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The lure of B.C.’s open roads

Have you ever felt like just getting in your vehicle, filling up the gas tank and heading out on the open road?

Have you ever felt like just getting in your vehicle, filling up the gas tank and heading out on the open road?

That’s how I feel sometimes. Especially if I’m driving around and they happen to play a song like John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads on the radio. That was also the way I felt after reading author and photographer Liz Bryan’s book, Country Roads of British Columbia.

“The country roads in Country Roads of British Columbia traverse the province’s heartland, where the landscapes are always lovely and sometimes breathtaking. Interwoven with strands of yesterday that lie along the highways and byways, the B.C. tapestry has become a lyrical fusion of landscape and history.”

This is a quote from the introduction of Bryan’s book in which she invites readers to come along and experience British Columbia’s scenic heartland by explore the amazing landscapes that make up the province of British Columbia. Through 18 picturesque rural and backcountry journeys, mostly in the Interior between the Rockies and the Coastal Mountains, Bryan takes readers through some of the most diverse and beautiful scenery on the planet.

Winding through sagebrush and forest, grassland plateaus and mountain valleys, beside river canyons, lakes and multi-coloured volcanic rocks, the 18 different road trips outlined in Bryan’s book reveal the rich variety of both the province’s geology and natural history. She also shows how the strands of human history are closely interwoven with the land  – how First Nations people, fur traders, explorers, gold miners, ranchers and homesteaders have all left their mark on the land.

The many highways, country roads and back-country roads that criss-cross this geography have provided Bryan with ample material for this interesting and visually stimulating book.

As you turn the pages, you learn about the history of the First Nations people that is carved into the totems of the Gitxsan people. Journey to their villages under the great ridge of the Rocher Deboule range into a magical landscape of mist and memories, deep forests and high, snow-covered mountains. Stand with Bryan at Mile 0 of the Goldrush Trail that begins at the top end of Lilllooet’s Main Street, cross the Bridge of the 23 Camels, and head north with her on the back roads to Barkerville.

Read where and how First Nation people and homesteaders alike lived and died. See what they built and the remains of what they left behind – see the landscape through their eyes.

The 18 chapters in Country Roads of British Columbia provide excellent background information, descriptive details and guidelines for many a trip.

Along ghost trails to ghost towns, across desert badlands and beside raging rivers on up into the high country, this book is more than a beautifully-illustrated history book, it is an invaluable travel guide that any smart traveller should have beside them on the front seat when they head out to explore the amazing landscapes and breathtaking beauty that make up the province.

As a photographer, I cannot help but admire the photographs in Country Roads of British Columbia. As an itinerant soul, however, I cannot help read Liz Bryan’s words and understand even more what John Denver meant when he wrote the lines, “The radio reminds me of my home far away. And drivin’ down the road I get a feelin’ that I should have been home yesterday.”

I find myself going back to this book, time and again, to read and enjoy it, and to ponder what it might be like just to head out on the open road.