In Search of Fireweed

It made for a long
day, but sunshine and a good
companion saved it

~ carliewired

A and I were out the door about 7:30. Our goal was to secure 8 cups of fireweed blossoms to make fireweed jelly. We picked up breakfast before we left town and headed north on Highway 5.

It started as a cloudy day that had not been forecast. I'd stepped out on my deck for a shot of the first colour of the morning behind my mountains. There were a few drops of rain included but nothing to hold us back. 

We drove as far as Little Fort on Highway 5, then turned west onto Highway 24. We made several stops along this route to gather fireweed blossoms. We pulled into Goose Lake during the search. It is an alpine lake and the lily pads were stretched across one end with yellow blooms just beginning to open. A found a good supply of fireweed near the lake. We drove up and over the McDonald Summit (1251 m in elevation) checking out logging roads along the route. By 1 PM we had our supply in hand so we turned back to Little Fort the way we'd come. 

We turned south onto Highway 5 at Little Fort intending to drive to Barriere for a late lunch. A few miles south of Little Fort all traffic was halted on the Highway 5. A used her cell phone to determine why we were all parked on the highway. There had been a major accident sometime after we'd passed by in the morning. Traffic was tied up in both directions. There was no estimate of when the highway would reopen so after waiting an hour we turned back to Little Fort, gassed up the car, found some lunch, and retraced our route onto Highway 24, then over to Highway 97 to take the long way home. 

We arrived back to Kamloops about 7 PM, almost 12 hours after we'd left home this morning. We are so tired! 

Nothing much has been released about the accident on Highway 5. We know that one person was killed and a vehicle was removed from the North Thompson River. 
https://www.castanetkamloops.net/news/Kamloops/380463/One-person-died-in-single-vehicle-crash-near-Barriere-police-say#380463