The first stamp…                                                The Delivery Team

June 22, Day One: Cache Creek to Quesnel Part One)

CACHE CREEK – It’s 1:50 p.m. and we’re bombing along in my compact car and just heading down the hill into town when Stephen Hume glances out the window and says: “Don’t worry – we’ll make it on time.” This is no mean feat: we’re supposed to be in Cache Creek at the Gold Country Communities Society offices to pick up boxes of passports and so Stephen can get his passport stamped. The Vancouver Sun columnist, author and poet has graciously agreed to be the first to chase the golden butterfly up Route One. I have fought the Lower Mainland’s notorious traffic to pick him up at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal at 9:00 a.m. During our mad dash up the Fraser Valley and Canyon, we have stopped at the Chilliwack Canadian Tire to pick up a GPS device (thanks to manager John Vorster for giving us a great price) so we can find some of those geocaches along the way and in Bridal Falls for gas. We’d be in CC by now if it wasn’t for all that summer roadwork – stopped three times along the way. Not that we should complain about them fixing up the roads, mind you, but geeezzz… We pull into the Gold Country offices just off the highway and it’s a beehive of activity. There’s Amy Thacker and Heidi Roy of Gold Country, Cheryl Chapman from the New Pathways To Gold board and NPTGS Executive Director Gord Rattray, Fraser Valley Regional District Electoral Area B Representative Denis Adamson, Scott Rice from the Packing House in Spences Bridge – all bustling about, lifting boxes, grabbing envelopes full of information on the program. Everyone loads up and gets ready to head out. We’ve got passports to deliver. But we stop long enough for Stephen to get the first stamp in his passport and of course, the obligatory photo-op. Everyone roars madly off in all directions, including Stephen and me. We have a stage coach to hold up in Hat Creek…