We left Anchorage on May 24th and arrived here in Bellingham on June 2nd. Great weather all the way and I can’t recommend sightseeing in British Columbia highly enough. Dramatic landscapes, tons of wildlife: we saw bison, black bear, grizzly, sheep, deer, moose, and caribou. Even with the good weather and taking our time, it was an exhausting drive. Much of the trip is through the Canadian Rockies, which is up, down and sideways, roadwise. One spends a lot of time descending into river valleys and then climbing back up out of them at a crawl.
So Canada Dopers: What the hell is with your prices? How on earth does anybody manage to feed their families when they’re paying $6-$8 for a gallon of milk? $17 for a sixpack of pisswater beer? Really? We were in sticker shock the entire trip and basically just lived off of what we had with us. I had expected $4 gasoline, but the food prices were really off the charts. These prices were not just at roadside gas station stores, but at co-ops and grocery stores as well.
Anyway, we’re kicking it in Bellingham on the shores of Lake Samish for the next 10-12 days, enjoying the sun and resting up for the next leg of the journey. Glad to be back in the USA.
Man, where were you in BC? I’m going to guess really small town, out of the way places. Gallon of milk round these parts cheaper than that, and I’m no beer person, but I’m pretty sure we’ve gotten halfway decent 12-packs here for less than $20.
I was wondering the same thing myself. I’d be stunned to see that milk that costs that much here in Vancouver, unless it’s organic (or I’m shopping at Capers), and while I’m not a big beer drinker either, I know I can get a 6-pack of good beer for under $15, even at a private beer and wine store.
Those are pretty crazy prices. I imagine things cost more “up north” (relatively speaking) but here on Vancouver Island, milk is $3-something and I think the last time I bought beer it was about $9.
$15 for a sixer of beer? Yeesh! Even doing the exchange rate that’s still abnormally high for beer. We can get an OK six pack of beer for $8 here (unless it’s Dead Guy Ale, which is always really high for some reason) sometimes a 12 pack will be $15 to $18. No wonder more Canadians are learning to make their own.
Yeah, those sound like ‘Northern’ prices. People who live north of a certain point actually get a Northern Living Allowance to offset the high cost of living up there. In the larger cities in the southern part of the province it should cost about $4 for a 4L jug or bags of milk (and actually that’s slightly more than a gallon, IIRC), and maybe $9-12 for a six-pack of beer. Of course that’s in Canadian dollars, so it would be a little less in USD.
I’m glad you enjoyed BC - it really is a beautiful province, especially in the Rockies. Now I miss it!
You’re probably both correct: prices are abnormally high on beer because the excise taxes on beer (as well as on other products) pay for the health insurance.
Though I’d agree with most of the others: prices in northern BC are unusually high, even for Canada, because of remoteness/northernness.
Sounds like a great trip! Keep us posted, it’s fun to read.
I love Bellingham, BTW. If you have time while you’re there, take a ferry trip to the San Juan Islands – very fun, and you can do it as a walk-on, no need to take a car. Friday Harbor is a great town for kicking around in, on a summer afternoon.
Of all the places I’ve travelled in my life, the AlCan ranks near the top. The spectacular scenery, flora, fauna and wonderful desolation does the heart and mind a world of good.
We certainly expected higher prices in the smaller towns and northern lattitudes, but since they are all on the road or rail system, I expected some sort of relief. The prices I saw were on a par with bush Alaska, where everything must be flown in. The largest town we went through was Dawson Creek, which is where I priced the $17/6pk beer. You could get a break on a 15-pack for $34.95.
Nope, no porky-pines whatsoever. Maybe the bears ate them. Man, the scenery is simply stunning in BC and the Yukon. The roads from Kluane Lake north to the border are a nightmare of frost heaves that can bottom out your car or cause you to lose control of a larger vehicle. Luckily, the bad areas are pretty well marked, but they really are going to have to tear that 150 mile stretch completely up by next year or it will be impassible.
An odd geographic feature: Cache Creek, BC. We left Hixon, BC in the typical lush greenery of British Columbia and at a balmy 72 degrees or so. We’re driving along enjoying the scenery when suddenly we top a hill and find ourselves plunged into west Texas. Brown, scrub-covered hills worthy of a Cormac McCarthy novel and temperatures suddenly in the 80s, the dry air making us reach for the water bottles.
We camped in a nice RV campground in Cache Creek, but the heat was truly oppressive. Thinking that the next day’s drive to the border would be an easy march of 175 miles, we lazed around and left about mid-morning. The countryside not only did not improve, but grew increasingly grim and dramatic, with vertical mountainsides hemming us in as we began to follow the Thompson River gorge. Thompson River empties into the Fraser River, which is an impressively wide and fast river and the road narrowed as it wound around the base of the cliffs. Rock falls were common and the dry scrub continued.
After three hours during which we managed to travel 100 miles, we finally popped out of hell and back into the green world to which we had become accustomed. I’m assuming the area around Cache Creek is one of those leeward pockets that seldom sees rainfall, and holy cats what a road. For you rafters, there are companies that will take you down the Fraser, but it’s not for me.
In BC’s Okanagan valley, there is a genuine desert:
*
Tucked into the southernmost corner of British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan Valley, this extraordinary habitat is home to one of North America’s most fragile and endangered ecosystems. Despite its small size, Canada’s desert is home to an exceptional array of desert plants and animals, some found nowhere else in Canada*
There’s even rolling sagebrush stuff. Tres cool.
You have such kind words for BC’s beauty, when I grew up here, and it was Alaska’s stunning beauty that’s stayed with me!
Hi Chefguy! I live here in Kamloops, which is only about 1/2 hr.'s drive from Cache Creek. It is quite an amazing area here, isn’t it? Good thing you passed through a few days ago, though. It hit 35 C here, (over 90 F) yesterday, and there are masses of smoke in the air from a huge forest fire near Lillooet. Anyway, glad you enjoyed your trip!
That river gorge is probably worth another visit for a photo shoot. We were at the end of our 10-day leg, so were anxious to get to the border and didn’t make time for it. I’ve been through Kamloops, but it was in the early 70s and I don’t remember a lot, other than the winding roads and large trucks (logging, maybe?).
BC is definitely on the list for a revisit. The parks a little further east look very inviting, and I’m sure that the endless spruce forests will start calling to me after we spend this coming winter in the Southwest US.
Glad we missed the heat there, but it got up to about that temperature here in Bellingham the first couple of days, breaking records. Now it’s overcast and the forecast is for rain showers. At least it’s cooler.
It’s a tossup between BC and Alaska for scenery, IMO, with the edge going to BC because of the abundance of wildlife. There’s more browse for the animals, so they are seen more often, whereas in Alaska they have to wander great distances to forage, and the road system is small.
Having lived in the Mojave, I appreciate deserts. A friend moved to Vernon (? Someplace up there, anyway) and last year he sold me his car. Fine sand was in the engine bay (the engine was protected, but there was sand on the sheet metal), which I associated with my time in the Antelope Valley. I’ve only been up that way once, on a trip to Okanagan Lake, but I’ll need to get up there again for the desert.
