Sunday 13th September - Kamloops

Had a lovely sleep in this morning and then off to Earl’s (where Katie works in the bar) for breakfast around 10:30.

We then drove out to the Wildlife Park so that we could do a bit of identification of the various animals we had been seeing along the way plus others we haven’t seen. We saw grizzly and black bear as well as bison, moose, caribou, elk, mountain goats, cougar, lynx, porcupine, wolf, coyote, bald and golden eagle among others. Also saw some fawn mule deer that were being rehabilitated.

From there we drove to the salmon breeding area, Roderick Haig-Brown Provincial Park on the Adams River (off Shuswap Lake near Scotch Creek about 1.5 hrs from Kamloops). 

It is very well set up with interpretive signs to explain what was going on and we did a fair bit of walking along the channels but, unfortunately, we were a bit early for the run and did not see any fish. Not that it would have been a big run this year. It would appear that the spawning goes in a 4-year cycle. 2007 was a large year for the number of fish spawning. Last year would have been a fairly large year and this year and next quite small. As the Adam’s River is one of the major spawning areas for Salmon in Canada it was good to see where it all happens even if we didn’t get to see any fish.

Back to Kamloops to fill up with fuel. Purchased a bottle of Australian wine to have with the curry and rice awaiting us – yummy. Was great to share some time with Gayle, Dale, Katie and Marleigh – so good to talk with the locals about local “things”. As Dale was a teacher, was also interesting to compare education systems and discover that there are many similarities.