GPW, BC has quite a wide range of climate. I live on the coast now and the summer temps are about perfect: averaging in the mid 20s (high 70s for you guys :^). Winters tend to hover around zero (32) or dip a little below. From what I've seen (we get a bunch of tv channels from Seattle and Spokane), Seattle is indeed cooler and wetter than coastal BC. The spot I live is wedged between steep, old growth forests and Strait of Georgia. We have a shorter growing season, but we rarely see snow and can usually grow hardy veggies (under cold frames) year round.
The biggest difference I think is that we're sheltered by Vancouver Island so the worst of the weather gets dried out a bit by the Island's mountain 'spine' - we get wet, milder inflow air from the Japanese current and cooler (hotter in summer), drier outflow through from the interior. It makes for some pretty spectacular winter storms !
The steep coastline and deep inlets also create some wicked katabatic winds that are dynamite for sailing - it's like going downhill both ways if you plan it right.
The area where I grew up in the interior (near where Randy's link is) is semi-arid and sees temps typically 100-110 and less than 2" of rain per month during the summer. I grew up in that so I don't have a problem with it but my wife who's always lived on the coast tends to suffer in that much heat...so I tend to do those trips on my own.
There's a pullout on one of the logging roads there that is a trailhead to a point where you can see all three of the valley lakes (Seton, Carpenter, and Anderson). Because of the mineral composition of the silt, they are three different colors: green, blue, and brown. It's an amazing sight that always reminds me that it's about the journey, not the destination. You'd never even guess it was there if you're pushing to get to camp - I found it by stopping there to sleep one night an noticed it in the morning when I went for a hike before heading out.
I am still keeping the ac option open and have sort of reserved a spot on the back wall under the dinette table or in place of the upper galley cabinet, but I'm not building it in right now. AC is a useful for about four months of the year here, so I don't know that I want to dedicate permanent space to it, especially in a small space that will let me carry more stores for a longer trip.
The bottom of that cabinet will be overbuilt to hold the weight should I go that route. A buddy recently picked up one of those little Honda E2000 gennies for his moho and I'm impressed with how quiet it is. He's got a 50' 12/3 extension cord that lets him drop it down a creek bank and I really have to listen for it to hear it over the water. Unfortunately, I'm building a thrifty trailer for a good reason and the genny will have to come before the ac does.
I did look into swamp coolers after reading the ac posts and that seems like a pretty solid option, as well as pulling cold air in from under the trailer. The humidity is low enough that sweat evaporates as soon as it forms, so it certainly ought to work.
One of the things I love so much about this place is the diversity - you change between temperate rainforest and semi-arid as you crest the Coastal Range - less than an hour's driving time...you can watch the change. Both are a bit of an exception from the boreal forest that makes up most of the province....remember that we're talking about a million square miles and 4 million people, over half of whom live in two cities. Another quarter of us (or so) live in the southern part - within about 100 miles of the border - that leaves a
lot of area devoid of people.
Randy, the place you're talking about sounds like Barkerville. It's a restoration of a gold rush town near Quesnel. The gold rush here was contemporary with Cali and the Klondike: late 1800s. There's still gold and silver to be panned and there are still active miners working claims.
Those cable ferries are tucked away all over the province - they are vital links, being essentially an extension of the highways. What the article doesn't mention is that there's so much crap coming down the rivers in the spring that the ferries get pretty beat up and the cables sometimes let go, so they're an extensive link to maintain, but bridges sometimes fare worse...
I knew a guy whose parents ran one of them so he grew up on the river and bussed to school - I always envied him that !
For me the best thing about the Interior (well, besides the climate !) is the flyfishing (though the smell of the Ponderosa pines in the hot sun is pretty sweet too). Many of the lakes have no outlets and the isolation has led to a unique strain of rainbow that people come from all over to chase. The rivers are pretty productive for both rainbows and steelhead, though the coastal river mouths are the best place to chase steelies and salmon though because they aren't so beat up by their long swim upriver.
At the risk of sparking another age-old debate, hunting opportunities are just as rich as fishing.
To that end, I'm allowing for a 6" X 10' piece of pvc with a screw on cap on the back wall and passing under the bed and under the galley cabinet specifically to hold flyrods so I don't have to break them down to move to a new lake. I originally started camping out of trailers because it was the most expedient way to get to one of the lakes on a Friday after work (2-4 hr drive), fish till last light, and not have to set up a tent in the dark. With so many productive little lakes so close together, it's a natural to drop a trailer as a base camp and fish one or two lakes a day. It would take years before you fished the same one twice....
But it won't be for lack of trying !!
Now that I've written an essay, lol - please keep it to yourselves. I wouldn't want it getting out.....it'll be our secret.