Fraser River Tour

Saturday, morning I was supposed to take a shift at Agri-fair but I cancelled because Mom, Dad, Seth and I finally coordinated our schedules and were all available on the same day. Back in May or June Seth had obtained passes for a "Fraser River Safari" through the radio station. Saturday looked like it was going to be a pretty grey day but we decided to go ahead with the tour anyways.

We left from the dock at Mission and got a little history on the train bridge, the swinging section, and how close the river had been to flooding. We also learned about salmon counting and Department of Fisheries activities before heading up stream.

The bird on the left is a Blue Heron. We have a lot of them around here and we saw a lot on the tour. This one just happened to be sitting still and was easy to get a picture of.

As we made our way upstream our tour guides Rob and Joanne did an excellent job of pointing out anything of interest and telling us what they knew about each spot.

These green barges are parked at Cox Station Quarry which according to my Google search is the ninth largest sand and gravel quarry in Canada. Joanne was saying that the barges can each hold up to 3,000 tonnes and when they are fully loaded, they sink down so that only the green part is exposed.
It's a bad time of year for eagle sightings (in the winter there are literally thousands in this area) but we did see this friendly guy who was kind enough to pose for us :)
This yard might be Catermole Timber (I forget). I just liked the little boats that move the logs around.
You can see exactly where the Harrison River meets the Fraser River by the difference in water colour. The picture on the right was taken over the bow of the boat. The green water on the left is the Harrison and the brown, silty water on the right is the mighty Fraser.

We actually went all the way up under the Highway 7 bridge that runs from Harrison Mills.
The water was as smooth as glass there. Notice the camping spots at Kilby (above)?
Kilby, from a distance. We stopped at the Kilby Historic Site for awhile. It's been many years since I've been there so it was nice to see it again.
The staff in the General Store Museum are very friendly and informative.

We got a kick out of this "Low Doorway". Mom is 5'5" and Seth is 6'4". If he had his way all pictures of him would be taken like this.
I don't like to always be behind the camera so I posed with some early hydrangeas. My *favourite* flowers.
After spending time in Kilby we re-boarded the boat and made our way back down stream. Rob and Joanne showed us some Native articfacts that they found when they went on a dig with archeologists from Simon Fraser University. Arrowheads, grinders, hide scrapers and the like. They also showed us this rock that had a perfect hole bored through it by a rock eating bug. Very neat.
There were LOTS of fishermen out on the river. On the shores, the sand bars, in boats, basically anywhere you could drop a line. We were lucky enough to watch these guys reel in a sturgeon. BC sturgeon are world famous. It's a catch and release program but the thrill of catching them is still there.
The Westminster Abbey bell tower as seen from the river.

And finally a shot of the four of us. I did take more pictures but this gives you an idea of what the tour is like. Highly recommended and worth every dollar you pay or point you spend.

~Heidi