THE HEDLEY, BC CRUISE & CAMP-OUT
Good friends Bob & Dar organized a 4-day camp-out over the Labor Day long weekend with invitations sent to more than 30 couples…2 dozen or so accepted. Earlier in the summer our hosts with another couple scoped the RV parks from Hope to Penticton, BC and selected the exclusive Nendick’s Park on the Similkameen River, about 5 miles west of historic Hedley, BC. As convenience was more in line for this trip, Charlotte and I hooked our 17′ Boler trailer to our loaded up truck and headed east on Hwy.7 from our Hatzic Lake home. It was a warm sunny morning with little traffic as we motored up the scenic north side of the Fraser River, past Lake Errock, through Agassiz, Sea Bird Island and into Hope. We headed straight to one of our favorite eating spots, the Home Cafe, for breakfast. This small mountainous city is famous for the setting of the movie ‘First Blood’ where Sylvester Stallone played Rambo, starring Richard Crenna and Brian Denehey.
From here, we head out the Hope to Princeton Hwy. A good 2-lane road with lots of pullouts and passing lanes. The leaves are already beginning to turn color and with all the fir and pine trees, make a beautiful drive as we start our rise into the mountains. We pass the famous Hope Slide, now a tourist stop where more than 60 people were caught in the tons of earth rock and trees that cascaded down the north mountainside, wiping out the road at the bottom and moving the river a mile to the south. Those that perished were never recovered and there is a monument to their memory at the site. Next we enter Manning Park, which is thousands of acres of provincial parkland and travel upwards to the summit where the Manning Park Lodge is a favorite stopping place for travelers’ in the summer and skiers in the winter. For the hardy campers there are several provincial park sites that only cater to small units and tenters with very limited facilities, but very clean and well maintained. Reasonable too.
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