During the hottest and driest peak of our last summer I set aside 3 days to aimlessly roam the Fraser Canyon, Thompson-Okanagan, and Southern Cariboo regions of BC, areas I had never had a chance to experience as a child. Fountain Valley, just east of Lillooet, is an absolutely stunning place that really made a lasting impression on me during that trip.
The highway through this region is unusually desolate and in relatively poor shape, you could be cruising steady at 100 km/h and see maybe 1 or 2 vehicles in a 20 minute stretch. This is a very empty slice of the province void of gas stations, cellular coverage, tourists, and police, only occupied by a handful of remote farms, hermits, Indian bands, and some very careless deer. That being said it's a wonderful place to quietly explore. While it's important to be aware of rural crime watch, this is a large valley and the chances of running into anybody outside of their own acreages seems quite slim. There are many remnants of BC's pioneer past in the valley, most of them almost completely void of vandalism due to the obscurity of the area. This stop in particular really stuck with me, a nameless and remote farming settlement, frozen in time, still containing much of the original (now vintage) furniture, clothing, tools, mechanical projects, and canned foods of the previous occupants. The settlement is comprised of 2 homes, 2 shops, a shed, an outhouse, and a barn. The structures appear to be very old and besides a radio antenna perched upon one of the cabins, I couldn't find any signs of recent use.
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