miles. I take a couple pictures at the top of the hill of the mountains and the inlet on the other side of Bella Coola. I will come back here next time and go all the way down to the water of what is known as the South Bentinck Arm.
We started back down and we had drove about eight miles when we saw something in the middle of the road. It was our sleeping bag that had also fallen out when the door came open. Which now made us wonder where the other one was. We drove for another three miles and found our ice chest sitting along the right side of the road. We drove for about four more miles and found the other sleeping bag along the right side of the road. 
It's a good thing we hadn't planned on sleeping overnight and that we were the only ones on the road. 
So we drive back down the mountain and stop to take a picture of the inlet with Mt Pootlass in the background. We take one more drive thru Bella Coola and then decide to to go to Hagensburg to get something to eat at the Bay Hotel/Restaurent around 10:00. We have dinner and also split a couple pictures of beer over the next couple hours as we talk about kids, future, money, argue and anything you could think of. We finally leave around 1:00 and drive about ten miles east until we pull into Alexander Mackinze Park. There is nobody here so we decide to park the truck and go to sleep around 1:30. I had drove 550 miles today and 800 total