border-crossings

road trip statistics
from/to: vancouver, bc to tonasket, wa to grand forks, bc returning through tonasket
total distance: 1557 kilometres
fuel used: 123 litres (approx)
highways travelled: 1, 3 (CrowsNest), I-97, WA-20
small towns visited: tonasket, chesaw, grand forks, greenwood, osoyoos, keremeos, princeton, hope
number of border stations crossed: 2 (at osoyoos 3 times and at grand forks once)
roadkill encountered: 1 deer, 2 skunks, 1 coyote, a kitten and innumerable squirrels, chipmunks and other unidentifiable rodents
roadtrip booty: 2 large bunches of mountain sage, 25 pounds of field tomatoes, 25 pounds of apples (spartans and golden delicious), 3 field cucumbers, 1 bag of hot hungarian peppers, 1 bag of sweet banana peppers and six ears of fresh corn

returned last night from trip to visit nathan at his new home 25 km outside of tonasket, washington. i elected to drive bc’s southernmost highway there and back since the crowsnest is easily one of my favourite highways to drive. winding through manning park, the old gold mining town of hedley, the organic fruit mecca of keremeos and then finally onto the atrocity that is osoyoos – the 3 is a winding journey through the most arid region of the province and into alberta – and provides an interesting counterpoint to my coastal existence (fog now cloaking early mornings cooling, water rising to meet the sky).

from tonasket, we took a couple of day trips and on sunday went for a russian lunch of borscht and perogies at the grand forks hotel, and then meandered back on the canadian side through the historic town of greenwood, the only remnants of its once bustling industry a chimney taller than any of the buildings and a massive slag pile that snakes its way far past the town limits. at the museum we asked why everything in town was for sale (we figured for about $2 million you could buy the whole town) and were told “well – a lot of people have moved out, and we’re just waiting for some more people to move here” – but given that the only industry in town is summer tourism – it seems unlikely those people are coming any time soon.

on my way back i stopped in keremeos and loaded up on organic tomatoes and apples for canning, the scent of sage and fresh fruit enveloping me through the rest of my travels home.