Rocky Mountaineer Canada Trip 2019 - Day 3, Part 2

I'll try to be a bit less wordy this time, but I don't make any promises.  Let's go.

One of many tunnels

The tunnel above was just south of Lytton and the confluence of the Fraser and Thompson rivers.  As soon as we exited the tunnel there was a section where one rail line crossed over the other.  The timing was fortunate as there happened to be another train passing directly over us.

We were told that two weeks prior there had been no snow on the mountains.
Now we were following the Thompson River northeast into a semi-arid desert region.  Wait for it.

The north end of Lytton

Entering Avalanche Alley and Rainbow Canyon.  The darker top portion of the photo is the tint on the domed window.

Rock sheds on the opposite side of the river

See?  Semi-arid.

40

Eagle

Eagle

Eagle

There were a lot of eagles and osprey along this section of our route.  Later we would also see some bighorn sheep.

We passed by Cooks Ferry (Spences Bridge?) at 2:40, then at 3:15 we slowed to a stop.  The Rocky Mountaineer shares the same tracks the freight trains use and they take priority, so this was not the first time we'd had to slow or move onto a side track.  However there wasn't a side track here and 20 minutes passed at a standstill.

At 3:35 we were notified that up ahead the RM train would normally switch over to the Canadian National rail line into Kamloops (where we would be staying for the night), but those rails are closed for an unspecified reason.  Instead we would be staying on the Canadian Pacific line all the way into Kamloops, however their engineers weren't familiar with that section of track.  So we were waiting for an engineer to come to us from Kamloops to drive the train in.  We were told it would take him around 45-60 minutes to get to us, then we're about 2 - 2 1/2 hours out from Kamloops.

The train moved forward around a curve to a side track near a road then stopped again.  And we waited.

Easing around the bend to the side track.  Here's a view of the locomotives and the different types of rail cars.

On the viewing platform of the neighboring car, looking back towards ours (and a couple of people we don't know).  We were stopped on a curve at a steep slant.

Looking at our dining room.  Notice the bracing legs in the aisle.

Hehe

Looks like Adam had the lean down pat, though

The view to our right

The view to our left

The view straight down

One bonus nice thing about being on the viewing platform is all the different delicious smells coming from the rail car kitchens

Finally around 5:15pm we started moving again.

Wilford Brimley looked pleased.

A short way up ahead we could see a freight train stopped on the other side of the river - what was supposed to be our side of the river.

This looks like the unspecified problem that delayed and rerouted us

Clearly something is not right over there

We passed Ashcroft (population: approx. 2000) at 5:30pm and learned about the Highland Valley Copper Mine which is the largest open pit copper mine in Canada.

Up on the hill.  Allegedly it supplies about 4% of the world's copper.

Kamloops Lake

We passed the community of Savona on the west end of Kamloops Lake at 6:15pm.  Our attendants then made an announcement that due to our delay the chef had whipped up a snack for us.  They then came through the car and served everyone small plates of spanakopita (Greek spinach pastry/pie), which was delicious.  I had another Bailey's to go with it.  A short while later the kitchen staff themselves came through in their chef's whites and served us all warm oatmeal raisin cookies.

On the east side of the lake we passed through a quick succession of 5 tunnels known as the Cherry Creek tunnels.  Our hosts were extremely excited - they said they always see these from the normal route on the other side of the river, but have never been through them before.  They told us there were hosts on board the train who in their 20+ year career had never been through the tunnels, so this was quite exceptional.

We reached Kamloops in the dark at 7:00pm, but it took another 45 minutes to reach the station, pass the station, stop, back on to the station track and back up into the station.  In the meantime they brought our hotel room keys to our seats - we wouldn't need to check in at the hotel; we could just go straight to our rooms.  Nice.

We disembarked at 7:50 and boarded our bus to the Wingate hotel, which was equivalent to a Holiday Inn Express or Hampton Inn.  Not luxurious, but a fine place to stay on a road trip.  We knew when booking that there were no "premium" accommodations in Kamloops, so we knew what to expect.

We arrived at the hotel at 8:20pm and went to our room.  Just like on our trip to Chicago, once we finally got settled I still felt the movement of the train for a while.  Not sickening in any way, just a curious, funny sensation of slight bouncing and swaying.  My train legs would be gone by morning, just in time to get back on the train again.  :)  I was just happy the hotel had free WiFi, as the Pan Pacific in Vancouver only offered a pay version of which we did not avail ourselves.

Our view consisted of other moderate hotels, an Esso gas station and the ubiquitous Tim Hortons

But the best view was the artwork inside our room, which I've titled "The Road You Drove In On"

Despite the delay, it had been a fun first day aboard the Rocky Mountaineer.  We had another early start the next morning, so it wasn't long before we went to sleep.