Category Archives: Holiday

Off to see white bears

Posted on by
1

No, we are not that northerly yet. ;-)
They are called Kermoda bears, also know locally as ghost bears or spirit bears. They have a recessive gene which makes them white or off-white in color. All natural! It’s like with redheads in humans.
Regular Black bears also have color variations, as they come in a variety of colors, among which are black (obviously), brown, grey, cinnamon, blue and for the Kermoda bears we can add cream, and various shades of white to the list.

Unfortunately, there’s only a small population of these bears, and of those only 10% is actually white, and we didn’t see any of them.

This part of British Columbia is very rich in Indian culture, and quite a few Forts Nations tribes still call this land home. The people live their lives pretty much the same way as their ancestors, but with the help of modern amenities like motorized vehicles, running water, electricity, modern fabrics and modern tools.

We started our little tour today with a view of fishing indigenous people at Moricetown Canyon, where the river is forced through a small canyon of bedrock which gives the people the best chance of catching salmon (we are in the salmon season tour now!) with catchpoles and fishing nets from a rocky outcrop, just like they did generations ago. Catching is done selectively and only as much as they need, so it is granted by the province for them to keep their catch, as regular fishermen, both commercial and leasure fishermen are not permitted to keep the salmon they catch.

After watching some pretty big salmon being caught, we carried on driving and headed for New Hazelton where the local suspension bridge was rumoured to be worth a visit. It actually is quite an interesting bridge, as it’s really narrow and only suitable for light loads. When walking on it the bridge flexed and moved with every car entering it. The signs told us it was way better than the old one, as it would violently sway under the loads and was not suited for any vehicle at all!

The trip continued on to Terrace, but on the way we actually ran into some more wildlife! First a couple of black bears; a mother and her two cubs! All black, black bears by the way. ;-)
After this, we also ran into what seamed a  rather large domestic cat. What stood out though, was the fact it only had a really short tail and was pretty bulky for a cat. Too flabbergasted to take a picture we finally figured out what had scurried across the road: lynx! Nice!

The drive from Smithers to Prince Rupert is awesome in many ways, take the massive river system you encounter the final 75km, where the river broadens and mingles with the sea, and you drive right alongside it on sea level. Really picturesk. Throw in some more stunning scenery and 5 hours driving turns into a festive pasttime.

Tomorrow we are going to board a boat. For quite some time actually. And *really* early. We are supposed to check in at 05:30 am!

Covering the distance

Posted on by
1

Today was a pretty dull day actually. We started off this morning on high spirits with a good breakfast and the prospect of some driving and some nice activities.
Unfortunately, the latter has bot proven to be right. Nor has the first for that matter.

The drive itself was good, yet dull. I mean, call us spoiled, but after nearly 4000 km of pine forests and small lakes, you get the point. Today the road was scarcely used and from time to time we passed through small communities about the size of your average street with nearly all businesses closed down and buildings in shambles. Not too pretty to the eyes, but a realistic image we’ve encountered before and probably will hereafter.

We were looking forward to the activities we though of; small hikes, interesting natural phenomena and good views all around. That was until we stopped in Houston where the nice ladies from the Visitor Center looked at us sheepishly when we told them we wanted to hike and had a cleancut message for us: not here.

So we went on.
And found out that even though the landscape was good and getting better, the hiking was next to impossible. Only very short hikes (10 minutes or less) or very long and strenuous (6 hours +) were available. That’s is not for us.
To top this, we went out to a site reportedly giving access to fossil beds and good sightseeing options where we found out the beds were inaccessible, protected and not viewable as they were 30 meters up on a steep hillside littered with rocks and gravel. It had a nice wheelchair accessible road though! Equality! :-)

Finally, we went out to a suggestion by the guy from the Smithers Visitor Center: a 2 hour return hike to a nice viewing point which overlooks the majority of the valley and gives nice views of the adjourning snow capped mountains. This was a good trail over some private property, but well worn and easy to follow.
A good end to a weird day.
Maybe we are getting tired, maybe we are spoiled. Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day.

Unfortunately, no pictures today.

Hills and lakes

Posted on by
Reply

This post might also have been called ‘Rushing for Gold, part 2′ as we are still driving over the Cariboo Wagon Road, or Gold Rush Route. Now stopping at Prince George for a well deserved break, todays journey has been quite long, strenuous and quicker than anticipated.

TomTom and Google both told us, today would be a full 5 hour drive, when we would drive without stops and in a straight line. This would mean missing out on some stuff on the way, and was simply not acceptable for us. So we told ourselves we would simply start off, and see when we’d arrive where and go from there.
Soon, it turned out both TomTom and Google were grotesquely overestimating the durations, as we covered the first 3.5 hours in just 2.

This got us going; to Barkerville. A 4 hour drive (160km return) to a gold rush town from the late 1800′s which pretty much was preserved in that state by continuous occupation up until the 1970′s.

Barkerville is the town where the 1860 gold rush stated with a certain gentleman Barker struck gold. And a very rich strike that was. In todays money it would be around 70 million EUR! This sparked an influx to Williams Creek and soon all land there was claimed. Mining over there still takes place today and a very large deposit has been proven to be there by the current claim holders.

The town has been actively occupied from around 1860 to 1972, and acquired by the province of British Columbia in 1954. The last of the original inhabitants left in 1972 and now no full time residents remain. Still, a few houses are privately owned and used as housing for a period of time each year. That is, while the park is open to visitors! Weird.

In Barkerville, all houses are on display and staffed by employees who are age correct dressed for 1870 and participating in a simulated regular working day back then. In the meantime they are teaching us visitors what the life back then was like. Very entertaining, and a joy to see how much the employees love their job. Very enthusiastically yelling everyone about ‘their’ Barkerville and it’s rich history.

Luckily for is, the drive to Barkerville wad not 2 hours one way as predicted but 2 hours return, which left us another 2 hours drive to Prince George.Oh well, we are here now. :-)
Tomorrow, another busy day while travelling to Smithers.

PS: we spotted our very first Moose today! Yay! Also a very placid black bear who allowed us to take a very good look at him while he was fouraging. Lovely!

Pictures will follow soon!

Rushing for gold!

Posted on by
Reply

Canada was pioneered by pelt hunters, loggers and gold miners, and the major route for the latter category of people was from Lilleoot to Prince George via highway 97, then known as Cariboo Wagon Road.

This road was constructed in the mid 1800′s as the main road north in the gold rush after a Mr Barker struck gold in a place now known as Barkerville. Along the road lodges and guesthouses appeared, which were commonly named after the number of miles since Lilleoot. We stay the night in 100 Mile House, nowadays grown into a small town doing just that what the old guesthouses did back then. We are staying in a hotel built on the location of the original 100 Mile House, which burnt down in the 30′s.

After a very short drive this morning, we drove on to 108 Mile House Heritage Site, to glance in the past by visiting about 10 restored historic houses, among which the original 105 Mile House, built in 1867. The other buildings are either from the 108 or 105 Mile House sites and of lesser historical value. It is really good to see there still is that much attention for the local history, even if it is quite recent by our standards.

We also readied ourselves for a long haul tomorrow; we’ll be driving off to Prince George which is about 5 hours from where we are now. I’m looking forward to it though!

Offroading

Posted on by
4

After we got up quite late, at around 8 am, we started our day with some sandwiches and a drive from our hotel to Wells Gray Provincial Park.
After having driven to all easily accessible falls yesterday, today would be a day filled with hiking and trails to get our legs working again, and to see all beauty of the park on foot.

We started off with a trail to some alpine meadows which should be brimful of flowers by now, according to the local weather and season.
The trail is called Trophy Mountain and is only accessible through some secondary road. Yes, that would be ye olde gravel again.
What we didn’t know was that it would be a 15km drive on this dirt road and that the dirt would get worse every kilometer. In fact, it did. We went from a very wide, nearly three lane and well maintained dirt road to a barely two lane wide poorly maintained road to an unmaintained, abandoned forest service road about 1 vehicle wide. Signs told us that we should proceed with extreme caution and that cars not equipped with two-way radio should expect oncoming traffic at any time. This backroad is about 10km long…

After ‘quite an interesting ride’ we arrived, fully shaken and not stirred, at the parking lot to access the trail. We were quite happy with the 3.5 litre 250bhp AWD car we were given as it cruises up with ease. It was just the shaking, rattling and imminent leak in a tire which got to us.
All in all, you should still go to the Trophy Mountain trail, as the rewards are bigger than the price. But one must come fully prepared! The journey to the trail is 40 + 15 km from Clearwater, and the last part is really hard core. ;-)

After this ordeal, we went to a watchtower on a hill called the Green Mountain to overlook the vastness of the park. Peering into the abyss one can spot a ridge of three snow capped peaks in the distance. These peaks are the half way mark of the park. One is able to access the park to about halfway these peaks by car, about half this road is paved. The rest of the road is dirt, and beyond this road only trails exist to to the peaks. After that, it is just untamed, wild ruggedness. And some more trees. ;-)