After leaving the BC Hydro campsite we continued on the amazingly scenic Highway 99 for a short distance before heading south towards Lytton on Highway 12 as we crossed the river in Lillooet. Once again we were driving down a vast valley fringed with high mountains but this time the valley was covered in golden rolling fields of grazing punctuated with the occasional bright green irrigated oblong or circle. The soils looked very light and erodible and the river had cut a deep gouge through the loess leaving pale cliffs with relatively flat areas either side. This road gets closed in winter because of landslides and avalanches and there was a team clearing a small rock fall from one particularly unstable portion. At Lytton the Fraser river is joined by the Thomson river and there are a proliferation of white water rafting companies offering the thrill of a lifetime... We turned north on Highway 1 and after about 15 mins drive stopped at a small resort, at White Canyon, which also...
Occasionally over the next four years I will record the actions of some of my ancestors during the First World War. 100 years ago today, on the 7th August 1814, a great great Uncle of mine, Charles Robert Stephens, enlisted with the Royal Engineers (Territorials) in Falmouth aged 42. He was comfortably employed in the Family rope making business and enlisted the second day after Great Britain declared war on Germany without telling his brother and business partner. This probably caused some tension between them because Charles was the company Engineer and in addition the family was prominent amongst the Cornish Quaker community. After building defensive positions around Falmouth his unit was attached to the Hampshires and Wiltshires and served in France building bridges and water supplies for trenches and hospitals. He was awarded the Military Cross in June 1917 having been twice mentioned in dispatches.
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