Across BC to Pincher Creek..a testament to the year of western drought

We made it. Started off early from Keremeos and had a good run across highway 3 with litle traffic to frustrate our progress. The general landscape was green everywhere, despite showing up in some of the photos as browned out. But despite the green, everything is dry. The rivers on the first part of the trip were running hard with lots of white water but the colour was clear. The ones near Cranbrook and Fernie were also running high but were muddy and brown.

This photo is taken as we rise out of Osoyoos on Osoyoos Lake. We are now standing at a viewpoint only a mile or so north of the US border. The south end of Osoyoos Lake is in the US. The orchards are lush and green and cherries are ripening. This is early in the morning and nothing was open, but the many many fruit stands will be full with fruit in just a few weeks.

We cross over the height of land and then we drop down to Kootenay Lake at Castlegar which like Osoyoos  straddles the middle of the lake and has a significant but ancient bridge that joins the two halves of the community. We are here at another view point, rising up out of the valley on the way to Cranbrook.

 We were most interested to check on the status of the snow pack in  the mountain ranges that we crossed. This snow is at Kootenay Pass just out of Castlegar and for May, this is not a significant amount of snow. Not good.

 We arrive in Creston, a large agricultural valley that claims a number of ranches and agricultural farmland. It has an old time traditional feel to it and we wish sometime we could take the time to explore it properly. The main street is a little treasure.

 

As you can see, the mountains surrounding Cranbrook are already almost devoid of snow. 

 The Rockies outside Fernie are better but not by much. The summer looks like certain drought for all wildlife (plant and animal) and without adequate rain, a terrible fire season. This photo and the next one were taken on the BC side of Crow's Nest Pass.

 This photo was taken on the Alberta side of Crow's Nest Pass. The view is more spectacular than the BC side, but unfortunately the amount of snow has not improved.

 At last, just as we were starving for our evening meal, we approached Pincher Creek and we enjoyed how little it has changed from our last trip taken in mid-summer. The leaves are very young and the lilacs just blooming so spring arrived very recently. There were dark foreboding clouds to the east. However, when we checked into the campground the host said that the clouds were very dark and promising but that they held no rain. Another discouraging report on the growing state of drought in the west.

 For the next 2 days we will be crossing the prairies and doing long days, so no blog until we reach Ontario. Stay tuned!!