Friday 29 June 2001

First night in Canada this time round at Hope Valley Campground, Hope, with  beautiful views of the mountains. Lucky to get in as it's a holiday weekend (Canada Day on 1st July). Only 15A electrics, though, which kept tripping out through no fault of ours; eventually got the breaker replaced. We were to find that 15A is common in Canada, which is a bit silly as you can't run much on that current; perhaps that's the idea.

Saturday 30 June 2001 - Sunday 1 July 2001

Long drive to Wildwood Campsite at Williams Lake, pausing on route to eat the world's largest plates of corned beef hash, some of which we took away with us as it was just too much. I'm not often beaten by corned beef hash, but this was something else.

Williams Lake is the original BC cattle town with a famous stampede (rodeo) which just happened to be on this weekend, so we went to see it. Turned out to be a mixture of a school sports day and One Man and his Dog but with cattle and horses instead of sheep. Cattle are much more of a challenge to herd than sheep; although the dog only has to manoeuver three of them, they are much more stroppy in that they don't stick together and do their best to kick the dog's brains out if it gets too close. The activities are very similar to sheep herding - drive, fetch, pen etc.

Lots of other traditional activities: bronco and bull riding, calf roping, Roman riding (standing on the backs of two horses) and chuck wagon racing. All great fun and highly recommended to watch - but not take part - if you get the chance.

Incidentally, the sponsor of pro rodeo is Skoal, who make those little sachets of tobacco (now banned in Britain I believe) which you hold in your cheek to get a nicotine fix and cancer of the mouth.

Afternoon walk at the local nature centre, featuring wonderful fragrant wild roses and a beaver lodge ...

... followed by a Chinese takeaway in the evening: four different dishes chosen at random, all of which turned out to be a variation on sweet and sour something in batter.

Monday 2 July 2001 - Tuesday 3 July 2001

Further on up the road to Sintich Trailer Park in Prince George, a sizeable town of around 70,000 people, where we discovered that the waste water valve on the trailer was broken as if it had been violently bashed against something. I hadn't noticed at the time, but it must have been a corner that I took a little too sharply. Oops. Tried to get a new one straight away, but it was a public holiday Canada Day) so had to be patient. Walked round a couple of parks, one an arboretum and the other formed by a glacial kettle (a depression caused by the melting of buried blocks of ice in the till deposited by a glacier). The latter was quite beautiful, being filled with dandelions all of which were seeding at the same time ...

... but unfortunately both parks were plagued with huge mosquitoes which was probably why we didn't see any other walkers. Bit of a waste really.

One evening we brought back memories of New Orleans with the instant gumbo mix that we'd bought there in February - just add chicken, shrimp and andouille sausage and it's Mardi Gras again.

Wednesday 4 July 2001

Used the campsite's high pressure hose to remove the many layers of filth from truck and trailer, then on to Glacier View RV Park, so  named because it overlooks a little one ...

... near Smithers. As other visitors came in, mostly after visiting Alaska, we were slightly perturbed by the deep encrustations of mud on their vehicles, making ours look positively pristine by comparison (which it isn't). On the way here at Fraser Creek we stopped at a Greek restaurant (prop. Stavros), run by a Greek married to a Canadian and with a Portuguese waitress, for brilliant chicken souvlaki.

From now on we get very little rest, stopping nowhere for longer than two nights and normally just one. This is because the circular route round northern BC is very long with no short cuts, so you have to get on with it.

Thursday 5 July 2001 - Friday 6 July 2001

In the morning we headed off into the hills via the Hudson Bay Mountain Road to see a crater lake with wild flower meadows. Unfortunately we were about two weeks too early, so there was only a ski area with lots of cold wet vegetation and patches of unmelted snow, although we did see a free-range porcupine licking the salt off the gravel and shortly afterwards a black bear cub crossing the road.

Later en route stopped at the First Nation Ksan Historical Village, to see the museum of the almost unpronounceable Gitxsan culture: lots of interesting totem poles and painted buildings ...

... but a fat and largely (pun intended) uninterested guide to show us round. The 'cafe' where we'd intended to have lunch served only coffee and crisps, so we went hungry.

Further on, more villages (Kitwanga and Gitwayana) with good displays of totem poles ...

In the evening we drove along the 37A, one of the most beautiful roads in North America which leads to Stewart just across the border from Alaska. This passes the Bear Glacier (so called because there are so many of them in the area - we saw two) which is a beautiful shade of blue and looks like a frozen river chopped off at the end ...

Overnight at the Bear River Trailer Park in Stewart, run by the most miserable campsite host so far. I'm not sure if the continual rain and cold makes you that way, or if people of that temperament are attracted to the area.

Next day we crossed over into Hyder, Alaska at which there are no border controls for the simple reason that the road goes 25 miles into the wilderness and then stops. We drove along it as far as possible next to the huge Salmon Glacier ...

... between eight foot banks of snow (this is July, remember) ...

... but eventually reached the point at which the bulldozer had stopped clearing it away and so we stopped. Very beautiful, but also very cold and damp.

The guide books had said that this is the time of year when the salmon come upstream to spawn and the grizzlies stand in the river fishing, so we were really looking forward to seeing them; unfortunately they had lied and we were about two weeks too early. We did meet Keith Scott, the 'Bear Man', who camps out in Hyder for four months each summer and writes about and photographs grizzlies, but it wasn't the same.

Food is great around here if you like fish: halibut and chips one night and seafood chowder the other, both excellent.

Next stop: the Yukon.

Sunday 8 July 2001

Out of the Yukon and back into BC. Drove to Liard Hot Springs ...

... where we had a bathe in both pools: the deep warm one where you can swim and the shallow hot one where you just sit and perspire. These were used as a recreation spot and bath by the workers on the Alaskan Highway in the 1940s, but have now been incorporated into a park with changing rooms, scenic walks etc. They're about the nicest hot springs we've tried; most are overdeveloped and enclosed in buildings, but these are nice and open. Because of the warmth the area has its own subtropical ecology including rare ferns and orchids. The water is rich in dissolved minerals including calcium sulphate; Christine's silver ring first turned a nice shade of gold which she was quite pleased with, but about five minutes later looked like a brass curtain ring which wasn't so good. Fortunately it rubbed off fairly easily.

On to J&H Wilderness Resort and RV Park at Muncho Lake (meaning Big Lake in the local language), where there was a big group of RVs all travelling together in convoy as part of an organised holiday. Chatted with a bloke who very proudly told us about the bear he'd shot and had skinned last time he ventured out into the wilderness. Bastard.

Monday 9 July 2001

Another long stretch of the Alaskan Highway ($160 worth again) to Ron's RV Park, Fort St. John. Various wildlife on the way: bison, mountain sheep which come down to lick the salt off the gravel, and a caribou with superb new velvety antlers ...

Stopped off at a little museum / scrap yard at Fort Nelson on the way, where the 70+ year old curator collected absolutely anything mechanical from old bicycles through cars and farm machinery to a huge industrial generator which used to power a small town. Most of it was just lying around rusting gently, but some had been restored; no mean feat as I believe that there was just him plus a couple of ladies who manned the shop and took the entrance money. One of the world's true eccentrics.

Tuesday 10 July 2001

Onward, ever onward to Tubby's RV Park, Dawson  Creek. We arrived at around lunchtime and got the trailer set up, at which point there was a huge hailstorm lasting around 20 minutes. From inside it sounded and felt as if dozens of people were standing nearby throwing rocks at us. When it was over we went outside to find literally hundreds of small dents in the side of the trailer which had borne the brunt of the attack. Ho hum, another insurance claim - I wonder if they have an exclusion clause which covers this.

Dawson Creek was where construction of the Alaskan Highway began, at which time the population rose from 600 to 10,000 in the course of a week! Went to see the obligatory film at the local museum which was actually quite good, as well as an exhibition of work by local artists which was less so.

Tomorrow, Jasper National Park in Alberta.

Friday 13 July 2001 - Saturday 14 July 2001

Back over the border from Alberta. Major geological features day today: Athabasca Falls ...

... Sunwapta Falls, Wildfowl Lake, Columbia Icefields, Crowsfoot Glacier ...

...  Lake Louise, Numa Falls etc. etc.

We ended up at Canyon RV Resort, Radium Hot Springs: not too reassuring a name for those of us wishing to take the waters, but at the time they were named radioactivity was new, exciting and fun, and not at all dangerous.

Sunday 15 July 2001

Off again. En route, decided to try a rival hot springs at Fairmont only to discover that they had been turned into part of an overpriced tourist complex so we gave it a miss. Carried on to Fort Steele which has a large heritage site - 19th century buildings, actors in costume, old machinery etc. but all very well done ...

We were also shown round a Freemason's lodge, something I can't imagine happening in England.

In the evening, ended up in Cranbrook at the delightful Super 8 Motel RV Park, reminiscent of nothing so much as a prison compound being surrounded by its own 10' fence and in a delightful area of town ...

... but it did have decent showers and its own swimming pool.

Monday 16 July 2001

Cranbrook used to be a famous railroad town, and has a large museum of railway stuff which we visited in the morning (in the rain). Several carriages were shown in various stages of restoration - more interesting than it sounds - including the 'refurbishments' which were made in the 1950s and 1960s which mainly consisted of covering the beautiful hardwood fittings with layers of grey paint and reupholstering the seats in red plastic. However, the highlight was the Alexandria Room, a beautiful arched wood panelled and stained glass Art Nouveau room which someone fortunately dismantled and stored in 1976 when it was supposed to be demolished and which is now being reconstructed ...

On to Creston Wildlife Area, a huge area of wetlands supposedly rich in bird life although we saw virtually none. We did manage a tree swallow sitting on a post, a garter snake, and a couple of humming birds at a feeder outside the visitor centre ...

... and we had a nice walk, so not a total washout.

On again to see one of those glorious pieces of lunacy which crops up every so often. This one is a house in the shape of a miniature castle constructed of glass embalming fluid bottles ...

Its builder noticed their resemblance to bricks and, not wanting to waste them, decided to turn them into a house (as you would). Note the ranks of gnomes round the outside.

On yet again to the ferry across Lake Kootenay; we cooked and ate our dinner in the queue whilst waiting for it to arrive ...

This is the longest free ferry ride in the world, and a very pretty one too: beautiful sunset and views across the lake. Finally came to rest at Kokonee RV Park and Campground in Balfour; only just got a place as everyone who comes of the ferry in the evening heads for here. A long day.

Tuesday 17 July 2001

Cold, wet and dull day of driving, including a long diversion due to a propane lorry spillage. We stopped at Nelson and visited the Chamber of Mines Museum; had an interesting chat with the curator, an ex-miner, who is a very pleasant chap but not one of the world's great environmentalists. Tried to visit the Desert Centre at Osoyoos - this part of Canada is pretty dry - but arrived as it was closing; it was still raining and so wouldn't have felt very realistic if we'd been able to go in. Overnight at Hope Valley Campground, Hope where we stayed on our first night in BC three weeks ago.

Back into Washington in the good old US of A tomorrow.