This ferry takes two minutes to cross the Fraser River. Yup a whole two minutes :) It's just outside of Lytton (2.4 km) on Hwy 12 and the ferry is the main connection between the Indian Reserve and town. Both my younger kids attend school in Lytton and today when I drove in I stopped and took a few pictures.
It hold two vehicles, or as Sydney says "one bus Mama."
It has a cable that pulls it across (I'm assuming it must have a motor too), and I've heard that the cable has snapped a few times, probably the reason for the sign, although there would be no chance of asking the Operator anything if he was sailing down the Fraser, I guess you could holler on the banks ;)
You know this is the ultimate ferry... why you ask? Well it's free, the shortest run I've ever heard of, and it's schedule is "on demand," you pull up and it toodles over to get you if you are on the other side. There are two short breaks during the ferry's daily schedule which is 6:30 AM to 10:15 PM. It doesn't run between 10:30 and 11:00 AM and 6:30 to 7:00 PM. Coffee breaks? Early lunch? Dinner? Refueling? I have no idea why.
Oh one other thing, it doesn't run during high water... hmmm... what do people who live on the other side do when that happens? The only other routes I know of are a rather long slow detour (2-4 hours) on a rough gravel road through Texas Creek into Lillooet and around (been there done that and not fun), or a pedestrian walkway along the CN railway bridge. I was on the ferry once, more than 15 years ago, when we took the nasty gravel road through Texas Creek, that was quite an experience! Don't you think a bridge would be a lot easier for everyone?
7 comments:
kansas I took a similar ferry years ago to get to Barrier near Kamloops We waited while the operater ate his lunch and saw he had finished eating. He insisted on taking his whole 1/2 hour and we had to wait until he was ready to take us across. They problably have a bridge there by now. Thanks for stopping to smell the roses.. I love the photos ab
I do think a bridge would be easier, and I was just going to ask why there wasn't one. That's such a cute ferry, though. It looks more like a floating dock.
Hi Tanita, I think it's all about money. They probably think it's way cheaper to pay for a ferry, wages, fuel, maintenance, etc., than to shell out the bucks for a bridge... the government, go figure.
Maybe they will think about replacing the ferry with a bridge when the operator retires?
Awesome ferry!
Yes, it was great ferry service.
There is a similar one just this side of Drumhellar. We took it last year when we went there. It was the first time the kids went on one. I went on one as a kid when they were more popular.
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