Sunday, May 31, 2015

We are at ‘Ksan Campground in Hazelton, BC.  And this is the view out our rear window.

And here’s what the view looks like without clouds.  If you look closely you might see the moon rising over the mountain.

We are fairly far north and this was about 9 pm.  We’ll be in Alaska for the summer solstice (June 21; longest day of the year) and will have about 22 hours of daylight that day.  

Our drive from Fraser Lake to Hazelton was a great drive.  The scenery became more mountainous, and we actually started seeing wildlife!  The first animal was a bald eagle flying across the road and then into the woods.  We were traveling next to a river and it may have been fishing.

Later, I spotted a black bear in the woods next to a stream, peering out watching the traffic pass by.  Then, three deer beside the road.  And then it happened.  Shortly after one of the numerous signs we’ve seen warning of badgers, deer, elk and moose, we actually saw a moose cross the road!  No pictures, it all happens too fast, but our caravan leader promises we’ll see plenty of wildlife in places we can take pictures.

As we traveled, we started seeing the mountains above in the distance.  Somehow, between the wildlife and seeing snow capped mountains again, it felt like we are now really on our Alaska adventure!

We did have one other animal adventure.  We came over a little hill and traffic was stopped in both directions.  There were 5 or 6 people trying to capture a horse that had broken out of his pasture.

Every time they caught him and tried to lead him back to his pasture, he broke away.  They finally led him across the road, which was where he was trying to get to.  There were two beauties waiting for him.

Traffic finally moved on.  You can see the dark clouds in the picture.  We drove into the storm, which wasn’t too bad, but it rained fairly hard.  This area seems to have plenty of water and the rivers are swollen and swift.

Our campground is on a point between two rivers and I was a bit worried that if we got any more rain or snow melt, we might have to evacuate.  The boat house was half under water.  But the river has receded so we should be ok.

We’ve always joked when packing for a trip in the US, that if we forget something, we won’t be far from a Walmart.  In Texas, we were a couple of hours from one and here, at the moment, we’re more than a half day’s drive.  It would be an overnight trip to go.  They are going to get much sparser as we go.  Telephone service is also different.  Even in the remotest part of Texas, we could usually get a cell signal.  Here, we’ve seen more pay phones than I’ve seen in years.  You just can’t always get cell service.  

There will be 24 rigs in the caravan and just about as many dogs.  All kinds and all sizes of both rigs and dogs.  There are truck campers, big motor homes, fifth wheels like ours and travel trailers.  Spike and Lindy, our leaders, have a motor home, two small Maltese (like Obi, but smaller) and a large van, with a number of spare tires on top.  Hopefully we won’t need to make use of those.

We’ve been enjoying our mountain views, getting caught up on chores (laundry, cleaning, etc) and meeting our fellow travelers.   Here’s Steve folding laundry with his new folding board Diana got him.  She and I were chuckling at Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory folding his laundry and I mentioned that Steve thought he’d like one.  So she ordered one for him and one for Greg.

 Tomorrow will be busy with local sightseeing and last minute preparation.  There’s a bakery in town that bakes gluten free bread pretty much when someone orders some, so they’re making me 3 loaves I need to pick up tomorrow.  Now I just need to make room in the freezer!

Then, Tuesday morning at 9:30, the caravan takes off for Hyder, Alaska, the bear capital of the US.

Deb

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

We are camped at Beaumont Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada.  It’s located on Fraser Lake, but unfortunately none of the campsites has a lake view.  But we didn’t do too bad.  We look out into a grove of what I think are aspen trees.

We’ve seen a lot of aspen, as many of the older pine trees have been killed by the mountain pine beetle.  Aspen seems to be the main tree filling in.

When we left Lac la Hache, our sliding hitch wouldn’t slide in.  This hitch allows us to tow a fifth wheel trailer without a long bed truck.  When we need to make sharp turns getting into and out of a campsite, extending the hitch gives us more flexibility.  We can tow with the hitch extended, but sliding it forward positions the weight of the trailer better on the truck.

So, Steve got on line and found a dealer for the hitch a few hours up the road in Quesnel, BC.  We use the Internet so much on the road, I don’t know how people did this before the Internet.  So we headed for Quesnel.  We are headed up highway 97, also known as the Cariboo Highway.  And in spite of what Word says, that’s the way it’s spelled on the signs.  No caribou sighted, though.

This is a land of rivers, lakes, ponds and swamps.  You sometimes see Canadian geese “floating” on grass, which looks odd until you realize there’s water there.  But at anytime you can round a curve and see water in some form.

Here’s a small pond:

And shortly after that was a lake.

And then a creek through a cow pasture.  We’ve seen lots of cows in herds much larger than we saw in the states.

I think this is the Fraser River joining us again.

We finally made it to Quesnel and after a stop at Walmart (no deli and standard can size seemed to be 28 oz.), we found the hitch dealer.  The mechanic who worked with us was young, but knew what he was doing.  It took awhile, but we were back in business and on the road again.  And the hitch has never worked as well as it does now.  Yay!

Our stop that night was Canyon Creek RV Park in Hixon, BC.  There are two things of interest in Hixon: Hixon Falls and the Take Out Restaurant.  At least that’s what was posted in the office. So after getting set up, Steve ran to the takeout and got dinner.  It was a good burger with bacon and mushrooms.

If we could have parked facing the opposite direction, we would have had a good view.

But it was a nice park and we enjoyed our stay.

The next day we headed for Hixon Falls, which was all of 5 miles away.  It’s spring and the wild flowers are out.  It reminded me of vacations we used to take in the Smokey Mountains.

The hike was a short hike, so I decided to try out the backpack I bought for Obi.  Since he’s gone blind, he doesn’t like to take walks and sometimes we can’t leave him behind.  Since all the dog backpacks I liked were in the $200 range, I decided to try a baby backpack.  He didn’t fuss at all and carrying him on this short hike went fine.  Of course he’s usually happy if one of his humans is within reach.

We did reach the waterfall and I think it’s the best one we’ve seen on this trip so far.

And since my picture got in this post, Steve’s should too.

Tomorrow, Thursday, we head for Hazelton, British Columbia, to join up with our caravan.  Everyone’s supposed to be there by Saturday and we head out on Tuesday, June 2.

Deb

Sunday, May 24, 2015

And we’re in a foreign country!  We’re in the Canadian province of British Columbia.

We left Bellingham, WA, on Thursday and headed east.  We could have headed north, but then we would have ended up driving through Vancouver before heading east.  By heading east first, we bypassed a major city and crossed the border at a typically uncrowded border crossing.

Bellingham is a hilly coastal town, having great views of the ocean and/or Mount Baker, which is snow covered year round.  As we left, we headed straight for Mount Baker.  Shortly, we were in a wide flat valley, surrounded by mountains.  Even though everything is green, many of the fields were being irrigated.  Diana had commented that they hadn’t had much rain and that the weather was more like summer than spring.  Mount Baker had only about a third of the snow cover of a usual year.  The road to the summit, which usually doesn’t open until July or August, opened in early May this year, the earliest ever.

Soon, we headed north, to Abbotsford, British Columbia, to cross the border and stock up.  Canada doesn’t let you bring in any type of weapon (hunting rifles require extensive paperwork) and very little fresh food, so we planned to stock up in Abbotsford.  Steve also wanted to pick up an air card for internet access.

Unfortunately, that did not go smoothly.  In spite of advanced planning, finding the right store for Steve proved difficult and we ended up spending 5 hours in Abbotsford.  But, mission accomplished finally!

The Walmart was my first wake up call that I’m in a foreign country.  While some brands, etc., are different from state to state in the US, there are a lot of differences in brands and layouts in the store here.  And there was no deli!  Since I was hoping to pickup a premade sandwich and salad for lunch, that was unexpected.

The other slightly unexpected touch was that most items had English and French on them.  I had gotten used to the English/Spanish of the west and should have expected the French, given that one of the provinces is mostly French speaking.

Almost as soon as we crossed the border, we were out of the flat valley and into a hilly area with houses climbing the hills.  As we left Abbotsford, we headed east to catch the highway going north through Fraser Canyon.  There aren’t many ways north and Canadian Highway 1 through Fraser Canyon is one of them.  The highway follows the Fraser River and was one of the main routes to the gold fields.  It winds its way along a steep canyon, with the walls of the canyon covered with tall pine trees wherever the terrain is not too steep for the trees to grow.

The Fraser River seemed high and swift, which it should be in the spring.  We do see some snow on top of some mountains, but most snow has melted.

We found a nice campground nestled among very tall pine trees.  No satellite reception!

And being our first night in Canada, Steve updated our map on the side of the trailer to show we’ve been in British Columbia, Canada.

The map shows all the places we’ve been with the trailer.

The next day, Steve headed for Hell’s Gate, which we had driven through on our way north.  Hell’s Gate is the narrowest point on the Fraser River, being 115 ft. wide.  As you can imagine, the water is very swift there.  It was the worst place to get supplies through before roads and railroads and the worst place to build a railroad.  There are actually 2 sets of tracks, one on each side of the river.  Since the visit included an aerial tram and suspension bridges, I decided to stay with Obi at the trailer and get myself organized after our stay in Bellingham.

Steve took some wonderful pictures.  We took the Rocky Mountaineer train through part of Canada several years ago and it turns out that it followed the Fraser River for awhile.

We thoroughly enjoyed our Rocky Mountaineer trip and highly recommend it.

We left our lovely campground the next day, Saturday, and headed north again.  Soon we noticed a change in scenery.  The pine trees started to thin out and open meadows appeared. 

We start to see some farming, mostly what we would call truck farming with most of the farms having farms stands along the road.  Many have irrigation equipment.  All are closed at this time of year.  In fact, a lot of things are closed, as tourist season doesn’t really start until June.  Many of the roads along here require snow chains October to March and there are many towns that have gates north and south of them to block passage when the roads are closed.

Some vintage cars at a rest stop.  Note the thinning trees.

We finally reach our destination for Saturday night and are settled in when a storm moves in, first with hail and then rain most of the night.

One of the towns we had driven through, Cache Creek, received 10 inches of rain and suffered severe flooding.  Luckily, all we had was a very noisy roof and some standing water outside.  It’s days like these when we are glad we each have a pair of Crocs to wear for wet conditions.

The campground owner suggested the Edelweiss Restaurant in Lac la Hache, just up the road from us.  I’m glad he did – great German food and a lake view!

Tomorrow we are headed north and west again.

But that’s all for now.

Take care.

Deb

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

This is our last day in Bellingham.  Tomorrow we head into Canada (about 40 minutes away).  This morning, clouds had settled over the water and the view from Diana and Greg’s deck was down into the clouds.  I tried to take a picture, but it didn’t photograph well. Here at the house, we have bright sunshine and I can hear the birds outside. 

We took a load to the trailer last night, so that hopefully we can get everything that’s left in one load tomorrow.

There are restrictions about what food you can take in, so we will be shopping at the first Walmart north of the border.

For the next two months, internet and cell service may be spotty.  We will probably have our cell phones off to save international charges.  Steve will be getting a Canadian air card for internet access, but I don’t know how often we’ll be able to get internet access.  If you need to reach us, try Steve’s email or phone.  I’ll post as frequently as I can.

Take care,

Deb

Sunday, May 17, 2015

I am still in Bellingham, Washington, and Steve is still in Dayton, Ohio, at an amateur radio convention.  He and Greg, who went to Davis, CA, to visit his daughter, will be back tomorrow night.

Meanwhile, this is the view I’m enjoying.

That’s Bellingham Bay in the distance.  Occasionally a sailboat floats by and right now I see a speedboat.

Spring is in full bloom here. Rhododendron and azaleas are in bloom, as are tulips and Diana even has some calla lilies blooming.

That’s Obi enjoying the outdoors. 

Greg and Steve are both doing genealogy and Greg was showing us Diana’s family tree and I noticed my maiden name on the tree.  Steve dug out my family tree and it turns out Diana and I are eighth or ninth cousins!

So I’ve been enjoying balmy days with my cousin, trying out allergy friendly restaurants.  It’s bee a nice break from traveling.

We’ll leave here on Thursday, on our way to Alaska!

More later.

Deb