Day 36 - Saturday 15th June - Whistler to Williams Lake

Day 36 - Saturday 15th June - Whistler to Williams Lake

Today was a driving day..... as will the next 3 be..... as we make our way North and then West to Prince Rupert. We started by getting Rachel to the bus departure point in Whistler, to catch the sky lynx coach to the airport in Vancouver for the start of her long trip home.

We continued on this Highway till it joined with the Caribou Highway, also known as the Gold Rush Trail. We passed Green Lake..... which really was very green, with all the trees reflecting in it, as well as Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains. Then it was onto a different sort of scenery..... very steep, Rocky Mountains, with very little vegetation growing. We climbed up quite high and it was really scenic. As the sun was out we thought we’d try removing the front part of the roof on the Jeep.... it gave us a great way of looking up to the high mountains, but needless to say also brought the clouds over! But we persevered and the sun returned.... so much so that eventually we had to put it back on again as it was really beating down on our heads! It did make for a different angle to take photos as well!

The scenery changed and became much drier and dustier, with a wider valley. We had been following a river most of the journey and this had been quite narrow and rough, but now that too widened out.  We passed through Lillooet, the first town really since just after Whistler, and there wasn’t a lot there. Not too long after here was where we joined the Caribou Highway, and this road is mile zero marked from Lillooet. So most places from here on are originally named, 70 Mile Roadhouse, 100 Mile House etc! And most of them, if you blinked you would miss them!

The scenery changed again though, and became much more fertile.... wide open valleys, very lush and green. We saw very large fields, a few with cattle in, but most empty. There were also horses in some. All the way we were passing lots of small lakes, and with the sun glistening on them it was very pretty.

We also had a few ‘construction’ zones, - roadworks. They don’t seem to go in for temporary traffic lights over here, but have someone each end of the one lane section with a Stop and Slow sign, and two way radios..... see photo. Some of the sections looked like they were long term one lane, so we assume they must have this covered 24/7!

Our stop off for today is Williams Lake.... not got a photo yet, but will do tomorrow.

No of Miles Driven - 257

No of steps walked today.... 2768

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When looking at our books to remind ourselves of today’s trip last night, we spotted a detour we could take - 54 miles/1 hour each way - to Barkerville, a gold rush town that has been preserved. Phil needed a bit of persuasion that it would be worth the time, but when popping into the Visitor Centre this morning they said it was, so we decided to go.

So, we took a couple of photos of Williams Lake, then set off again on the Caribou Highway. We passed McLeese Lake, for another photo, and then it was onto Quesnel. We were going through quite agricultural land today..... large fields, some with crops, some with cows and horses, and lots and lots of trees!

We didn’t stop off in Quesnel as we thought we would spend the time at Barkerville. The map introduces this as....

Billy Barker’s legendary gold strike on Williams Creek triggered a multi-million dollar industrial revolution that built this Province.

Today, the extraordinary historic town of Barkerville stands as a living testament to BCs golden beginnings. With its unique streetscape of more than 125 heritage buildings, period displays, satellite museums, restaurants, and shops, there is still so much to explore.

Gold was discovered in the area in 1861, and boomed again in the 1930s, but declined during the Second World War. It became a Provincial Historic Site in 1958, and has had costumed interpreters since 1970. At its peak it was the largest city north of San Francisco and west of Chicago.

At the Visitor centre we were given a leaflet all about the route out to Barkerville, Highway 26. It had quite a few places of interest marked....... but, when reading about them it seemed that quite a lot weren’t actually there anymore, just a marker, which were very poorly signed on the road! One, Cottonwood House Historic Site, we did find, but it was closed, so we had a quick look and moved on.

The highlight of the road out, was seeing a Brown Bear Cub, just beside the road, even closer than the one we saw earlier this week. After I had taken plenty of photos we moved on, then it walked across the road. We kept looking out for its mum but didn’t see her.

The long trek out was definitely worth it, and we enjoyed wandering around Barkerville, seeing the old buildings - all wood - and looking into quite a few. Some of the businesses were open.... including the bakery, with delicious offerings, so we had a late lunch there, sitting on the boardwalk and watching the stage coach load up!

Our return trip down Highway 26 produced a couple of deer,  but the no bear. Then it was onto Prince George, our stop for the night. We will see what there is to see here tomorrow,  before moving on again.

No of Miles Driven - 254

No of steps walked today.... 6503. After the evening meal and stroll, steps increase to 8402

Day 38 - Monday 17th June -

Prince George to New Hazelton

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Another driving day today..... starting by dropping into the Visitor centre in Prince George.... to get ideas of where we needed to stop. The staff are always very helpful and keen to give you assistance.

We are now travelling on Highway 16, the Yellowhead Highway, although our SatNav calls it the TransCanada Highway. First stop was Vanderhoof.....the geographical centre of BC... although we managed to not see/find the cairn denoting this! We will try again on our way back through in a couple of days time...... this road is a out and back to Prince Rupert. I think I got my East and West mixed up.... and thought it was the other side of town, so wasn’t looking early enough!

We did however find the Community Museum, showcasing restored 1900s period buildings. These have all been relocated to a site and you can wander around and in them.... looking at the exhibits and buy lunch in the OK Cafe!

Travelling on.... through forests and farmland, we passed a few very large lumber mills - wood processing plants. We had also passed about three yesterday. They cover a huge area of land, with large stores of huge tree trunks, large areas of sawn wood planks and large areas of wood clippings and pulp. I haven’t as yet managed to get photos of them though! A lot of things just off the road are well screened with a row of trees, so you only get glimpses. We also saw today lots of really big trucks with one, two and three wagons of large trunks, also, empty ones returning for more.

The road continued, through what is known as the Lakes District.... and there are plenty of them, but again a lot just glimpses. We also followed rivers for a lot of the time.

We did stop at a place called Tintagel, named after Tintagel in Cornwall, with apparently a piece of rock from the castle in the cairn here! Just as we stopped here, a very long freight train passed by...... the first train we have actually seen moving in Canada! We have seen the track off and on since we got back to the mainland from Vancouver Island, and have also spotted some long freight carriages lined up waiting, but this was the first to be moving.

The afternoon turned quite wet for a while, as we got nearer the mountains. From now to Prince Rupert is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives, through the mountains and by the river..... so looking forward to that tomorrow.

No of Miles Driven - 277

No of steps walked today.... 3788

Day 39 - Tuesday 18th June -

New Hazelton to Prince Rupert

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First stop this morning was the Visitor Centre to find out a little more about the Hands of History tour around this area...... not sure we really got the hang of what it was all about! There are signs up with some historic facts in various places..... we managed to see some of them.

We then went to drive to Hazelton.... the old town as it is known as it was the first place with the name. New Hazelton and South Hazelton were both products of the coming of the railway. First of all was the Hagwilget Canyon suspension bridge. We stopped to walk over it, and all the time we were doing this the traffic from our end was held on stop as the bridge was being cleaned! So we had our wander around and got back to the car in time to cross with the rest of the traffic. We also saw three snakes..... we were told they were Garden snakes and not poisonous. 

Next stop was K’wan - a Native historical village  - where there are 4 traditional long houses and some Totem Poles. Also a workshop and studio where the traditional crafts are passed down to future generations.

You could either give a donation and wander around outside on your own, or have a guided tour, which we were going to do, until being told the next one would be in about half an hour, and with a group of school children! So, we decided to look outside only. We could look in the workshop, where there were pupils from the local secondary school, who have been working on a project there.

We then moved onto the old town and had a little look there - a stern wheeler boat on the banks of the river and the historic buildings of 1866. It is quite strange that the history is so recent.

We then left the Hazelton’s behind and continued towards Prince Rupert. At this point the Bulkley River, that we had been following, joined the Sheena River.....which we continued to follow for the rest of the day. It was very big and very fast flowing. Until Terrace, the countryside was much the same as yesterday, but from then on we were following the river and railway, on the side of the mountains. By this time the weather had deteriorated, and the cloud was low and it was very wet at times, but still pretty. Every now and then we would pass a waterfall gushing down the mountainside.

We had decided to try and visit the North Pacific Cannery at Port Edward, just before Prince Rupert. We got there at just after 3, managed to find our waterproofs and went into the entrance to be asked were we wanting to go on the guided tour that started about 15 minutes ago! We said probably..... not realising they had set times for guided tours- just 3 a day! So, we paid our money and caught up with the tour. We think we missed the background info on what happened at the Cannery, and the people who worked there, as what we did hear, which was very interesting, seemed to assume a certain level of understanding about the plant and people.

This Cannery, one of many in this area, caught and canned Salmon, from 1889 until it closed, nearly a hundred years later. It operated for just 5 months every year....May to September, and had its main workforce as First Nations, but also Chinese, Japanese and Europeans, who were mainly the management!. This is one of the few Canneries that has survived, and it has been restored extensively. The whole site is on stilts over the Inverness Passage. Uniquely, when this Cannery closed, no one knew it was going to - and so all the machinery was left in situ.... where as in others it was sold off during a closing down period, hence this is unique in having so much machinery and spare machine parts to show.

The market for the salmon was mainly Britain, some to the rest of Europe. During its time the process of canning the fish was updated, and we saw two different production lines of machinery, one more mechanised than the other. The labels weren’t put on the cans until they arrived at their destination, as the journey took so long they would deteriorate.

All the workers lived on site during the working year, as the only means of getting there originally was by boat...Then the railway arrived, and eventually a road. During the winter just one man lived there as Watchman. The workers weren’t paid until the end of the season, when a lot - or sometimes more - than what they were paid was immediately taken out for their purchases from the site store - much like mining!

It was a very interesting tour and something quite different to see. We then made our way into Prince Rupert, which is situated on a small island linked by a bridge. We had decided not to pay extra for a sea view from our hotel, thinking we wouldn’t be in our room too much, but when we checked in they had upgraded us for free to a sea view....which is lovely, as it finally stopped raining this evening... and in fact as I am just finishing this we almost have a sunset! Hopefully this bodes well for tomorrow, when we are off early on a 6 - 7 hour boat trip! Which will be great fun ......

No of Miles Driven - 198

No of steps walked today.... 7632

Day 40 - Wednesday 19th June -

Prince Rupert - Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary

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We have had a really fabulous day today on our boat trip. We booked this back in December with the Prince Rupert Adventure Tours, to cruise to the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary. This 44,300 hectare Sanctuary is remote, 28 miles northeast of Prince Rupert, and only accessible by boat. There is a Ranger lodge on the shore and one accommodation lodge.

We left Prince Rupert early.... at 10 to 8, it had rained heavily while we were eating breakfast, but had stopped before we walked to the boat terminal. As we went out through the small islands of this area, it was very atmospheric with cloud and light playing on the water. We were again travelling up the Inside Passage to the Inlet into the Sanctuary.

By 9 o’clock we had seen a Bald Headed Eagle, seals and whales! Not bad going. As we neared the Sanctuary the weather deteriorated, but this didn’t stop us having some fabulous views of Grizzlies. This area is home to between 50 and 80 Grizzlies, they’re not tagged at all, and there are no boundaries, but it is a protected environment with no hunting. At this time of year, they come down to the shore at low tide to dig for clams, get mussels and also to eat the sedge grass.

We saw 5 different bears, at different locations on the shoreline, and it was wonderful to see them digging and eating. The boat we were on, a flat bottomed catamaran got in quite close to shore so we had great views.

After travelling the length and back again of the Inlet into the Sanctuary, we started our return trip. By the time we got back to where we had seen the whales this morning, the tide had risen considerably, and there were more whales there, and we stayed longer to have great sightings. There were also a pair of Eagles there.

Then it was a while travelling back, with more commentary from the guides, and a coffee to warm up... having spent a lot of time outside to get better views! By this time the rain had stopped and as we got nearer to Prince Rupert the sun came out. As we neared the harbour we slowed again, and suddenly there was a whole flock of Eagles, swooping down to get easy pickings from a fishing boat that had just gone by and obviously discarded fish parts. It was absolutely fantastic to see them soaring, swooping and back up again, before diving down again.

Back into Prince Rupert and we strolled back to our hotel, via the Mariners Park, where there is a small boat on display. This boat was found on the shore near here, having drifted across the Pacific Ocean from Japan. It had set out with its fisherman owner in September 1985, but didn’t return to port, and 18 months later the boat was found over here.

Prince Rupert itself is quite a small place, not terribly picturesque, but certainly worth visiting for the trip we did today. On returning to our room late this afternoon, we had such a contrast looking out of our bedroom window to yesterday.... the sun was shining and twinkling on the water.

It is known to be one of the wettest places, with 10 feet of rain per year, and although we have seen a lot of rain, we have now seen sun as well. In fact they have had a very dry last few months and we were told the rivers are very low and the salmon are due to start running in the next couple of weeks, and there is a concern that the rivers aren’t deep or cold enough for them.

We have had a lovely time here, tomorrow we start the long journey back to Prince George and then on towards the Rockies.

P.S. with these pictures we hope you enjoy.....

 Please ‘bear’ with us as we have had a ‘whale’ of a time! (Dictated by Phil!)

Between us to day we have totally smashed previous photo number records .... and taken over 2000! I took over 1500 and Phil took over 500....... quite a lot of ‘bursts’ with the camera set on sports mode..... and quite a lot of duds!

No of Miles Driven - 0

No of steps walked today.... 10048

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So, today we started our journey back from Prince Rupert...... a few more days of driving mainly. We started by popping down to the Visitor centre, near to where we caught the boat yesterday. Like the rest of Prince Rupert there wasn’t a lot there! It is a very functional port, in the middle of nowhere - with lovely scenery around it.

We had picked out one or two spots we thought we would look at on our way back, having not stopped much on the way in. All these small places have their own Visitor centres and have produced quite comprehensive literature about themselves. You look at these and think there must be something worth stopping for....... but most of them are pretty utilitarian towns/villages for a wide catchment area of homes, and tourism isn’t really top of their list!

Terrace is one such place...... it read as though there were things to see..... but either we blinked, or there wasn’t. We did stop at a garage on the way in to use the restrooms and get some lunch.....we picked up some ready made up subs - went to pay and were told we didn’t really want those - they made wraps to order and they were much better! So, we did as we were told and had wraps - and very nice they were too.

Trying to find what Terrace had to offer, we turned off the main road and so did cross the river on the old bridge, which was good - right beside the railway bridge, and with the new one further downstream. Then we moved onto Usk - and a small Pioneer church by the roadside. We also went down a side road towards the river here to find somewhere to eat our lunch and found the ferry - a remarkable construction, attached to a big wire rope across the river to stop it drifting downstream as it crossed. As there were only two small roads on the other side we were quite surprised to see the ferry in action - I think you rung a bell to summon the ferry keeper - not only once but twice in the time we ate our lunch. There was also another strong wire rope across the river, higher up which we think has boxes attached to it to ‘ferry’ things across at times.

Not long after lunch we spotted a black bear beside the road and were able to turn around and watch it for a while. The bears we have seen this year are much skinnier than the one we saw in Yellowstone three years ago.....

 It really shows the difference between their Spring/early summer weight and their fattening up process in September when we saw one before.

Our next stop was for another old church with separate bell tower and some Totem Poles, again just off the main road. These look to be quite old Totems, well worn and not coloured at all.

Our next stop was at Smithers..... another that read as though there was something there. The brochure describes it as having an Alpine/Bavarian feel to the Main Street..... well, we walked up and down it looking for somewhere to get either a coffee or an ice cream, and struggled. We eventually found a cafe in a side street and got the coffee.

The town was attractive and the man and horn model excellent.

Then it was onto Houston for our nights stop....

Even smaller than the other places we have been through! It does however boast the biggest Fly fishing rod - so we will look at that in the morning.

No of Miles Driven - 258

No of steps walked today.... 5575

Travelling back along Highway 16, the Yellowhead Highway, was pretty, but again not a lot to take......lots of farmland, and trees..... sawmills and lakes, all tucked behind a screen of trees from the road for the most part.

In Burns Lake we were diverted off the main road, ...... stopping to get some fuel a local told us we had just missed the Parade...... as it was the longest day, Summer has officially arrived and there was a Parade through the Main Street - a bit carnival like we think, and we did see lots of people carrying willow branches.

We stopped off in Vanderhoof for lunch and then tried to see/find the mid point cairn....but failed. Perhaps our old guide book, the only thing we have seen this mentioned in, is wrong.

Back to Prince George and we went along to the Railway and Forrestry Museum. There were lots of exhibits here, but they were somewhat haphazardly displayed. It looked a bit as though they had acquired a lot more large machines than they really had room to display properly, but there was a good little booklet explaining what most things were, and where they were from.... even a compete Railway Station house that had been moved intact - twice! It was built in 1914 for a town that failed to grow, so in 1947 it was moved by flat car to another town. The sawmill at that town closed and the station was going to be demolished. The museum decided to save it, but this required an ice bridge across the river...... in the winter of 1988 conditions were right and the station was moved onto a flatbed truck. The journey of 3 days and 100 km found it here in Prince George.

Next to the museum we had been told about a trail around Cottonwood Island Park, where a local resident has carved faces and other subjects into the bark of some of the big cottonwood trees. We started off on this, and found some, but were being so attacked by the mozzies, even though we had both sprayed ourselves well, that we eventually had to retreat!

When we were here on Sunday evening looking for somewhere to eat, the town was very quiet, it will be interesting to see if it is any busier on a Friday evening when we go out in a bit to eat!

No of Miles Driven - 195

No of steps walked today.... 6740