June 15, 2012     Day 7                     Lac La Hache to Prince George

We drove past more beautiful countryside. I drove a section (without the trailer. We dropped it off along with my parents’ whole rig in Quesnel and all jumped in the Suburban). We took a side trip out to Barkerville, a reenactment site. Gold was discovered near here and a town soon followed. They had many buildings and even a Chinatown. There were people dressed in costumes from the various periods of note during the town’s history. I saw a school group coming through and was a little envious.  Each person in the group got a profile of someone who lived in Barkerville (the barber, the laundress, the hotelier, etc). I think they should do this for all their guests to make the experience more meaningful and fun. They should also create a hands-on area where kids could learn games or make crafts. While interesting to the adults, the boys soon lost interest. Luca said he was fine though since Rick had bought him some fudge.

On the way to Barkerville, we stopped for lunch at Wells. The town is hardly a blink and probably only exists because it is so close to Barkerville. The nice young lady at the Visitors’ Center suggested we eat at the Pooley St Café.  There weren’t many options so we tried it. As soon as we walked in the door, we heard raucous kids. There was a table of 4 boys all under the age of 7. The rest of the children (I lost count but maybe 3 more) and the adults were at another table. I think they were locals and at least one of them seemed to work there but maybe wasn’t on duty. The adults finished eating and went out on the front patio leaving the boys unattended. They were so loud we could hardly hear to place the order with the waitress who seemed like she just came off the Northern Exposure set. The boys left their open Cokes and proceeded to run circles through the two doors leading to the outside. The adults said nothing. After the 10^th door slam, the boys’ lunch was ready and they came to sit at the table next to us completely unsupervised. They continued to whoop it up until my mom forcefully said, “Enough.”  The boys immediately quieted down and moved outside with the adults probably complaining about the mean old lady. We ate the rest of our lunch in peace.

The restaurant was strange in other ways. They discovered they had left yesterday’s soup selection up but nobody made a move to change it. You had two choices of bread – white or brown. The Northern Exposure waitress could hardly be heard or understood but checked back often to make sure everything really was ok. When it was time to pay, they had lost what little phone connection they had and the credit card machine wasn’t working. They let another customer leave his business card and run errands (where to I don’t know the town only had about 20 buildings total and at least 6 of them were closed or empty). He was going to come back later to pay. We paid cash and got on our way.

The skies turned gloomy on the way to Prince George and we had rain all night. The Visitors’ Center showed rain for the next four days for this area. I hope we can escape it by heading north. One good thing is that it may bring out the animals. We saw lots of moose signs but no moose.

June 16, 2012                     Day 8/60              Prince George to Dawson Creek

Today it rained.

We drove along the western most edge of the Rocky Mountains but we couldn’t see much due to cloud cover. The cascades along the roadside were roaring, however. We did see some patches of snow and there was certainly snow at the higher elevations.  And trees, we saw lots of trees. Trees stretched in every direction for as far as we could see. They were growing so close together that if a person walked in 100 feet and turned around three times, s/he would have a hard time finding the way out.

We also saw many wide rivers and huge lakes. The rain kept us from stopping to enjoy any. Also, it is very hard to find a place to park about 100 feet of trailer combined length with the folks’ trailer).  It is hard enough to find a safe turn out to let the cars and semi-trucks pass. See my earlier entry about the Slowskis, especially on hills where our engine really need to work to pull us up.

We finally saw a moose! We had just driven passed a Moose Xing sign and had a laugh because it was only for the next 1 km. Then we saw a car on the opposite side of the road pulled over. I radioed Gypsy to let them know someone had spotted the 1 moose in the 1 km. Sure enough the moose was standing there as if placed by the Chamber of Commerce or tourism bureau. It was raining and there was no turn out so we didn’t get a picture.

We had lunch in Mom and Mike’s trailer at the side of the road in Chetwynd. It claims to be the Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World (wait that sounds familiar). It did have a lot of very nice sculptures. Luca liked the Pegasus so I took a picture in the rain. If I had a reliable and strong Internet connection, I would show it to you. For now, you will have to imagine it or look it up on the Internet yourself. I am sure it is there.

We arrived in Dawson Creek. It is famous for being Mile 0 on the Al Can Highway. The highway was completed in a very short time in 1942 as part of the war effort. We went to a nice museum at the visitors’ center. It had an amazing collection of taxidermy of the animals in the area.  From there, Rick and Mike went to find out about fishing licenses. Mom and I took the boys for their first Blizzards at the Dairy Queen. Yes, it is true. At 10 and 13 they have had all manner of junk food but never a Blizzard. We just haven’t had the opportunity until now. They loved them, of course. Luca couldn’t even finish his small, however, so Grandma Judy who only had a dipped cone helped him. Mike and Rick joined us and they each had a dessert (Mike only had a cone too).

Fishing on Father’s Day weekend is supposed to be free and fishing licenses are $56 for 8 days. We decided to try to find a place to stop tomorrow to try our luck. No sense in getting the license before we have to.

Mom wanted to walk the length of downtown (only a couple of blocks). My hips were a bit stiff from sitting so I thought this was a great idea. Many of the stores were closed (after 5 on a Saturday night). Maybe they had tickets to John Mellencamp (yep, he was playing in Dawson Creek). The thrift store was open. Interesting items, but it reeked of cigarette smoke. They had Cabelas waders for only $15. Too bad Rick and Mike already had some. I don’t intend to fish, but thinking back now, I wish I had gotten them just because they are such a bargain and you never know when you might need waders. Rick did pick up some rubber boots for $5 and Dominic got the DVD of Matrix Reloaded for $5. Luca wanted Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii for $35 but it had been opened and we had no way to check it out. He was super bummed.

June 17, 2012                     Day 8/60                              Dawson Creek to Ft. Nelson

More rain, more beautiful countryside. I am running out of things to report. My brain has gone on vacation and I am feeling relaxed. The highway is mesmerizing, almost hypnotic. More trees.  I find myself getting very sleepy as I scan the bushes and closely growing trees for any sign of wildlife. I doze for 5 minutes here and there until a head snap wakes me. I don’t know if I dozed or looked at the wrong side at the wrong time, but I missed the first bear sighting. Mike, Judy, and Luca saw it and radioed us. This got my attention. I sat up straighter (not easy after so many hours in the seat) and scanned with greater concentration. And still, I almost missed the next one, Dominic who sat behind me said, “Black bear.” In a split second I snapped my head to the right and behind and radioed the others. I looked just in time to see a little (well, relatively little) black behind. Luca (who was in the other truck) later told us that it was two cubs.  I can’t dwell on the picture I didn’t get to take (again) or the bear (or other animal unseen, they are out there). This vacation forces me to live in the moment and enjoy what I have right now.

We stopped for lunch (before the bear sighting, actually) at Sikanni Chief River. The campground there has day use and nice wide spaces. The rain let up just long enough for us to get out and stretch our legs a bit. Dominic tried gold panning but the river was muddy and rushing. He got in some deep mud in his boots at one point. Luca threw rocks in the river. This reminded me of when he was 2 years old and we were in Glacier. We had taken a boat across a lake and hiked across a boardwalk to a small waterfall. Rick went on ahead to see if there was anything else we needed to see. The boys started throwing rocks in the pool beneath the waterfall. I sat down on the bank to rest. Somehow Luca got behind me and threw a potato-sized rock that hit me in the back of the head. It was a good thing I was already sitting because I saw stars. We laugh about what a good arm he had even at such a young age. But I don’t stand anywhere near him when he is throwing rocks into water, which is pretty much every chance he can get.

There were shale deposits with fossils in the area. The campground manager showed us a big oyster and gave the boys a fist size sample with what looks like clams. I don’t know what he was expecting, but Dominic seemed a bit disappointed. I guess he is spoiled by his nice collection at home. 

Once we were settled in the Triple G Campground in Ft. Nelson, Rick and Mike went to try a fishing spot at a former gravel pit that is a stocked lake. While they were gone, the boys jumped on the Internet. They have gone 8 days without TV but can’t seem to give up games. I walked over to the Heritage Museum to see if it was still open (being Sunday, many things either never opened or closed at 5). Once I determined it was open, I called Judy who had the onerous task of getting the boys unplugged and over to the museum. It was a very nice small town museum, the kind that has everything associated with area history loosely grouped in crowded displays in one room. It was visually overwhelming and hard to focus. Judy wanted to read everything and the boys were done in minutes. I was somewhere in between. They had wonderful taxidermy and many gadgets. They had a proclamation about the Boy Scouts which I found interesting.

When we had finished the inside, we were asked to wait for our docent in the car shed area. The car shed was amazing. It had all manner of cars, trucks, machines, and gadgets. The walls were lined with license plates that Luca wanted to take credit for in our attempt to get all 50. We decided that it must be attached to a vehicle capable of movement. It had cans and signs that made me feel like Mike and Frank from “American Pickers” would walk around the corner any moment.  From here we wandered to a post office and telephone/business machine house. Our docent met up with us and took us to a company house. The house was part of the Hudson Bay Co. which I was surprised to find out was still in business. I wonder if any of my friends who teach 5^th grade (early American history) know this little tidbit. It was just the four of us on the tour and the docent did a nice job of including the boys by asking them questions and pointing out things they might like (the heavy giant rolling pin which is not to be used on your brother.) From here we went to a log cabin that was about 3 to 4 times larger than a typical trapper cabin but included some of the things a trapper would have. Again, the boys were included and got to touch things and try them out. Dom tried a draw knife and Luca tried a guitar made from gnarled wood. Luca didn’t want to try the draw knife because he doesn’t have his Totin’ Chip (Boy Scouts must prove they are safe with all manner of sharp objects.) The docent wants to be a teacher and likes to talk so there was more to the tour, but those were the highlights.

The men returned without fish or mosquito bites, but had a good time. After dinner, I read to the boys from a book we abandoned last September when I went to work full time. We started over as none of us could remember it. We only did a chapter but it was nice to read together again. It was light until at least 10:30 when I went to bed.

June 18, 2012                                     Day 10                   Dawson Creek to Liard Hot Springs

It was a beautiful morning when we started out on what is considered by many to be the most scenic stretches of the Al Can Hwy. We didn’t get far before it started raining. It also didn’t take long before I spotted our first moose standing just off the highway at a dirt road. We tried to pull over but the trees (those darn trees) hid the moose from the highway and there was no backing up or turning around our big trailers. As it turns out, that was just the first of many animals long our route. In all we saw 5 moose (including one cow eating in a bog with her calf standing nearby and one bull sauntering along the road), 4 bears, 2 stone sheep, 1 caribou calf that was too young to be without its mother, and a deer . Mom and Mike say they have never seen so much wildlife in a week along the highway let alone in one day. I am so glad we saw so many for that is more how I had imagined the trip and more that makes up for the long stretches of I-5 earlier in the trip.

In addition to the animals, we saw fantastic scenery today. We crossed the Rockys again but could hardly see them due to clouds. We saw beautiful stretches of rivers white with silt from the area upstream.  There were fantastic displays of geologic history where entire rock layers had been pushed up (in some places nearly vertical) and then later bent back down. We could clearly see the layers of time laid down in the rock.

We stopped for lunch at Muncho Lake. Here the highway snakes along the shore with the lake on one side and tall rock cliffs with rock slide fencing. We found a wide turnout right along the shore line. The lake is a beautiful patina green (made more spectacular by my polarized sunglasses) from the copper oxide in the lake and an incredible 7 miles long. The rain let up just long enough for us to eat. This is happening almost every day and I feel very lucky that we get a brief break to stretch. Mike offered to take a family photo for us before we pulled out. We jumped at the offer not realizing that the delay would cause a greater delay down the road. Just beyond the lake, road crews had completely stopped traffic. We were the third car back so you see we might have made it through if not for the photo. The photo turned out very nicely so I think it was worth the 15-minute delay.  We also talked Dominic into getting out of the car and lying down in the road in front of our car. Why you ask? Because from time to time it is good to do things that are a little outside your comfort zone, a little strange. Because when he goes to college and his buddies dare him to do something, he can say, “Nah, I already laid down in the middle of the Al Can Hwy.” Who else will be able to say that? Also, it is great for “Two Truths and a Lie.”

We had planned to stay at Liard Hot Springs in a private campground across the highway from the provincial park with the actual hot springs. When Mike and I jumped out and ran to the office in the pouring rain, we discovered that the generator was out. We decided to go across the highway to the provincial park to dry camp (funny term considering how hard it was raining at the time). We would spend the night on battery power using only the water we carry in our tank. Mom and Mike have a generator so they invited us over to cook dinner together and watch a DVD (White Fang).

After settling in to our camp sites, we all changed into swim gear and rain slickers for the ½ mile walk to the hot springs. We saw many interesting plants along the way and no moose or bears which in this case is good. The hot springs has several staircases down into pebble-bottomed pools. They were very warm and a welcome treat after the rain and long hours in the car. We soaked for about 30 minutes or so. We are on vacation so we lost track of time. The unfortunate thing is that many of us had thought to wash our hair today and now we don’t want to use the propane to heat the water.And now we have sulphur water in our hair. Go ahead. You can say it. Ewww! We are really looking forward to nice showers in Watson Lake tomorrow.