Kamloops to Williams Lake, British Columbia, Canada
We spent the night in Kamloops in the Paul Lake area and woke to a temp of 39 degrees F. There’s a Provincial Park there but it is closed until May 15th so we just pulled over on Paul Lake Road and boondocked undisturbed for the night. Went to a McDonalds to check the stock market this morning and went on our way to Williams Lake, British Columbia. The drive along route 1 west then route 97 north has fabulous scenery. We did see some snow flurries along the way but we are moving north and it is colder, even though it is after the first week of May. Stopped for lunch along the road and enjoyed a lovely, short walk.
Boondocking at Williams Lake
Now we are in the town of Williams Lake. Arrived at the Williams Lake visitor center at 4:30 and made plans for travel tomorrow with their help. The visitor center has free overnight parking with a free, no pass word, Wi-Fi connection.
Also staying in this visitor center parking lot is a couple from Holland. They have just come back from touring the Yukon and part of Alaska. They said they NEVER pay for “camping” in any country, including all of Europe. Quite the sense of adventure these two folks have! They are going to visit Vancouver, Seattle and then spend part of the summer touring the Maritime Provinces. He told us of a number of places we can boondock as we move further north, places where they have boondocked successfully just recently. Wow, we were impressed. This guy could teach a class on finding free overnight spots. He said something that we have found to be true; traveling is quite expensive and if you don’t have to pay to overnight (especially if you don’t need or want full hook-ups) you’ll just have more money to spend on your travels. Our budget is tight but I would hate to not travel so boondocking is great for us, to say nothing of not being right next to your neighbor in a campground. It’s all in where you want to direct your resources.
Traveling Off Season-
It has turned out to be a real blessing traveling before the rush of the summer tourist season. I’m glad we started across Canada in early May. I would rather have less sunny weather than crowds to contend with. Off season you can mosey along without causing other drivers distress and when you get somewhere special, you have the place pretty much to yourself. I’m fairly sure as you mosey along you get a chance to see more. Of course, you do miss the “tourist things” but that never appealed to us anyway. So to each his own. This just works for us.
