6/3 - My view this morning:
Waygu beef cattle
Yesterday I learned that my sister, Jennifer, was hit by a car while riding her bicycle. (It makes me cry just writing this.) Marius, Jennifer's husband (and amazing brother-in-law - just in case he's reading this 😆) texted that Jenny is OK, but she was hit by a car on her bike and has two broken wrists, probably broken ribs, and a damage ankle. One of the wrists and the ankle were being operated on. WTF??? How freaking scary! It made me feel so incredibly helpless, but thankfully it isn't worse. Two broken wrists sounds pretty damn horrible, but they will heal.
I texted Marius that I was about to start my journey to Alaska, but should I be going to Cleveland instead? Hmmm - Alaska vs Cleveland, which would you pick?? 😂 I'm honest about the fact that I would very much prefer the Alaska option, but I feel like I'd like to help, though I cannot do both. Jennifer has a big support system - Marius, their two daughters (Monika in Philadelphia and Elena in VT), Sue offered a visit, Marius' family, many friends, church community, etc.), so I'm not needed, but wondered if I should help. I also know that she wouldn't want me to miss this opportunity to go to Alaska since she does have plenty of support. BUT it's still hard. Lots of tears today over what Jennifer is going through, wanting to help, wanting to continue my journey. We can't have/do it all. We have to make choices. If she needed me, I'd be there, but I know that she has more than enough help.
I crossed the border at Lynden, WA. It's a pretty small one, not open 24 hours, but they were sending quite a few vehicles for inspection, including me. I figured they would after having "trouble" at my last crossing into Canada (8/20/24, if you're not familiar with that story). The agent at the window asked me about that and I told her what happened and what they found. I realize they are asking lots of questions looking to see if you might be lying. The guy that I was sent to was great and asked many of the same questions. I told him about the veggies that I had, but he didn't care (bummer 'cuz I would have bought some produce items at Trader Joe's if I knew they wouldn't take them from me). He said they're looking for firearms and drugs and wasn't too worried about me. I heard them check some of the "secret" storage spots in a sprinter van. Good to know, but then again, I will never intentionally provide incorrect info at a border crossing! They only took about 10 minutes, so that was good. They did mess with my bed, which I didn't appreciate, but am not surprised. Thankfully, I checked my cabinets and drawers before taking off as most of them were not properly closed (though appeared to be). I am pretty good now about doing my "safety check" before "take-off" now after having broken some things. Live and learn is soooo true! You make a mistake once and if it's a big enough mistake you won't do it again!
 |
| Big Bertha being inspected at the border |
 |
| cool bridge in Vancouver |
The women that I met last night who were heading to Alaska were taking Rte 97, which is the typical route as it is most direct. I'm not about getting anywhere fast and the Milepost recommended the Sea to Sky Highway (99) from Vancouver, past Whistler until it meets up with 97. I did part of that today. Wow! I'm so glad I did this. I mentioned it to a few people and all of them didn't seem to think it was a great idea (but didn't really say so), but I went with the Milepost recommendation. I did think about blowing it off today because of the traffic in Vancouver, but it wasn't too bad by the time I went through. Some delays, but the day was so worth it!
First stop was Lynn Canyon to go on a suspension bridge with Zoe. She did great. It was a VERY well made/safe suspension bridge, so not too big of a deal. She was a trooper as always.
 |
| 1st experience on a suspension bridge for Zoe. I envision suspension bridges as being really rickety, but that was not the case here. Very safe. Zoe did seem to lower herself, but didn't seem terribly anxious about it. |
I took a detour to Horseshoe Bay just because. It was an OK town, but had great pizza. I had two crows and a gull that seemed to work together to try to get food from people. I had quite the conversations with them. 😆
 |
| Two (blurry) crows wanting some of my pizza! |
 |
| And this gull too! They didn't know that Zoe was going to get any leftovers. |
 |
| Time to leave - incoming cruise ship |
 |
| This drive!!! WOW! Shear cliffs on the right (with netting to manage the rock slides) and the beautiful water and mountains to the left. What an amazing drive. |
The drive from there north was so incredibly beautiful. There aren't a ton of pull-offs and being on the "wrong" side of the road didn't help. I stopped at Porteau Cove for some photos. Beautiful water with a bit more of a green tint than I've been seeing. Amazingly clear.
 |
| I stopped here with hopes of getting some good photos. Not quite as nice as some along the road, but still beautiful. |
I was going to stop at Murrin Park, but I decided against that as I have been having such awesome views along the drive. Instead of that we went to Shannon Falls (1100 feet high). It was a short walk and Zoe enjoyed her sniffs along the way. I really wish she would enjoy the scenery as it would be really nice to share it! I remember thinking how lucky my horses were in VT to have the amazing view they had, but they really just didn't care... 😒 I was walking around the picnic area and happened to look up and WOW! Those are some serious falls! This is the 3rd highest falls in BC.
Next stop was the town of Squamish, which is an outdoorsy hotspot with amazing rock climbing opportunities.
Then stopped at a vista point. Wowza! The mountains were just spectacular.
Then Brandywine Falls (we had a dog named Brandywine ❤). It was cool to learn the difference between the rocks at Shannon Falls vs Brandywine falls. Shannon Falls is falling over super hard granite, which erodes really slowly so the water doesn't create a canyon there. At Brandywine falls, "the water flows across layers of hard and soft basalt lava, soil, and loose rubble. Hard basalt forms a cap at the lip of the falls, while at the bottom, the pool is undercutting softer layers. Over time, so much of the soft layer is removed that the hard layers collapses and the canyon gets bigger." (This was really helpful to type out because it helps it sink into my thick brain!)
I've learned that two things that really interest me are geology and architecture. Maybe these are on the same theme? I'm not so interested as to get really geeky on them, but I enjoy looking at different architecture and I enjoy trying to understand the many thousands/millions of years that have formed the spectacular beauty of nature that we see across the world.
Then we drove to Whistler, but I quickly left there. It did not appeal to me at all, at least what I saw. Plus I was tired after not sleeping much last night (for whatever reason) and just wanting to get to my planned (not reserved) campground. We got to Nairn Falls provincial park to stay for the night. I had looked online and it looked like there was a lot of availability, but when driving around it looked like there were a lot of people like me who just drop in. I did find a good spot with sounds of the Green river, but not a premium spot (reserved many months ago) with views of the river. It's a super nice campground with clean sites and level!!! I'm quite impressed. Zoe and I took a walk down to the river and then settled in at camp. That means that I ate some cheese and crackers for dinner outside and then came back into the van to work on my blog.
 |
| Green River at Nairn Falls Prov Park. If you book 6 months ahead of time you can get one of the riverside sites... |
One of the delays in getting my blog out there is getting my photos uploaded. With this blog, I need the photos in Google photos to add them here, so if I don't have good upload speed, it can take a while, especially since I take so many pictures...
All in all it was a great day!!! What will tomorrow bring??? That's what I love about this life - each day just unfolds.
6/4 - Checkout is 11 AM at the provincial parks. I’ve gotten used to a 1 o’clock checkout time which I think is wonderful. If you wanna leave earlier, you can. There’s really no reason why they make us check out at 11 oh well. It gets me up and about.
Before departing, we took a walk down by the river and there is a waterfall that flows into the river down there which was pretty. Actually, there are waterfalls everywhere as I was about to notice on my drive on the rest of the sea to sky Highway.
I would have really liked to do the hike to Nairn Falls from my campsite, but since I was too slow to get moving, I ended up having to drive over to the day use area and go from there. It’s just under a 2 mile hike and come to find out it was a little too much for Zoe. At the end was a lot of steep rock that we had to climb around on that was kinda hard for her as she was already hot and it was sunny. The walk was up high along the Green river. It was cool to see how much water is going through those falls and it was just thundering. Also, you can see the potholes that were worn away. It’s not really anything spectacular cause you see them all the time but I always enjoy it.
Nairn Falls video - it really roars!
After that hike, Zoe was pretty tired and we didn’t stop a whole lot after that. We drove by Joffre Lakes provincial park that looked to be very popular. I probably should’ve stopped there as it seems so popular, but Zoe certainly wasn’t up for anymore hiking (and I learned that dogs aren't allowed anyway) and I just didn’t strike me as a place I had to go because I knew nothing about it. I did end up talking to somebody about it and he said you Have to do the full 4 km hike each way? To see the real beautiful parts. Anyway, I didn’t.
I can totally see why it’s called the see the sky Highway as we were climbing and climbing and climbing. It was very steep in places! Big Bertha had no trouble though. It’s the steep downhills that worry me as I don’t want to ride my brakes. I find that if I downshift it doesn’t feel like it’s slowing me down that much and the engine is revving like crazy. I did it anyway on some of the hills as they were like 13% grades. At one point I was behind a logging truck on the downhill so he was going very very slowly.
Again, there were a lot of waterfalls and rivers on the side of the road and amazingly beautiful lakes. We stopped at Duffy Lake by the side of the road for a photo op and then went down to the beach at Seton Lake. According to my car thermometer, it was only 73° but it felt like at least 80. Zoe waded in the water to cool off and get a drink. Once again, the color of the water is just unbelievable.
I chatted with a couple who were visiting from Prince George for their 42nd wedding anniversary. They were a lovely couple. I then went onto Lillooet, which somebody told me I would find very interesting but I didn’t. I did a little grocery shopping and got gas and was on my way again to find a place to stay.
 |
| Duffy Lake |
 |
| Duffy Lake |
 |
| Log jam on Duffy Lake |
 |
| I can't seem to get enough of the beautiful water, can I? |
I ended up at another provincial park at Green Lake and stayed at the Sunset View campground. I got a good spot that gave me a bit of view of the lake through the trees and got some great Sunset shots at the beach a few steps away from my site. The provincial parks typically just have pit toilets, but are super clean and spread out. They seem to cost between 18 and 25 CAD, which is super reasonable. I'll probably end up doing more wild camping as parks get more sparse, but we'll see.
6/5 -
so my plans for going to Alaska via the Alcan have been foiled by the fires. I’m sure I could do it but why when I can go further west and take the Cassiar which should have less chance of fires. I had asked for input from a Facebook Alaska group and some people were mentioning that they were on the Cassiar now and they posted a picture and it was probably one of the most beautiful mountain shot I’ve ever seen and based on the various pointers, I got, I am very excited to go up the Cassiar. And if all goes well, I will come back on the Alcan.
Today wasn’t a very exciting day as I didn’t make any stops of interest. I just got some beautiful photos of the super clear green lake in the morning before leaving.
 |
| Calm morning on the lake. The water is so clear and it really does look green (not so much in the photos though). |
We stopped at Williams Lake and I grabbed a donair from a Mediterranean restaurant, which is kind of like a Gyro, but I guess it's a Canadian dish from Halifax, though I never heard of them when I was in Nova Scotia... We went to a park so I could eat my lunch and walk Zoe. Lots of homeless people - in fact, I think I may have seen one or two people who did NOT appear homeless out of everyone there. So sad. I then I went to Surplus Herby's, that I was told I had to go to, and I got bear spray. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a holster so I’ll just have to either get one later or carry it in my side pants pockets. I was going to wait and see if I could find some for free (people who get rid of it 'cuz of flying or won't have any other reason to have it), but I just wanted to have it.
We stopped at Quesnel (pronounced Kwe nel) to walk around as I was getting sleepy on my drive. I was planning on going all the way to Prince George today, but I wasn’t up for another hour and a half of driving so I came to the 10 mile lake provincial Park. No cell signal here but they have showers (which I've not seen before at a provincial park)! A shower was on my agenda for tomorrow at the Y in Prince George, but now I can just shower here. It was raining when I arrived, but still managed a walk around the campground, which is heaven for Zoe and her nose!
 |
| Quesnel mural |
6/6 - After my shower (ahhh!), we took a walk on the trail by the water, but didn't have long since we had to leave by 11ish. We drove to Prince George which is the 2nd largest city in BC. That's where I met this handsome fellow below. Other than him, I wasn't terribly impressed with downtown PG, so we headed to the Cottonwood park where there are carvings in the trees. It was kinda like a treasure hunt.
 |
| Isn't he adorable?! Maybe a Kunekune pig from New Zealand? Not sure. |
I got gas (gotta fill up when I can!) and stopped at another Surplus Herby's and got my holster for the bear spray. Not sure if I'll need it, but whatever...
No photos, but I saw my first wildlife today. First a coyote and then a bear. The bear didn't appear to be very big and was brown. Lighter and darker brown. Grizzly?? There was a rest stop right near it and I wish I had stopped, but I would have had to slam on my brakes and I had someone behind me. 😏
I had thought I'd stop in some towns along the way, but I didn't find anything interesting, so we just kept on driving. It was VERY windy, which was killing my gas mileage and the wind assist kept triggering, so it was pretty stressful. I was going to stop at another provincial park, but read about a free RV park in Fraser Lake (White Swan Park). Who has free RV parks??? It is awesome and I did not expect to get a spot, so I was prepared to keep driving, but I lucked out and got the last spot with a view of the water. It always feels funny to have my "little" van among the big RVs. I chatted with some other folks also heading to Alaska. They said they're trying to do about 300 miles/day, so I probably won't see them again along the way.
 |
| Not a bad view! |
 |
| Can you find (little) Big Bertha? |
 |
| This view almost reminds me of Blue Mountain Lake. Almost... |
 |
| Not a bad view |
I'm realizing that this may not be the best spot for the night as there are train tracks right behind us and several trains have gone through (only some are blowing the horn). I hope they don't go all night! I might have to try some ear plugs!
It's 9:20 pm and the sun is still up, so I just checked to see when sunset is tonight. Oh, man, sunset isn't until 9:47! I'm definitely struggling with the long days already and I know it's going to get worse! I can get the van quite dare with my shades, but it's hard to go to bed when it's light out. I guess I'll have to get used to it!
I talked with Jennifer today and she's doing pretty well. Monika is there to help out and then Elena will go, then Sue. Thankfully she can walk and is pretty active! I'm so impressed and thrilled!
6/7 - Beautiful morning on Fraser Lake. I chatted with Ian and Judy who were in the bus next to me. Such a nice couple. They live in Prince George half the year and Australia the other half (Ian is from Australia). They gave me lots of tips of things to do along the way.
Houston
 |
| Worlds largest fly fishing rod |
 |
| Nice little park for a walk and to enjoy the flowers |
 |
| and totem |
 |
| And old church |
 |
| and cabin |
 |
| Old equipment |
 |
| What is this??? |
Some amazing views as I drove North.
 |
| Camped in Smithers |
 |
| This bear and her two cubs were right behind my van, but I wasn't there. I blame Laura (another camper I met while walking Zoe and we chatted for a quite a while) for keeping me away... LOL. |
 |
| View from Smithers. Look at those lilacs! Oh, and the mountain too! 😀 |
 |
| Cool ceiling at Telly's Grill |
 |
| Amazing dinner with Laura |
 |
| So cute! 😆 |
6/8 - Another beautiful day for driving with spectacular views
New Hazelton
 |
| Look at the mountain backdrop |
 |
| Nice backdrop to the town |
Ksan Historic Village. Native Gitxsan tribe.
Stayed at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park and met up with Laura again. This is her pup who is just too cute!
 |
| View from my campsite |
6/9 -
I decided to drive to Stewart (BC)/Hyder (AK) for a day trip and ended up going back to Meziadin Lake PP for the night. Beautiful drive.
 |
| Bear glacier right from the road |
 |
| Stewart BC |
 |
| Entering Hyder, Alaska |
 |
| This is the are where in the late summer the salmon are going upstream and there are tons of bear catching them. Had I gone my planned route of the Alcan up and the Cassiar down, I'd have been here at the right time. This time I just had to imagine what it must be like. |
I headed up towards Salmon Glacier, but didn't make it. My sliding door started indicating that it was opening along the bumpy road. I stopped and reclosed it and it seemed ok, but then there was a horrible metal on metal sound and I thought the van was falling apart, so I stopped, looked underneath, but didn't see anything. As soon as I started again (back where I came from) the noise went away. I wonder if it was a rock or something caught somewhere. Oh, well. Being alone, I just wasn't psyched to keep going.
 |
| So many waterfalls on the side of the road |
 |
| Back at Meziadin Lake with a view from above. All the lakeside spots were taken, but this was a good spot. I had hoped being high it would keep the mosquitoes away, but it didn't work too well. This campground has a lot of mosquitoes and black flies (these I didn't notice as much from up high). |
6/10 - Heading north again. Goal is Kiniskan Lake.
 |
| OMG! I stopped at a rest stop at Mehan Lake. What a spectacular view! I wouldn't have seen it if I didn't walk down the steep trail to the lake. |
 |
| Zoe watching from above. I didn't want here to have to climb back out. |
 |
| Lunch view at Mehan Lake from the van |
 |
| A black bear and her two cubs |
 |
| You can see a bit of one of the cubs on the left. |
Laura and Rainer and Noel were supposed to be here. I actually ended up being really happy that they weren't because had they been there, I probably would have hung out with them and in the end, I really enjoyed meeting my neighbors and other people around me.
 |
| Camped at Kiniskan lake Provincial Park. This is from my site. AMAZING! |
 |
| Soaking up the sunshine |
 |
| Sunset at 10:30 or so. |
I had some really nice neighbors, Margot and Pat who live in Terrace, BC. I enjoyed a fire with them and some other folks from the same town and got lots of pointers for my travels. A great night!
6/11 - I was planning to head north to Boya Lake today, but decided that I didn't have a schedule and since it was so beautiful and I had great neighbors, I'd stick around. I'm really glad I did! Margot refreshed my memory on how to knit and then we went for a boat ride and shared another fire in the evening.
 |
| Zoe really warming up to Jackie. |
Margot and Pat took me and Zoe for a boat ride on the lake. What a treat!
 |
| Pat and Margot |
 |
| More amazingly clear blue water |
 |
| Charlie looking for obstacles. 😂 |
6/12 - Since the weather was so absolutely clear and I had no signal, so I couldn't check the weather, I had no idea it was going to rain overnight. I woke to that noise and realized that I left all kinds of stuff outside. Bummer!
 |
| Beautiful rainy view from my site. |
 |
| Can't see much |
 |
| The rain stopped and I had this lovely view. |
 |
Then it started to get hazy. I soon realized it was smoke from the fires to the East. 😒 I was totally surprised by the smoke. How often do we get easterly winds???
|
 |
| 😍 |
Arrived a Boya Lake Provincial Park. When I came into the campground, I was going to head down further along the lake front looking for a site, but a guy told me that he'd been watching people go in and come back for the last hour, so there must not be any sites. I listened to him and went and found another spot. It wasn't bad as it had a trail down to my own private beach, but I didn't have a view from my site. I walked Zoe, down to the end and there were at least two open sites. The Brits, John and Sophie, that I had met the previous morning at Kiniskan Lake were there and I borrowed a chair to save a spot next to them and we walked back and moved the site. In BC, the host comes around and collects your money, which is pretty nice, and since I hadn't paid for the other site, it was all good.
John and Sophie have starlink, but they couldn't get connected in their site (short cable) and so we connected it in my van and we both used their starlink. Yay, I had internet! It is so important (though not important enough for me to want to pay for starlink).
 |
| View from my "private beach" |
 |
| From Google maps. I have never seen a lake look like this on google maps. That's how incredibly this lake is. Since it was so smokey I didn't get the most optimal view of the lake, but it was still absolutely gorgeous. |
 |
| John and Sophie and Penny. It was Penny's birthday! |
 |
| The lupines were just so beautiful and all over the trail. The campground had two great trails. One near my site and the other on the other side. |
Sophie and I took the pups for a walk on the trail near our site in the evening. More amazing water views. Can you imagine what it would looks like if the sky was blue???
 |
| Who's prettier? Lupines or Zoe? |
6/13 - Because of the smoke, I decide to stay another night at Boya Lake, hoping the smoke would clear. I knew it wasn't likely in the near future, since I was able to check the weather and the prevailing winds were going to be easterly for a whole week! Anyway, why not stay at a gorgeous lake rather than drive and not be able to see the beautiful views?
John and Sophie left with their starlink and I ended up meeting Anja and Bob, who let me on their starlink. I stopped by on a walk, they offered me some wine and we hung out for the evening. They would turn out to be my travel buddies for a while.
 |
| I didn't know there were mountains! The smoke mellowed for a bit in the morning, so I was able to get a glimpse. |
Zoe and I did the Beaver Dam trail on the other side of the campground in the morning.
After the hike, we packed up and left. I'll be entering the Yukon province from here, so that'll be in the next post.
No comments:
Post a Comment