Trip of Memories

After several attempts at making arrangements, we finally managed to get a good part of our Care Group together to make the trip to the  Fraser Canyon and the site of the catastrophe that took our dear friend Erv. We met at Hope and ate breakfast at a favourite spot of Erv's, the 'Home Restaurant'. Another hour down the road and we drove through Lytton where we checked the odometer and counted down the kilometers to the scene. We came around a curve about 11 kms later and there it was, not nearly as dangerous looking as I thought it would be. The white cross, just barely visible, is the exact location where the rock struck Erv's cab. Above is the view as you drive north, the direction Erv was driving that early morning of June 2, 2010. 

This is the same slope but looking at it going southbound from the left shoulder. You can see that it is steep, but not very high at all, considering the rugged terrain in the area.

About 100 yards farther down the road, you can plainly see where the big rig, laden with a full load of fuel, eased off the road and fell onto its right side, rupturing the diesel fuel tanks as you can see by the dark stains. None of the highly flammable cargo was released, but only the fuel that drove the truck engine, avoiding a fireball and complete disaster.

This is the same scene looking southbound with the slope in the background that released the large rock.

Here we are, Lis, Delores, Heidi, Bill, Ella, and Henry, standing beside the cross that Erv's family erected in his memory. We each collected a stone or two as a reminder of the trip and of Erv.

Click on the photo to see more detail. We race by these at the roadsides and scarcely pay attention to them, not realising the grief and pain that each one represents, until it is one of our own loved ones. I will look at these crosses differently in the future and have more understanding as to why people do this.

If Erv was looking forward and to his left on that fateful morning, this is the last thing he would have seen.

Because he was sitting high in the cab of a big rig, and were he looking down and to his left, this is the spectacular view he would have had just before entering God's Glory.

And had his truck veered to the left instead of where it gently glided to, this is the where he would have gone down, a thousand feet to a CN railroad track and the Thompson River below.

Ken and Jan, and Frank and Elma have been here on their own. It is a place we will forever remember as we pass by. We made a decision to make an annual trek to this site in the future. Further down the road a few kilometers is a wonderfull little camp site called 'Gold Pan'. It was there that we went for our picnic lunch and to process what we had just seen. It is a peaceful and beautiful spot. More photos of that later.