Living the Dream...: Friday, July 15, 2011 (New Denver, BC)

The weather looked a little more promising out there when I opened the blinds this morning. After our usual start to the day, it was time for exercises...and then off to the shower. We thought we would pack a lunch and go explore Sandon today.

We headed out just before 10:30, taking highway 31A towards Kaslo. This is the route we plan on taking when we leave here and I think it’s going to be a very slow ride as we pull the 5^th wheel through the mountains on a very narrow, twisty, windy road! As we went up the highway, there were dozens of cyclists heading down...going down would be fun...going up, not so much. We also saw a big black bear cross the highway behind the cyclists, and as we passed we saw it running up a side-road. Wow...that was close...I wonder if they saw it!

Sandon is about 5 kms off the highway on a gravel road that winds into a valley. It is located at the centre of where there were once huge deposits of silver ore. At the turn of the 20^th century millions of dollars and thousands of people rolled through its streets in the course of slightly more than a decade. It was the typical boom town of the 1890s with rough-and-ready construction, 29 hotels, a red light district with 40 brothels, social halls, 2 railroads, 2 breweries, and 28 saloons. One of the city’s unique features was a boardwalk built over top of Carpenter Creek which was flumed right down the middle of a downtown street.

Steve busy cracking the safe...

At the peak of the boom, nearly 8,000 residents lived within a three mile radius. It was incorporated as a city in 1898; by 1920 Sandon was broke and was de-incorporated. Nevertheless, over the past 100-odd years, over $30 billion worth of silver and lead ore had been taken from the region.

Since the 1970s, a group of dedicated volunteers has worked on-site to preserve and restore artefact and buildings. We went into the Sandon Museum, located in the only brick building in what is left of the old city. We were greeted by a lady who, after taking our $4.50 admission, started to tell us about the city. Showing us pictures and pointing to areas outside, she explained where the various buildings used to be. She had been working there for 8 years and was very knowledgeable and obviously very passionate about the history of the area. They have assembled an incredible number of artefacts, photos and exhibits depicting life back in ``the day``...very interesting and very well done. For more information on Sandon...here a website link http://www.slocanlake.com/sandon/

Here are some pictures taken inside the museum...

There was even more downstairs...

After spending a good hour and a half inside the museum, we headed outside and walked around the area...

We sat in the truck (oh, it felt good to sit down) and ate our lunch as it started to rain out...sheesh, more rain! But it really didn`t last and as we finished eating, we headed back out to take a look at a few other artefacts in the area...

This was not a very pretty sight as we entered Sandon...and after asking at the Museum about it, they directed us to read the sign...

(click to enlarge...)

There is a rough Forest Service Road that goes up to Idaho Peak where there is a lookout. We might drive back up here tomorrow and off-load the quads and ride up...the views are supposed to be amazing.

After stopping to pick up a few groceries at New Denver Market, we were back home just after 2:00. The sun was actually trying to come out by this time...yay! I decided to take the laptop over to the gazebo and see if I could get the Backroads Map installed properly. This time, after uninstalling and re-installing, it worked...go figure! I added a few more days to our blog...I`m less than a week behind now...and then returned to the trailer just before 4:00.

Steve was busy chopping firewood...we were going to have a campfire this evening. As we sat in front of the fire, the sun came out...amazing how hot it was when it broke through the clouds! But it really didn`t last all that long. As we sat enjoying the campfire (and the lake in the background), Steve suggested that we just roast hotdogs over the fire for dinner. Sounds good to me!

After dinner, we went for our evening walk heading in the same direction as we had last night. After crossing the bridge, though, we reversed our route and walked along the riverside down to the lakefront and around to the main street and back up to the highway. I remembered my camera tonight.

Carpenter Creek...