Kamloops!

Today was our first day in Cache Creek, and we hoped to explore one of the nearby provincial parks. However, David woke to discover that tick had embedded itself in him, and our plans suddenly changed to finding a clinic to have the tick removed.  It turned out that the closest health clinics are in Kamloops, an hour's drive west of Cache Creek.  So, we decided to spend our day exploring the area around Kamloops.  It turned out to be an enjoyable trip after all.

Kamloops is located at the confluence of two branches of the Thompson River, upstream from Cache Creek.  It has nearly 90,000 residents, and so is not a small city.  We found it to be an attractive.  The city was originally founded by fur companies and was known as Ft. Thompson.  Later, it became known as Ft. Kamloops, possibly derived from the name local Shuswap Native Americans gave to the area, "Tk'amlups," meaning "meeting of the waters," possibly due to the similarity of its pronunciation to the French, "Camp des Loupes," meaning, "Camp of Wolves."  The gold rush of the 1860's and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway contributed to the town's growth.  Logging continued to cause it to prosper.

After David's tick removal, we popped over to the Visitor Center, which was graced by a large wooden sculpture of a rainbow trout:

We got some tips from the visitor center host on places to hike.  When we asked her one thing we should not miss when visiting Kamloops, she unhesitatingly recommended the BC Wildlife Park, just east of town.

The BC Wildlife Park operates the only licensed wildlife rehabilitation center in the area. The staff and volunteers work closely with the environmental agencies and community partners to provide rehabilitation services for injured, ill, or orphaned mammals, birds of prey, amphibians, reptiles and endangered species until they can be returned to their natural habitats.  The Center also has a partnership with Thompson Rivers University's – Animal Health Technology Program to teach and prepare students to become Animal Health Technicians. In 2006, the Center rescued and rehabilitated 139 animals.  In 2007, the park took in five rescued rattlesnakes and rehabilitated them by the fall season when the snakes were eventually released to a den site. One of the snakes also gave birth at the park and the surviving young were also released into the wild. In 2008, the Center took in 11 deer fawns, and has released eight of them into the wild.

Members of the public are permitted to tour the facility and view of the animals that are being cared for.  All of the animals are given spacious outdoor natural habitats.  On this day, most of them were lolling about in the afternoon sun after having had their morning meals.  They included:

Grizzly bears -

- a shy peacock who was free to roam the campus and who, when we passed, was crying out for his mate, who cried back from the veterinary section where, we imagined, she was receiving medical attention -

 - two regal bald eagles -

- a barred owl -

- a red-tailed hawk -

- a Bactrian camel -

- llamas -

- and several mountain goats, including a ram -

- and a ewe with her newborn kid -

- a white wolf -

- a cinnamon-colored black bear enjoying his own swimming pool -

- two coyotes roaming their habitat nervously -

- a female moose who didn't seem the least bit bothered by our presence nearby -

- and a mountain lion who was howling his general displeasure with the world:

Some of these animals are too injured or too habituated to humans to be returned to the wild; those inhabitants will be cared for at the center for the rest of their lives.

After our visit to the wildlife center, we returned to downtown Kamloops for a very tasty lunch at The Noble Pig Brewhouse.  Seven house beers were on tap, and Kathy selected a Belgian blonde ale to fill her growler for later enjoyment.

Our hunger - and thirst - thus sated, we headed out to Kenna Cartwright Nature Park, which preserves 2,750 foot Mt. Dufferin in its natural state (except for several microwave and cell towers on its summit).  We climbed to the top and, because it was a clear, sunny day, were treated to exhilarating panoramas of the city and surrounding regions.

Here is a view north up the North Fork of the Thompson River looking toward snow-capped peaks to the far north:

Kathy was so excited about the view from the summit of Mt. Dufferin, that she asked David to take this panoramic video of Kamloops from Mt. Dufferin.

Finishing our hike, which was about 4 miles, we hopped in the truck for our drive home to Cache Creek.  On the way, we stopped for a view of Kamloops Lake, which is a natural widening and deepening of the Thompson river and measures about 1 mile wide, about 18 miles long, and up to 450 feet deep.  Today it was a deep, clear blue:

Both Kamloops Lake and the Thompson River generally offer some good trout fishing this time of year, so we are scheming to get out and thrown a line in the river to see what bites.  More on that another day...