Letters to John — From Canada — Letter Four

At Pemberton — Seed Potato Capital of The World

As the sun came out and the weather improved, my mood got brightened up too

When I went to Canada in 2016, I wrote John a letter (email) every day. In this way, we felt as if we were travelling together. This is part of my fourth letter to John, which I wrote on the third day on my way from Whistler to Lillooet.

If you missed the previous part of the letter you can find here:

I am on the outskirts of Pemberton, a small village just 30km north of Whistler. I read that Pemberton is known as the “Seed Potato Capital of the world” due to its production of virus-free seed potatoes. I also noticed that there are quite a few Hot Springs in the area here, but I don’t have time to go to any of them.

It is already almost 5 pm, and I didn’t get far today… Yes, that’s right, it took me 3 hours to drive 30km.

After I left the touristy town, the weather improved, and with this, my mood brightened too. I feel much, much better now! The lack of people, just me and nature, helps a lot, too. I was wondering, John, what were you doing — are you enjoying your trip, the peacefulness and nature as well? I hope so…

My first stop was at Green Lake. The sky was still covered with clouds; however, the outlines of the mountains were clearly visible, and when, from time to time, even just for a few seconds, the sun came out, the scenery looked magnificent.

Even the simple road through the forest along the lake had some magic to it. In my rear mirror, I could see how I was leaving the thick and hefty clouds behind me, and with every kilometer, the sky in front of me became clearer and clearer.

Finally, I could take some photos of the forest and the alpine mountains with blue patches in the background. I loved to watch the fast-flowing and turbulent waters of the Green River in the valley below me, accompanied by the brownish railway tracks that, like a snake, wound along the river shores and, from time to time, disappeared in the greenery of the forest. And all around me, the marvelous Coast Mountains with summits decorated by patches of snow. What a view! We have to come here together, John, you just have to see it!

I continued driving until I came to Nairn Falls Provincial Park, where I went for a walk and, in digital format, immortalised the beauty of the place. The narrow path meandering through the green forest, the rapidly flowing river and the relatively small but merciless pounding rocks waterfall looked picturesque.

Of course, I spent ages there as I was carrying my heavy tripod and then tried to get the best shot of everything. I also attempted to get some portraits of myself; nonetheless, I must work on the focus part a bit more. The images are blurry again — everything looks quite good, except for me (or maybe it doesn’t lie in the quality of the photo, but in the person being photographed). Anyway, I’m a landscape photographer, not a portrait master.

The Nairn Falls Provincial Park was also the place where I learned something new in photography — I discovered how to take photos of… ghosts. Or maybe better how to include phantoms in my photographs.

It was quite a funny story. I was photographing the well-trodden trail through the woods, adjusting the aperture and shutter speed, using rather long exposure, when three boys ran past me. It happened that I just pressed the release button when the last boy ran by — his first step put him into my image, the second one out of it. All these happened while the shutter release button was pressed. And now, on one of my snapshots, I have a ghost. It looks pretty interesting. I like it :)

I will continue to drive soon, as the closest town is still 100km away, and I would like to arrive there no later than 7 pm. Hopefully, I will be able to find a camping ground there.

This story is from my unpublished book called “Letters to John — From Canada.” One day I hope to publish the entire “Letters to John” series, but until then, I decided to share snippets of my books on various social media and writers’ platforms.

More articles relating to this book and my adventures while driving across Canada you can find in the following collection/list

Every article starting with “Letter X” is a collection of posts that together create the given letter. So, if you want to travel with us across Canada, go through the “Letter X” — articles. I hope you will enjoy the travels as we did! Happy travels!