Anahim Lake, BC 332 km

 The ride from Williams Lake was interesting. For the first couple of hours the forests lining the road had either been beetle killed or burnt or maybe a combination of both. The deforestation has contributed to an erosion problem with associated slides, flooding etc. Lots of wide open vistas and ranch land. The small communities along the way have basic services. See the general store at Tatla Lake. We saw lots of logging trucks, lots of big and small lakes with resorts and camp grounds, lots of fishing places, lots of trucks with campers and lots of bugs, including mosquitoes, black flies and horse flies. Made you want to get your helmet back on quickly. In fact there was more traffic than we had expected to see.

Tatla Lake Genral Store

Drive BC says the following about the road:

Highway 20 - Highway 20. Muddy sections 39 km west of Anahim Lake to Alexis Creek. Last updated Mon Jun 28 at 11:43 AM PDT. (DBCRCON-101167)

This is a very disappointing show by Drive BC. There is no mud. None. Well one man made area where the work crews had wet things down to combat the dust. It has been in the mid-30s! There are numerous short sections (100 meter pieces, maybe) of gravel mostly where the pavement has been destroyed by frost heaves. They are all well marked. There are many well marked potholes and heaves as well. There are 3 short construction areas where they are relaying the roadbed with what appears to be frost heave mitigation techniques. And the road is just fine for the last half of Drive BC’s report. All they have been doing is changing the date on a very old report.

Probably the biggest road hazard is getting run over by a free range cow. In fact at one point Norma quickly turned on the GoPro thinking it was a big black bear butt but, sigh, only another cow.

We are actually about 12 km west of Anahim Lake at the Eagle’s Nest Resort. Because we left so early to try and beat the heat (we didn’t) we did not have lunch until Anahim Lake. The last 11 km is a dirt road – a bit surprising because that is not what our map shows. The resort is perched on a peninsula of a pretty trout filled lake. It has lots of outdoor gardens and gathering areas. Apparently it is built around an old log cabin which used to be local watering hole for the area pioneers. We did walk down to the lake. The fish were sure jumping. Too bad it is just too hot out there to comfortably explore more.