With the 20-degree weather, we had this spring; it was a perfect time to do an extended trip up the Fraser Canyon. Leaving the house with the sunrise, we left the valley and headed out to Hope. Here in the shadows of the mountains, we filled up the car and our stomachs to get ready for our little adventure. Driving north through the canyon is a sight that is quite amazing, with steep vertical mountain cliffs, twisting highways with dark tunnels, and lush wet green forests; you see the BC that I picture in my head.

Upon leaving the canyon, you exit the Trans-Canada and turn off on to the Cariboo highway leaving the mountains behind as the landscape slowly turns to the rolling pasture land for the cowboys. Much of this highway follows the route of the original Cariboo Wagon Road, which in the early 1800s was a critical part of BC’s gold rush history. There were many neat little historic markers dotted between the small rustic farming and logging communities. A sad thought throughout the trip was seeing the devastation caused by the recent terrible wildfire years.  There were many times where on one side of the highway was a green forest, and out the opposite window, the view was kilometers and kilometers of charred stumps with not much else.

Our first day ended in Williams Lake, which presented us with one of our most surprising insights of the trip. But to get that I should first start with, a few months ago, we were visited by some family from Saskatchewan. They loved seeing so many electric cars driving around Vancouver, but lament the fact that without the proper infrastructure, they couldn’t see many people in their community adopting to them anytime soon. When they said this, I agreed and thought that made sense, however now after this trip; I think I might disagree! Most Canadian cities provide access to power for their block heaters! When we parked at our hotel in Williams Lake, we were surprised to see each stall had a wooden post with 120v power access. Now while it won’t solve all the world’s problems at once, this does seem like something that might actually give those more electric resistant places a leg up in terms of charging infrastructure. The power required to start your cloud spewing diesel truck in the dead of winter, might also just help speed up the adoption of a greener alternative. In our situation, it provided us with a free 40kms! (one full charge of the Ford Fusion Energi).