Done with the north

‎Our last official "northern BC" nights and call hence to have a final look at the aurora from the latest solar storm didn't come to much - high cloud and the remnants of the super moon made the skies too light to see anything, or at least distinguish the lights from the clouds. So we are done with the north now, on the hwy 97 down south.

Of all my half baked ideas, heading north late in the season has worked well. We got to see the aurora, which was the main reason, but coincidentally matched the salmon running and spawning which in turn led to being able to see the bears up close feeding on the salmon. The fall colours were spectacular, and ‎seeing the mountains and forested hillsides and valleys with a first dusting of snow was a bonus. I would love to come back up and drive parts of the Alaska Highway in the winter with snow all around as they have in the tourist brochures, but maybe just in toad. I really don't want to buy and fit snow chains to badger.

So now we are heading to Whistler tomorrow for a couple of days research to check out what the town does and doesn't have, along with nearby places‎. Then we are probably going to head inland for a month or so to check out the Okanagan valley. There are supposed to be about 60 wineries in a 100km stretch - that's only 2 a day on average. And the forecast for the next few days is 27c, so a last blast of summer and shorts...