RonnieAdventure #0059 - Days 22-28, Las Vegas-Alaska-Las Vegas 2013 Trip

WEEK 4

DAY 22. – From the time we entered British Columbia, everyone along the route kept telling us that we had to spend a day in Barkerville, a complete town still intact from the gold rush days. When gold was discovered in 1862, thousands of people flocked to the area over the Cariboo Wagon Road, which locals refer to as the Eighth wonder of the World. Although it was a three day journey for the miners, we made the trip on a paved road in about an hour. 

On the way to Barkerville, we stopped at the Cottonwood House Historic Site, which is an 1864 roadhouse used by the miners on the way to Barkerville, and many heritage buildings that were used to provide goods and services to travelers on the old Cariboo Wagon Road are still intact. All of the buildings are in amazing good condition for their age.

 

 

 

 

Arriving at Barkerville, we found a unique streetscape of over 125 heritage buildings, with houses, hotels, saloons, stores, blacksmith shop, and other period buildings. Although I didn’t make any money panning for gold, we were entertained with a musical performance at the Royal Theatre.

 

 

 

It stays light until about 10 PM, so after dinner we went for a hike in the Pinnacles Provincial Park. The main trail follows the ridgeline, providing nice views of the City of Quesnel and some hoodoos that are located part way down the hill.

By the time we arrived back at the trailer we were hot and sweaty and had planned to go for a swim, but changed our minds and rented two kayaks. It was a lot of fun paddling around the lake, but unfortunately my camera battery died and I didn’t get to take any pictures.

 DAY 23 – Strathnaver, Hixon, Stoner, Red Rock, Prince George

The main attraction in Prince George is the railroad museum. The exhibits included everything from steam to electric locomotives, all types of rail cars, and equipment for building and maintaining rail lines. They even had a number of velocipedes, but they wouldn’t let me ride one.

 

Also on display was an R-E-O Speedwagon and one of the "ovens" that was used to dispose of sawdust and bark at the lumber mills.

 

 



 



 

 

The most famous person in Prince George is Mr. Pee Gee (aka Mr. PG), who technically isn’t even a real person. Mr. PG was originally built as part of a parade float to symbolize the importance of the forestry industry to the Prince George, but has now become a symbol for the City. In 2009 Mr. PG was featured on a Canada Postage stamp.

 

DAY 24 – A visit to the Two Rivers Gallery was different – I don’t think I appreciate “contemporary art.” However, "we" did make a substantial donation to the gift shop!

The original Fort George was located adjacent to the Fraser River, but was destroyed years ago. One part of the fort, a fish drying house, has been reconstructed on the original site. However, the bulk of the fort area is now part of the City park system with playground equipment, ball diamonds, hiking trails, and a science museum.

 

Day 25 – We started the day out by purchasing a new set of tires for our trailer. Apparently, in the winter everyone in BC uses tire chains that tear up the asphalt and leaves a lot of sharp surface rocks on the road after the ice and snow melts. Trailers, unfortunately, don’t have shock absorbers; and the roads in BC are anything but smooth, so the bouncing really takes its toll on tires.

 

Later in the morning we arrived in Vanderhoof – the Geographical Center of British Columbia. After finding a campground, we drove up to Fort St. James National Historic Site, which displays the largest group of original wooden buildings representing the fur trade in Canada. The site was so interesting we ended up spending all afternoon in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY 26 – Fort Fraser, Fraser Lake, Endako, Savory, Priestly, Tintigel, Burns Lake, Decker Lake, Palling, Topley, Wiley, North Bulkley, Houston, Barrett Lake, Telkwa.

 

The Nautley River at Fort Fraser is the shortest river in the world (less than 1 km in length) and also the nesting area for the Trumpeter Swans, which are the largest waterfowl in North America and the largest swan in the world. Unfortunately, the swans weren’t there this time of year, but we did see a stuffed one in the Visitor Centre.

 At the Fraser Lake Visitor Centre we inquired about a tour of one of the local sawmills and we were surprised when the lady at the Visitor Centre called the sawmill located just outside of town and made arrangements for a personal tour for us. As it turns out, the Fraser Lake sawmill is one of the world’s most modern sawmills, producing enough board feet each day to build 100 homes. The automation and computer technology involved in the processing plant was unbelievable. The 2½ hour tour was really great and will be remembered as one of the highlights of this trip.

 

 

 

At Burns Lake we stopped to see the World Famous Bucket of Blood tavern and learned of its colorful history as a fur trading post and gambling den, and in Houston we saw the World’s Largest Fly Rod. The fly rod is 60 feet long and constructed entirely of aluminum, while the 36 inch diameter reel is anodized bronze.
 

 

 

 

 

Day 27 – Smithers, Lake Kathlyn, “The Hazeltons,” Kitseguecla, Kitwange, Cedarvale, Dorreen, Usk, Terrace, Savus, Port Edwards, Prince Rupert.

 

The towns of Hazelton, Old Hazelton, New Hazelton, and South Hazelton are collectively known as “The Hazeltons,” and call themselves the Totem Pole Capital of the World. To reach the ‘Ksan Historical Village and Museum requires that you cross the historic single-lane Hagwilget Suspension Bridge that hovers over the deep gorge of Hagwilget Canyon on the Bulkey River. Pictures can’t adequately describe this bridge!

 

 

When we arrived at the ‘Ksan Village, we found that a French-speaking tour group had missed their time slot; so, much to our disappointment, the English speaking tour was converted to a French speaking tour. We didn’t have time to wait for the next English tour, so we went through the museum and did a self-guided tour of the facility.

 

 

 

As we have been traveling through BC we have discovered that the various food vendors that set up around the Visitor Centres have fairly good and reasonably priced lunches. Today, we had chicken kabobs and a spring roll for $5 – and the fresh rhubarb pie was great! (Everyone has rhubarb in BC.) A little farther down the road we found a Danish Almond Butter cake.

 

In BC the Visitor Centres are typically staffed with high school students that usually have very little travel knowledge and are just there to hand out literature, but other travelers going in the opposite direction are a great source of information and will tell you what road conditions to expect. Also, the other travelers in the campgrounds will tell you where they were, what was worth the money, and what roads they have traveled.

In Terrace, we learned that the surrounding area is home to Ursus americanus “Kermodei,” the rare white Kermode bear, which is not an albino, nor is it a polar bear, but rather a pale color form of the black bear. We didn’t see a Kermodei in the wild, but they did have a stuffed one in the Visitor Centre.

 

 

 

DAY 28 – We started the day out with a visit to the Museum of Northern British Columbia, which is internationally known for its exceptional collection of archaeological artifacts and works of art. The museum also contains a bear sculpture that is the only Tsimshian example of a small, horizontal, wooden mortuary art figure in a Canadian museum.

 

We couldn’t have had better timing when we booked a tour to the Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary, the only one of its kind in Canada. The sanctuary contains 44,300 hectares of wilderness in the Khutzeymateen Inlet and is accessible only by boat. Just the boat trip up to the Sanctuary was worth the price of the tour because the scenery was spectacular!

 

 

 

As it turned out, a camera club had booked the tour also, and the boat owner was a camera enthusiast; so he piloted the 72-foot catamaran himself and converted the six hour trip into an 8½ trip. He also added whale watching, a trip to Indian Face Rock, and an opportunity to photograph eagles. This was really a great trip!