A Farmington, B.C. farmer driving a combine across the province appears to have been told to make a detour over a mountain range on his way to Victoria.
Instead of following the paved Trans-Canada Highway south of Cache Creek in central B.C., Nick Parsons has been told to drive his Massey Ferguson combine over steep mountain roads through Lillooet and past the ski resort of Whistler, said his wife Jane.
Parsons was stopped in Cache Creek, B.C. by officials who didn’t want him taking the combine through the Fraser canyon and along the busy Trans-Canada Highway. At press time there was still some uncertainty about which way Parsons is traveling.
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Jarvis Taylor, an organizer for the Farm Crisis Committee, said the last time he heard from Parsons, he was washing his combine in Cache Creek and then driving to Lillooet.
That route won’t be easy because of the looming snow-covered mountain range, said an Ashcroft RCMP spokesperson.
“There’s a huge mountain range between Lillooet and Whistler. The mountain road goes up and down and up and down and its snowy.”
Tito Zannella, manager of compliance for ICBC, the provincial government insurance agency in Kamloops, said she heard Parsons was driving through Lillooet.
“It’s shorter, but it’s sure a more treacherous route. That Squamish highway is sure a terrible highway.”
Parsons left Dawson Creek Jan. 10 when the temperature was -44 C. He was forced to spend two days at Mackenzie Junction while he waited for parts to replace the starter.
Then the tires were slashed at 70-Mile House and later Parsons was fined for being on the road after dark while trying to replace other tires that had gone flat.
