Prince George, Cache Creek and the Okanogan Valley

British Columbia, Canada: Prince George, Cache Creek & the Okanogan Valley

August 30 September 4, 2013

Prince George:

We started the 24^th week of our North American Safari, completing the Alaskan Adventure and heading south toward home, and being excited to complete this trip of a lifetime.  It felt good to be back on the road on our own.  We headed east on Highway 16 – the scenery returned to a more agricultural appearance: hay fields, horses, and cattle along with the on-going forests, mountains, and waterways. Burns Lake was post-card picturesque – so calm and glassy, revealing a great reflection of the lakeside. Camp for the next 3 nights was in Prince George, B.C.

Saturday morning we enjoyed the luxury of sleeping in: not having anywhere to go or anything to do.  We hadn’t realized how tired we had gotten having so much fun. The day was spent on a few cleaning chores followed by a nice drive around the town.  Prince George is a lumber town since the early 1800’s blue spruce is the main lumber harvested.  We found the iconic Mr. P.G. standing at the end of town, sort of a cross between the tin-man and the jolly green giant.  The University of Northern British Columbia is located on a hill over looking the town, a great vantage point if there hadn’t been so many trees growing all over the campus. A beautiful setting – there were many nice walking trails, and gardens and water features on campus. There were also signs warning of wildlife encounters, moose, bears, dear and other critters frequently visit the campus.

We spent some time trying to up-date the blog – we had become lazy about making our entries, so was a bit frustrating trying to remember where we were and what we had done. Think we finally got some notes written up, only to have trouble with the photos.  The Labor Day Weekend weather was perfect for enjoying the outside – we took a nice walk up on Connaught Hill enjoying the shade of the park, the flower garden and some fresh air.  For dinner that night we met with 3 other couples from our tour.  We were able to sit outside and enjoy our dinner together – reminiscing about our shared experiences.

Cache Creek:

Labor Day – back on the road traveling 240 miles along Highway 97 South, named the Caribou Connector. Despite being a holiday in Canada, the traffic was surprisingly light and the route was most enjoyable. The highway paralleled the Fraser River for a long part of the drive.  This was an important route for the Caribou Gold Rush in the 1870’s – we saw a few reminders of the time in Road Houses along the way, they had been established every 10-12 miles so that the miners and the others heading north had a place to rest. We stopped in our own roadhouse for the night just out of town at a closed auto repair shop – dry camping off the highway.

The Okanogan Valley was on our itinerary today – an amazing drive. The roadside views were spectacular. We drove through the interesting towns of Vernon, Kelowna, Summerland and Penticton. Getting to the southern end of B.C.’s 97 Highway we saw more and more abundant agriculture.  We had no idea how lush this area is. Very hilly, dry and hot, it apparently is perfect for growing fruit of all types: grapes, apples, peaches, plums, and cherries.  After getting into camp, in the town of Oliver, (wine capital of Canada) we ran out to check on some of the local wineries, Quinta Ferreria and Fairview Cellars.  There are over 100 wineries in the Okanogan Valley and we had a challenge before us (how many could we realistically see?).  We were so surprised to have discovered this very area.  Mike says it reminded him of the Napa Valley many years ago – quiet, simple and unsophisticated, with wineries nestled in the vineyards.  There are also an incredible number of acres planted with a variety of fruits.  Fresh produce stands: each featuring family grown products colorfully dotted the roadsides.  The weather was sunny and quite warm, so after a nice drive around and 2 wine tastings we decided dinner at the local brewery was in order.  We enjoyed a Canadian specialty Poutine – French fries smothered with cheese curds and brown gravy, not on the diet plate – but really quite tasty!

With so much to see in this area we decided to spend an extra night. We visited 3 more wineries, Black Hills, NK’Mip, Hester Creek and a cidery.  This was fun; we drank some very good wines, had a nice lunch and made a visit to an interesting NK’Mip First Nation’s Cultural Center. We bought several bottles of British Columbia wines – all estate grown and good souvenirs of our visit to this remarkable area. Definitely a place to put back on the “to be visited again” list.

Stewart, Hyder, Smithers

Stewart, B.C., Hyder, AK and Smithers B.C.

August 26 – 30, 2013

Misty windshield and wipers swiping could not hide the beautiful road that lay ahead of us today.  An interesting distraction was observing the MAJOR installation of a big set of power lines along side the Cassiar Highway.  This project must have gone on for over 50 miles; seeing the very tall poles being put up – special poles in some of the areas that a local told us were “avalanche-proof” were fascinating.

Wild life sightings were good: another Mom and 2 little moose, and 2 black bears – 1 along the side of road and 1 darting across the highway. The last few miles of the drive were displaying more glaciers. We saw several “hanging” glaciers that appear to be some how holding on to the sides of the mountains. The most spectacular was the Bear Glacier – she went all the way down to the Bear River – blue, blue, blue. Made the trip without any problems – roads were much better (with the exception of a ½ mile or so bridge reconstruction that shook our fillings loose), the fender continued to hang on and the scenery and wildlife did not disappoint.  Camp for the next 3 nights is in Steward, B.C.  The tour went into Hyder, AK (only 5 miles away) to go bear watching in the evening – a real bust! Stood and looked and looked and for about 2 hours and only saw the poor dead and dying salmon (spawning in the stream) and some very noisy kittywakes (gulls).  The night was capped off by visiting the Sea Alaska Inn where Mike and 2 of our tour mates became “HYDERIZED” – a solemn ceremony where they each chugged a large shot of 150 proof Ever-Clear, followed by beer chasers. If they didn’t keep the shot down, they had to buy the bar a “round”.  Fortunately all were “manly men” and did not embarrass themselves.  Yikes that was strong stuff, the waitress lit the remains in their shot glasses and we watched it flame.

Miles for the day: 182   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 4240.2

Early up, Tuesday morning, we headed back to the bear observation place with 6 of our travel buddies. Whining, we all climbed into 2 cars at 6:30am and headed out to find the “da bears” in the gray drizzly morning. We were rewarded: just a few minutes after arriving - Mera an eleven year old, 500+ pound female grizzly bear came to have some breakfast.  She provided us with about an hour of catching and eating fish, eating berries, splashing in the stream and being active enough to keep us interested. Eventually Mera wondered off for a bit of nap with her full tummy.  Thinking that the show was probably over we started back to the cars, only to hear the ranger say that they had spotted a gray wolf.  Figuring that he wouldn’t hang around, we slowly walked back his way – surprise he was still there and stayed for quite awhile catching fish and also enjoying a good meal.  Two great viewings, we were all so pleased that we had drug ourselves out in the cool misty morning.  Our reward was a good breakfast at a local restaurant.  Back at camp Mike and I mixed up the makings for a “Slap Your Momma Bison Chili”.  There was a chili cook-off in camp. Hope it wasn’t too spicy for folks; most of our tour mates are not from the west coast where we like things a bit hotter.  They all laugh at Mike and his “addiction” to Tabasco Sauce on many things he eats.  We didn’t win, but it was still a good dinner, lots of yummy chili concoctions.

Bear Watching again on Wednesday morning – we were a bit delayed as we spent a few minutes rounding up Percy the rascally West Highland Terrier that made an escape.  No bears or wolves this morning,  guess yesterday was our lucky day. In the afternoon Mike went to see the Salmon Glacier, we were short of cars with high enough clearance to make the road up to it, so I stayed in camp and worked on the blog and visited with some of our tour-mates.

Last day on the road with the Fantasy 48 Day “Heart of Alaska Tour” group. We all got up and going, knowing this was our last day to travel together. Sort of bittersweet, we have had such a great time.  After bumping back through the bridge construction the roads improved dramatically.  The landscape started to look a lot more like the agricultural areas that we have spent so much of our North American Safari traveling through – hay fields, cattle, etc.  Just because things were going too smoothly Mike decided on trying an experiment: how low will the fuel gauge go into empty before it really is EMPTY?  Well we now know the answer – NOT FAR ENOUGH!  Yes we ran out of diesel, fortunately it was on a stretch of road with a small amount of shoulder (much of our tour we have had NO shoulders or very soft ones at best). Sputter, sputter, cough and stall, - just about 3 miles short of our planned fuel stop.  With the assistance of one of our other tours rigs we were able to get the Prius off the dolly and Mike ran into the fuel station and got some diesel.  Also very lucky was that the old rig started back up after only 3-4 attempts; guess that is not always the case.  We got back on the road, and fueled her up - $500.00+ fill!  That was our excitement for the day!  We made Smithers mid-afternoon, just in time to get parked, cleaned up and ready for our Farewell Dinner at a local hotel.  Mike ran into town and got a much-needed haircut.  Gone are the gray curls that I had gotten sort of used to.  It was a good dinner and a nice evening, all of us giving our thanks to the staff and tour mates for a wonderful time.

Miles for the day: 206                                                          Total miles for the AK Adventure: 4446.2

Friday morning we had a continental breakfast and said our last few good byes” to our many new friends; hopefully we will meet up with some of them again down the road.

Teslin,Watson Lake, Iskut

Teslin, Y.T. Watson Lake, Y.T.  and Iskut, B.C. – re-visiting parts of western Canada

August 23-25, 2013

Left Alaska in our rear-view mirror – put the blinkers on and headed south back into Canada. Made the crossing at the boarder without difficulty and enjoyed the day’s drive through much varied scenery again. Back through Moon Lake region with its interesting and strange rock arrangements.  Through the world’s smallest desert: 1 square mile, the Carcaross Desert has sand and dunes, but saw no mirages today.  Mike took a few minutes on our morning rest stop to practice his horn.  Found a beautiful overlook where the music soared through the canyon.  We stopped for a snack in the small town of Carcross – found a sourdough bakery and bought so good bread and treats.  Bought a sun for our backyard, made by a local metal artist – had been hoping to find at least one on this trip. .  Shopped at the oldest store in the Yukon: Mathew Watson’s General Store – funky and fun collection of stuff. Made camp back in Teslin, Y.T. a re-visit from our trip north; 5 weeks ago.

Miles for the day: 160   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 3701.2

Day # 42 of this Alaska Adventure the Safari rig and its passengers heading south on the Alaskan Highway. The roadside rock messages were back in force along this route. We were able to catch a quick glimpse of the 2 martini glasses that we had first seen on our trip north. Pretty good roads today J, we arrived at camp in Watson Lake and took care of a bit of up keeping (vacuuming, straightening up, laundry, etc.). Mike ventured into the “woods” and spent a bit more time practicing his horn. The sound carried so well, all back in camp enjoyed his musical interlude.  Mike and I had wanted to make a rock message, but never could find a place to pull off along the roadside, so we made one in the campground – with a bit of hard work we spelled out “FANTASY”.

Miles for the day: 149   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 3850.2

Day # 43 was marked by a long drive on a road with a real attitude.  Mike crowned it the 3^rd worst road we have taken this trip – Highway 37, not a road to be taken lightly or quickly!  Despite the stressful and difficult driving day, it was another amazing scenic delight; beautiful lakes, forests – some lush and some that were like ghosts, from earlier forest-fires.  We drove along side the Horse Ranch Range, which are the oldest mountains in this area of Canada.  A stop for today was a little place called Jade City.  It was a “tourist trap”, but interesting that they produce 92% of worlds jade right in this area. We splurged and bought ourselves a jade Inukchuk, a native statue that is made from Jade rocks and welcomes you to where he is. We think we may put him on our front porch. Somewhere along the ROUGH road one of the Tow-dolly’s fenders broke loose. Luckily one of our fellow Fantasy folks had some self-tapping screws and a handy drill. Mike and Tom were able to screw her back together.  The rest of the drive, especially when we went over another rumble strip, Mike would check the rear monitor and say, “still have 2 fenders!”  That was a good thing.  Wildlife sightings were a bit better today – Mike saw a momma and 2 little mooses across the road along a pond.  Camp this evening was at Totagga Lake, pretty setting on the Lake.

Miles for the day: 208   Total miles for the AK Adventure: 4058.2