Thursday, August 14, 2008

Highway 99












Highway 99 is the most spectacular road we have driven so far, staring just south of Clinton and continuing through Lillooet, Pemberton, Whistler, Squamish and on to Vancouver. There is in Lillooet a bridge called "the bridge of the 23 camels". Apparently following the discovery of gold in 1858, horses mules and oxen were used to haul heavy loads to the gold fields. Some entrepreneur had the bright idea to get 23 2-humped Bactrian camels from Asia. Soon a nightmare unfolded as the high strung beasts ate minors clothing, kicked at anything and everybody and hurt their feet on the sharp rocks. They were released into the wild, with the last one dying in the 1920s, do the only remnant is the name of the bridge in their honour. The construction on the Sea to Sky portion of the road between Whistler and Vancouver was a real challenge but the road will be wonderful once the construction is completed by Fall 2009 (AND the Olympics are not here until Winter 2010...will they make it...the road is costing $800M).



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