Farewell to the north!

After many trips to Valu Village with loads of stuff & to the local recycling bins.... we are heading out of Prince George tomorrow on the Greyhound bus. 12 hour trip to the coast.

In the last several weeks we did get out to some good spots in & around north central BC. Here are some highlights....

Frog in the Bog store in funky Wells BC, land of the Cariboo gold rush & home to artists and creatives.... got a couple of souvenir gifts for friends down in Bolivia at the Frog.

Dinner at the Bear Paw Cafe, Wells BC.... Cheryl and Dave, the wonderful hosts. Here is Dave socializing with the patrons just before he hosted the Seven Summits race which saw around 70 people participating.

And of course a trip to the Cariboo would not be complete without a Barkerville visit, this time to the graveyard. I found this grave kind of interesting - a Parisian opera violinist who ended his days toughing it out in the wilds of Barkerville. I love the stories around there - of gold, heartbreak & triumph.

Then, off to Vanderhoof BC to see the mighty Nechako River and the Canada geese there getting ready to take flight to the south. It was interesting to think how this year, we are kind of doing the same thing... even chose the same month to leave. Of course, we are not going to get the same kind of workout. Whereas the birds will be exercising their wings, we'll be doing a lot of sitting on our butts, on buses, trains and planes.

And our own backyard, where I managed to dig the potatoes... Sangre and the almost extinct Nooksack, both stored away now in a dark corner of our basement. Hopefully by the time we return next spring, they will be sprouting already.

The house is clean (well, at least the cleanest it's been in 10 years). The bags are packed.
The modem is being unplugged and the internet disconnected now that I have finished this sentence.

The adventure begins.

some thoughts about de-junking the basement, sacred watersheds in the BC Rockies and other pre-travel fun

We have spent several days cleaning and de-junking our house. I would say some of the junk in our basement was down there since 1964, the year this place was built: old paint cans, screws & nails in little glass baby food jars, all inherited by us from the former owner of this place. I am loving our basment now and all the empty space that has suddenly appeared! There is something to be said for empty silent space... Why, we even found a secret passage, sort of like the Tudor mansions used to have to hide away priests or other such persons who may have needed to be hidden from the law. We also have two huge plastic bags full of plastic containers which we now seek to somehow recycle. From now on, I vow to avoid plastic at all costs if I can. It is ever-pervasive!

Then we got to the point where we needed to get out for a good hike in the wilderness so last Friday afternoon we made it out to Esker's Provincial Park just north of Prince George and unfortunately, I forgot the camera, so forgive the lack of photos of that gorgeous day!

This park is full of lakes & eskers (ridge walks between the lakes), and we were greeted by a great golden early-autumn colours dotted by purple asters and ruby red rosehips. En route, we feasted on many high-bush cranberries (now quite ripe) & thimbleberries along the way and jumped into Camp Lake for a spontaneous swim.

On Saturday morning bright and early we left our house still in a state of disarray (we are slowly getting there, to an organized stated!) and headed just over 2 hours east to Dunster cradled in the Rocky Mountains near the Alberta border.

Our destination was the organic garden of Peter Amyoony, long term Dunster resident & one of the generous & community-minded people we know.

Last year we WWOOFed with Pete for a week and just had to go again to stay in his "magic school bus" which is fully decked out with comfy beds and a stereo.

At Pete's place, we weeded the garden of chickweed, ate yummy food (including Pete's famous tomatoes & basil), had great chats with Pete about how to live life fully while following your bliss (and not necessarily the status quo) and listened to the melodic notes of Pete playing the harp by the glow of the early evening sun streaming in the window.

After 2 days, we headed up a well-known local hike, Tom's Cabin, a lakefront cabin way up in the alpine with stunning views of snow-capped mountains and glaciers all around.

On the one side was Mount Robson, the highest mountain of all of the Canadian Rockies, in its full spendour, and on the other were the impressive peaks of the wild and rugged Premier Range.

Below the Premier Range flows the Raush River through a break-taking and still pristine river valley full of old growth forests and waterfalls crashing down from the glaciers to the steep valley far below. Sitting up there on an alpine ridge we tried to imagine a route through to gain access to the mountains on the other side of the valley.

I was heartbroken to learn on my return to Dunster that plans are afoot by a a wood products / logging company based out of Prince George BC to punch a road all through the valley to gain access to and log the old growth forest. We also learned that the Raush Valley is the ONLY pristine (untouched) tributary of the whole Fraser River watershed, and I do believe it is truly sacred ground.

A group based out of the Robson Valley - the Fraser Headwaters Alliance - have fought long and hard to save this valley but for many years, but they have been up against indifferent politicians and greedy and short-sighted corporate goals that would see this area reduced to clearcuts for the sake of profits for the current generation. According to the website of the Fraser Headwaters Alliance, the Raush River watershed is "the largest uncut, unprotected watershed in British Columbia south of 54 degrees latitude." Their website address is: http://www.fraserheadwaters.org.

It is in my view, a worthy cause to fight to save the Raush Valley, for our sake and the sake of future generations, and I do hope that people may take up the cause and do what they can for this sacred piece of earth where fresh waters flow out of the mountains into one of our province's mightiest rivers.

Canadian wilderness at its finest - in a canoe

Well what better way to start our year of travel & adventure than by heading out into the Canadian wilderness.... a couple of hours drive from our house. That is the thing about Prince George - some say it is not exactly the most beautiful place in the world; however, the wilderness that can be readily accessed from this small city with little effort in all 4 directions is truly astounding.

This weekend, Labour Day weekend, we took off out of town with some friends to paddle the Arctic Pacific Lakes. Whereas once the whole area was apparently contemplated for flooding to make yet another massive water reservoir for BC's hydro electric power needs, the lakes have now actually been made into a provincial park (thankfully!!)

To get there we headed approximately 75 km north out of town up the Alaska Highway to the mill town of Bear Lake. There we turned on a logging road and headed east for approximately 80 km... our travel took us over gravel, around potholes, through willow thickets, across rickety bridges and even over one beaver dam neatly constructed along the roadway. Thanks beavers for stopping the road from flooding! Very cool!

We then paddled several kilometers down the Parsnip River and turned into the beaver dam decorated creek that leads into Arctic Lake. As the name implies, the Arctic Pacific Lakes lie right on the Continental Divide at the height of land between the Arctic & Pacific watersheds. In between these 2 lakes is a smaller lake, Portage Lake.

The area has long been used as a fishing area for local First Nations. In 1793, explorer Alexander Mackenzie travelled right through these lakes on his search for a route to the Northwest Passage. His journals provide an interesting insight into how it was around there over 200 years ago... the tree and bird species and scenery have not changed.

Mackenzie also commented that he came across some native canoes & fishing gear where the short (and jungle-like) portage trail starts on its way from Arctic Lake to Portage Lake. We only came across some guys in a canoe with motor huddled under a blue tarp at the start of the portage there.

What a gorgeous area it is and I could not believe I had not yet checked out this gem in 12 years of living in the area... The nights were clear & starry & the silence of the wilderness is something to experience. Out there we become a part of our surroundings, the land & water.

We tried out our tent that we purchased for Latin America... it passed the test. It is a Drifter 3 and we like it. Easy to assemble & access. Just big enough for the three of us. The more challenging part will be the plan we have to share one sleeping bag .... well the fight was on for sleeping bag which was not quite big enough to cover the 3 of us fully... the temperature did drop down one night and we hope we will not have to camp in really low temperatures in Latin America. The only issue will be higher altitude locations up in the Andes mountains in particular. The nights will certainly get chilly in those places.

We enjoyed 2 nights out there at Arctic Pacific Lakes, and now we are back in Prince George. Next on the agenda: get the house cleaned & organized in preparation for our departure, but we do hope for a couple more local adventures before we leave.