Last night as we were sitting around visiting with Jerry & Nancy, a young buck came strolling through the RV park. He hung around for quite a while munching on the bushes. I forgot to mention that we saw another bear as we were driving; it crossed the road right in front of us. Also, we were visiting with a Canadian woman at Walmart and she mentioned that she and her husband like to ride the 4 wheel trikes out into the bush – we were amused. Jan asked if everyone referred to quads as trikes and she said they didn’t, she calls them that because they used to have a 3 wheeler. Makes perfect sense to me.
We left Quesnel at 9:04 and as we drove through the town I was wishing we had explored it the day before. It’s a very pretty little town. This part of BC is logging country and there are 4 mills in Quesnel. There was more lumber activity and more mills as we drove further. The landscape was about the same as yesterday, farms, forests, rivers, and lakes. There were more lake communities today and they were really busy since it’s a warm summer day (and it’s Sunday). The traffic got really bad and we didn’t like it at all. We’ve been so spoiled by the light traffic in Alaska that this was kind of a shock to the system.
The woman at Walmart also told us we would be driving through the only desert area in BC. She was right – all of a sudden everything turned brown and it looked like the Nevada desert. We went through some really dry, rugged mountains and entered a canyon that took 3 hours to get through. It’s the longest canyon we’ve ever seen, especially when you’re driving through it. At the end of the canyon there were a number of fruit stands with fresh cherries, peaches, and apricots. Jerry really wanted some fresh cherries so we stopped at a stand that would accommodate our RVs. The stand was owned by an old couple who smelled bad and they didn’t have any cherries, only apricots and green plums. We bought some apricots just to be nice – we could probably get better ones in the grocery store. We finally started climbing, went through 7 tunnels, and ended up back in beautiful thick foliage and forests. We stayed in Hope BC and it was really busy here. The town is near the Fraser River and there’s a lot of summertime activity going on, swimming, fishing, boating, etc
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Day 48
9:01 and we were on the road with Van Morrison singing “The Bright Side of the Road” and that’s where we were. It was a beautiful sunny day. As we made our way east and then south, the landscape became less forest and more farmland – large farms that stretch for miles. As we came over a summit, the valley below us went on forever and there were so many shades of green in the different foliage and trees. Green is certainly a dominant color in Canada and Alaska.
We came to the town of Burns Lake and under their “Welcome” and “Thanks for Visiting” signs were 2 Volkswagens covered with flowers. I have no idea how they did that but it sure was pretty. We noticed that there are beautiful flowers growing everywhere – in gardens, hanging in pots on city light poles, flower boxes – you name it and there are flowers growing out of it. It was that way in Alaska, too. The woman who owned the RV park we were in last night had flowers all over the park. Nancy and I are in awe of all these green thumbs.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how many bicyclists are travelling in Canada and Alaska. We’ve seen a number of people with their bicycles heavily packed and they’re just pedaling down the road. Today we saw a family – dad was riding the bike with the packs and mom was riding the bike with a stroller attached with 2 little kids in it. Yesterday we saw a couple on a packed tandem bike. I told Jan we could do that but he’d have to do all the pedaling. I don’t think we’ll be travelling on a tandem any time soon.
We all stopped in Prince George and ate lunch at the Fatburger. It was right by a Walmart so we went over there and replaced our sewer hose (we figured it would be cheap at Walmart; probably made in Indonesia). We were going to wait until we got to Seattle to replace it but thought we’d better play it safe. I won’t let Jan throw this one in the back of the truck to dry. While we were discussing where we were going to get fuel, Jan said something about being in Prince George before. I sure didn’t remember ever being there (must have been his first wife) but when we got to the Flying J, the light bulb went on. We did stop there on the way in.
Tonight we’re in a marginal RV park in Quesnel BC but they have a great WiFi connection. We were escorted to our spaces by a man with no teeth and we had a little trouble understanding him but he was so excited to have us staying here. We have also gone from having the heater on this morning to wearing shorts this evening. We’ve been told it will get warmer as we continue south. It’s really hot –85 degrees. We keep telling these people they don’t know hot.
We came to the town of Burns Lake and under their “Welcome” and “Thanks for Visiting” signs were 2 Volkswagens covered with flowers. I have no idea how they did that but it sure was pretty. We noticed that there are beautiful flowers growing everywhere – in gardens, hanging in pots on city light poles, flower boxes – you name it and there are flowers growing out of it. It was that way in Alaska, too. The woman who owned the RV park we were in last night had flowers all over the park. Nancy and I are in awe of all these green thumbs.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned how many bicyclists are travelling in Canada and Alaska. We’ve seen a number of people with their bicycles heavily packed and they’re just pedaling down the road. Today we saw a family – dad was riding the bike with the packs and mom was riding the bike with a stroller attached with 2 little kids in it. Yesterday we saw a couple on a packed tandem bike. I told Jan we could do that but he’d have to do all the pedaling. I don’t think we’ll be travelling on a tandem any time soon.
We all stopped in Prince George and ate lunch at the Fatburger. It was right by a Walmart so we went over there and replaced our sewer hose (we figured it would be cheap at Walmart; probably made in Indonesia). We were going to wait until we got to Seattle to replace it but thought we’d better play it safe. I won’t let Jan throw this one in the back of the truck to dry. While we were discussing where we were going to get fuel, Jan said something about being in Prince George before. I sure didn’t remember ever being there (must have been his first wife) but when we got to the Flying J, the light bulb went on. We did stop there on the way in.
Tonight we’re in a marginal RV park in Quesnel BC but they have a great WiFi connection. We were escorted to our spaces by a man with no teeth and we had a little trouble understanding him but he was so excited to have us staying here. We have also gone from having the heater on this morning to wearing shorts this evening. We’ve been told it will get warmer as we continue south. It’s really hot –85 degrees. We keep telling these people they don’t know hot.
Friday, July 23, 2010
Day 47
Jerry & Nancy went to Fish Creek last night because we were told the bears come out in the evening. They stayed until 9:00 – no bears. Once again, because the salmon aren’t running right now, the bears have no reason to hang out entertaining the tourists.
It started raining around 10:30 and rained all night. Jan was kind of happy about it since the truck was so dirty from our dirt road adventure yesterday. We loaded the trailer (in the rain) and got on the road at 9:13. We’re pretty much in travel mode now. We’ve done all the things we wanted to do in Canada and Alaska and we’re more than ready to go home. Jerry said he’s tired of travelling – he’d like to stay in one spot for a while.
After all the time we spent at Fish Creek waiting for bears, we saw one just sitting by the road after we left Stewart. Otherwise, the drive today was uneventful. I take that back – we did have an event. Jan put the sewer hose in the back of the truck so it could dry out and the darned thing made a break for it again. This time it got run over by a motorhome so Jan didn’t bother stopping. I guess we’ll have to find an RV store and buy a new one in the very near future.
We ended the day in Houston BC at the Shady Rest RV park. It’s a really nice one, was only $25.00 and the WiFi actually works.
It started raining around 10:30 and rained all night. Jan was kind of happy about it since the truck was so dirty from our dirt road adventure yesterday. We loaded the trailer (in the rain) and got on the road at 9:13. We’re pretty much in travel mode now. We’ve done all the things we wanted to do in Canada and Alaska and we’re more than ready to go home. Jerry said he’s tired of travelling – he’d like to stay in one spot for a while.
After all the time we spent at Fish Creek waiting for bears, we saw one just sitting by the road after we left Stewart. Otherwise, the drive today was uneventful. I take that back – we did have an event. Jan put the sewer hose in the back of the truck so it could dry out and the darned thing made a break for it again. This time it got run over by a motorhome so Jan didn’t bother stopping. I guess we’ll have to find an RV store and buy a new one in the very near future.
We ended the day in Houston BC at the Shady Rest RV park. It’s a really nice one, was only $25.00 and the WiFi actually works.
Day 46
We took our time getting ready to meet the day because the weatherman said the rain would clear up and it would be sunny in the afternoon. We came to Stewart/Hyder for two reasons: 1) Fish Creek where the bears come to feed on salmon; 2) Salmon Glacier, the world’s largest glacier accessible by road. These are both located in Hyder (Alaska) on Salmon Glacier Road. We didn’t check out Hyder yesterday but “Mileposts” said they had 3 restaurants, 3 gift shops, and a post office. We decided we would eat lunch at one of the restaurants – HA – one was a bar where you could order a sandwich and the other was a seafood place on a converted bus. He catches them, she cooks them. We didn’t want a seafood meal and didn’t want to eat in a bar so we went on our way. I had some snacks in the truck so we knew we would starve. The city of Hyder consists of a few ramshackle buildings, a campground, post office and it doesn’t have even one paved road. We expected it to be a little more than that.
Our first stop was Fish Creek to view the bears – there weren’t any. Fish Creek is a National Park and is well designed for bear viewing. There’s a boardwalk above the creek and a viewing platform in the area most visited by the bears. Bears and people are separated from each other. The creek is more or less the end of the line for salmon that have come to spawn and we did get to see a few swimming up the creek. We waited for about 45 minutes and then continued on our way.
Salmon Glacier Road is a pot holed, washboard dirt road that is sometimes right on the edge of the mountains with a long drop off. Thank heaven for 4 wheel drive. I’m afraid of heights but views were well worth the pain and suffering. Jan is sensitive to my phobia so he tries to stay away from the edge of the road. We arrived at Salmon Glacier (22 miles) and it was huge and amazing. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures and just standing in awe. The landscape all around was beautiful as well. There was another glacier 6 more miles down the road – smaller but still awesome. I’ve never seen so many glaciers! The mountains were covered with them!
There were remains of old mining operations all along the way. The last mine shut down in 1996 and now the only activity is mining exploration. These towns are pretty depressed and sure could use a new mine. Right now tourism is their biggest industry and there’s none of that going on in the winter.
We stopped at Fish Creek again and waited about an hour and a half but there still weren’t any bears. The ranger told us they found some dead salmon on the banks of the creek but those had been grabbed by wolves. They know that because wolves just eat the heads off the fish and leave the rest; bears eat the stomach and eggs and leave the rest. These dead salmon didn’t have heads. Gross! We did get to see a mink – we had never seen one of those in the wild. Jan took pictures of pictures of bears that were on display so he could show them to Nancy and tell her they were bears we saw at the creek. He wowed Nancy earlier in the trip with an amazing picture of a duck that was really a picture of a picture. He’s a funny guy.
We didn’t starve while we were out – we each had a piece of jerky and a moon pie. Now that’s some healthy eating!
Our first stop was Fish Creek to view the bears – there weren’t any. Fish Creek is a National Park and is well designed for bear viewing. There’s a boardwalk above the creek and a viewing platform in the area most visited by the bears. Bears and people are separated from each other. The creek is more or less the end of the line for salmon that have come to spawn and we did get to see a few swimming up the creek. We waited for about 45 minutes and then continued on our way.
Salmon Glacier Road is a pot holed, washboard dirt road that is sometimes right on the edge of the mountains with a long drop off. Thank heaven for 4 wheel drive. I’m afraid of heights but views were well worth the pain and suffering. Jan is sensitive to my phobia so he tries to stay away from the edge of the road. We arrived at Salmon Glacier (22 miles) and it was huge and amazing. We spent a lot of time there taking pictures and just standing in awe. The landscape all around was beautiful as well. There was another glacier 6 more miles down the road – smaller but still awesome. I’ve never seen so many glaciers! The mountains were covered with them!
There were remains of old mining operations all along the way. The last mine shut down in 1996 and now the only activity is mining exploration. These towns are pretty depressed and sure could use a new mine. Right now tourism is their biggest industry and there’s none of that going on in the winter.
We stopped at Fish Creek again and waited about an hour and a half but there still weren’t any bears. The ranger told us they found some dead salmon on the banks of the creek but those had been grabbed by wolves. They know that because wolves just eat the heads off the fish and leave the rest; bears eat the stomach and eggs and leave the rest. These dead salmon didn’t have heads. Gross! We did get to see a mink – we had never seen one of those in the wild. Jan took pictures of pictures of bears that were on display so he could show them to Nancy and tell her they were bears we saw at the creek. He wowed Nancy earlier in the trip with an amazing picture of a duck that was really a picture of a picture. He’s a funny guy.
We didn’t starve while we were out – we each had a piece of jerky and a moon pie. Now that’s some healthy eating!
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Day 45
After giving my sunny weather report yesterday, we woke up to clouds and the threat of rain. But that didn’t dampen our spirits – onward to Stewart BC. We started out on a slightly bumpy road and it got a lot worse before it got better. There was a 20 mile construction zone that was gravel; it wouldn’t have been too bad except it was so dusty we could hardly see. We really felt sorry for a couple who was ahead of us on a motorcycle. With all the bumps and dust, it was difficult to feast our eyes on the beauty around us.
Once we were back on pavement we were able to enjoy the scenery. We were surrounded by thick foliage and trees with green mountains behind and even bigger mountains behind the green ones. We ate lunch at a rest stop on Bob Quinn Lake & Airport. An airplane actually landed while we were there. The runway was gravel and so short I didn’t see how a plane could land, but it did. A few miles down the road we came around a curve and there were 4 horses standing in the middle of the road. They weren’t the least bit concerned about us and just looked at us as we slowly made our way around them. Right after that it started raining.
The closer we got to Stewart the more beautiful the landscape became. British Columbia is so incredibly gorgeous. The road we’re on is known as the Glacier Highway and we saw a number of glaciers with tremendous waterfalls. As I’ve said before, there aren’t enough adjectives to describe it.
Stewart is a small mining community that sits on an inlet (Portland Canal) surrounded by tall mountains. I was surprised to learn that a number of movies have been filmed here: Bear Island, The Thing, Iceman, Leaving Normal, Insomnia, & Eight Below. We went for pizza with Jerry and Nancy and the waitress told us that when Insomnia was filmed, Robin Williams was very nice and interacted with the community but Al Pacino was kind of a jerk. He stayed on his yacht and had body guards.
After dinner, Jan & I did a load of laundry. Nothing says “party” like spending the evening in a laundromat. It was located in the King Edward Hotel – that makes doing the laundry sound kind of classy.
Once we were back on pavement we were able to enjoy the scenery. We were surrounded by thick foliage and trees with green mountains behind and even bigger mountains behind the green ones. We ate lunch at a rest stop on Bob Quinn Lake & Airport. An airplane actually landed while we were there. The runway was gravel and so short I didn’t see how a plane could land, but it did. A few miles down the road we came around a curve and there were 4 horses standing in the middle of the road. They weren’t the least bit concerned about us and just looked at us as we slowly made our way around them. Right after that it started raining.
The closer we got to Stewart the more beautiful the landscape became. British Columbia is so incredibly gorgeous. The road we’re on is known as the Glacier Highway and we saw a number of glaciers with tremendous waterfalls. As I’ve said before, there aren’t enough adjectives to describe it.
Stewart is a small mining community that sits on an inlet (Portland Canal) surrounded by tall mountains. I was surprised to learn that a number of movies have been filmed here: Bear Island, The Thing, Iceman, Leaving Normal, Insomnia, & Eight Below. We went for pizza with Jerry and Nancy and the waitress told us that when Insomnia was filmed, Robin Williams was very nice and interacted with the community but Al Pacino was kind of a jerk. He stayed on his yacht and had body guards.
After dinner, Jan & I did a load of laundry. Nothing says “party” like spending the evening in a laundromat. It was located in the King Edward Hotel – that makes doing the laundry sound kind of classy.
Day 44
What a great day to be on the road! The sun was shining, there weren’t any clouds, and it wasn’t cold. I haven’t given a weather report in a while because it’s been mostly sunny since last Friday. It has been a welcome change.
We left the RV park at 9-ish. We’ve driven this part of the Alaska Highway previously but this time we turned off on the Cassiar Highway to make our way to Stewart. The road was narrow in some parts, kind of rough, and it “rolls”. You look ahead and all you see is rolling highway – an E-ticket ride. Yesterday we met a couple from Texas who told us we needed to stop at Boya Lake because it was so beautiful. It is one of the Canadian Provincial Parks. We stopped there for lunch and had it not been so early, we would have camped there. It was beautiful.
We also stopped at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store (jade is the official Alaska State gem). The family who mines the jade also owns the store. We got to learn how the jade is mined, cut & polished; then they send it out to artists, jewelry makers & sculptors to be designed. They have everything “jade” that you can imagine or you can buy raw stones. We bought some wind chimes and a raw stone for Joshua. Are we the best grandparents or what? We went to Alaska and bought our grandson a rock. Believe it or not, he’ll like it.
Remember the big bus style RV that went off the shoulder on the Chicken Highway (Top of the World)? We heard that another one went off and ended up in the river. After that, there was a rainstorm that washed out part of the road and it is now closed.
We’ve seen a lot of people travelling on motorcycles. A group of Harleys passed us yesterday, all in proper formation. It made Jan smile (and I think he was a little jealous). A few motorcyclists camped by us last night - Jan and his friends stay in hotels. I don’t think their bodies could take sleeping on the ground not to mention the fact there’s no Jacuzzi in an RV park.
We stayed at Dease Lake Campground (it’s not on the lake). It was nice but not nearly as nice as Boya Lake.
We left the RV park at 9-ish. We’ve driven this part of the Alaska Highway previously but this time we turned off on the Cassiar Highway to make our way to Stewart. The road was narrow in some parts, kind of rough, and it “rolls”. You look ahead and all you see is rolling highway – an E-ticket ride. Yesterday we met a couple from Texas who told us we needed to stop at Boya Lake because it was so beautiful. It is one of the Canadian Provincial Parks. We stopped there for lunch and had it not been so early, we would have camped there. It was beautiful.
We also stopped at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store (jade is the official Alaska State gem). The family who mines the jade also owns the store. We got to learn how the jade is mined, cut & polished; then they send it out to artists, jewelry makers & sculptors to be designed. They have everything “jade” that you can imagine or you can buy raw stones. We bought some wind chimes and a raw stone for Joshua. Are we the best grandparents or what? We went to Alaska and bought our grandson a rock. Believe it or not, he’ll like it.
Remember the big bus style RV that went off the shoulder on the Chicken Highway (Top of the World)? We heard that another one went off and ended up in the river. After that, there was a rainstorm that washed out part of the road and it is now closed.
We’ve seen a lot of people travelling on motorcycles. A group of Harleys passed us yesterday, all in proper formation. It made Jan smile (and I think he was a little jealous). A few motorcyclists camped by us last night - Jan and his friends stay in hotels. I don’t think their bodies could take sleeping on the ground not to mention the fact there’s no Jacuzzi in an RV park.
We stayed at Dease Lake Campground (it’s not on the lake). It was nice but not nearly as nice as Boya Lake.
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