Oh Alexandra! Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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There has been a roadhouse or lodge at Chapman's Bar in the Fraser Canyon since 1858, four years before the Cariboo Road opened and the nearby Alexandra Bridge was completed. A second roadhouse was built in 1864. The question is whether any portion of this building is the original roadhouse which would make it one of the oldest and most historic buildings in B.C.
The current Alexandra Lodge has obviously been assembled from other buildings, some portion of which may be the 1864 roadhouse.
The roadhouse, by the 1920's known as Alexandra Lodge due to it's proximity to Alexandra Bridge, was moved in 1952 six feet from the road right-of-way by a highways department crew and placed onto a concrete foundation.
The remains of the Anderson Brigade trail of 1848, used briefly by the Hudson Bay Company, ascend the ridge behind the Alexandra Lodge. The trail began at Fort Yale, crossed the river at the narrows at Spuzzum and continued to Merritt. It was the first attempt post-contact to establish a route through the Canyon. Above the Alexandra Lodge site, the trail climbed a steep hill to Lake House and on to Fort Kamloops. Anderson's trail also connected to an Indian pack trail from Boston Bar to Merritt. The route was superseded after the 1849 season by the Hope to Tulameen brigade trail. Documented as a route to Fort Kamloops from 1847 to 1849, and later in 1858 and 1882 as a route to Boston Bar. The site of Lake House has been found and the trail has been improved by the Hope Mountain Center for Outdoor Learning. There are now many interpretive signs and trail markers. An 1858 gold mining trail returns to the Canyon via 17 Mile Creek. Much of the forest along the trail has been logged over the years, but the first 7 kilometers, starting near Alexandra Lodge, is more or less untouched.
Parking coordinates are N49.43.140, W121.25.222
This cache is a small rubbermaid container with various trade items and FTF and STF certificates. We hope you appreciate the place it was hidden for it's own historic value. Have fun!
P.S. - Check out the cache "Crossing the Mighty Fraser" nearby. It is well worth the day.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng raq bs zbffl ybt
Treasures
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