it was nice back in the eighties Billhilly! not nearly as much traffic!
i think the hiway has been kinda two-edged. it used to be a very quiet & remote area before the hiway, now anybody can get to a lot more places, now it's like 15 minutes to get where you want to tear up your truck. before it was like tear your truck up for 2 days to get to where you want to tear the rest of it up.....
it's opened up a lot of access.
if you get the chance when you get over here, you need to drive the "Whipsaw" it's one of the better & very scenic trails around here, it's our version of the Rubicon, it made some 4by mag (4 wheeler?) top ten in N America trails.
the connector is long done, it is one of the other 2 insanely long hard pulls on the Coke. leaving Merritt is like 15-20 kms of 4-8% grade & coming down the other side (Westbank) is like about a 25 km downhill run....just a big hill to get up & over, but very scenic at the top. like the Coke, get a 4by & get off the highway, some incredible back country.
and if your going to Kamloops from Merritt, ya got another nice 20k or so hill....
try to drive this, have'nt been down it since i had my K5, 'fraid the crew might be too big to run it....
https://www.google.ca/search?q=whips...UIBigB&dpr=1.1