So Many Damn Lakes We've Lost Count

There was once a movie called "If It's Tuesday, It Must be Belgium".
We sort of feel that way..."If It's Anyday of the Year in British Columbia It Must be a Lake". That doesn't really follow in an alliterative sense but what the hell, you get the gist.
They have so many damn lakes...no joke here kind readers...look left, lake...look right, lake...look up - you guessed it, lake. And the really incredible thing, they are all drop dead gorgeous.
The lakes constantly change their image throughout the day - dawn yields the soft morning sun at 5 AM which shows off her magnificent beauty on until dusk around 11 PM when the sunset orange is still quite evident...it really is indescribable but most definitely palpable and not lost on this observer. You have to see it to feel it, trust me on this.


Lake Meziadin in all her glory at sunset (10:30 PM or thereabouts)...it will stay this light until around midnight...and it never really gets dark. Taken from our campsite at Lake Meziadin, sweet.

So, what have we've been up to you ask?
Well, here at Lake Meziadin (pronounced Mezy-Ad-in) we have found a most tranquil hang. Here for yesterday, last nite and leaving tomorrow and for Dease Lake (no way, another lake?) along Highway 16, the Yellowhead Highway, which in about 500 miles will hook us up with the famous Alcan Highway, built hurriedly during WW II by the US Army Corps of Engineers to head off a Japanese attack on Alaska - very interesting story, Google it if you care to.

Besides a shit ton of fishing (not catching, by the way!) we went on into Alaska today. The AK border is a mere 50 miles from here accessed thru the BC city of Stewart to the AK city of Hyder

If you want to chuck it all, live with 40 feet of snow during the winter and bee-u-tiful summers then Stewart, BC/Hyder,AK is the destination for you. Absolutely the most sincere and coolest people we've met along the way..so down to earth, no pretenses...just happy to be alive in the most beautiful spot on earth and free to do what they want.

Just don't be one of the s---heads, 'cause they will definitely call you out.



Traveled along a 30 mile, gnarly, beater gravel road to check out the Salmon Galcier, the fifth largest in Canada. Debbie and I were both thinking on the trip out there, when is this abuse going to end? Well, end it did and in magnificent fashion...here is the toe of the Salmon Galacier...check out that blue ice.

Get a good look, not planned to last much longer...maybe another 50 or so years, a blink of an eye in geologic time. We were standing some 500 feet above it and could hear the glacial ice creaking and groaning....soul bending.

OK, now for a couple of practicalities that may or may not be of interest and I'll close it out for tonight.

First, the mosquitos...these things are no joke up here. They number in the thousands and the little bastards are tough as nails. They will bite you THRU your clothing. Advice is to wear long sleeve T's, full length pants, socks, shoes and DEET the shit out of yourself. I am starting to get used to the little fellows (with proper safeguards) but it's been tough and a bit annoying. But, this place is so magnificent, bugs or no bugs, you know?

Secondly, the exchange rate on the US dollar has been very pleasant indeed. I withdrew 200 Canadian dollars from an ATM the other day, checked the bank statement later in the day and it debited our account a mere 154.87 US dollars...SWEET! Good time to visit Canada, those savings will purchase a lot of mosquito repellent.

See, after all it is a ying and yang kind of a world, 'eh?

That's it for now folks, thanks for hanging in with us. Love to all as I wait for the damn sun to finally set, guess I'll go out and wet the line one last time for today, wish me luck.

Oh, one more thing - sorry for the lack of photos in this post...the internet connection here at the campground is total crap and they took FOREVER to upload. I'll try to do better next time. Nighty nite.

Going to Town?...Buying Kindling?...Where You Guys From 'eh?

Let me explain the title of todays post because I think it succinctly summarizes the description of where we are, the attitude of the kind hearted local folks and the isolated location where they live. Seems like you are always 75 to 100 miles between settlements and there is not much between them - the occasional home, lots of farms and a whole bunch of trees, lakes and rivers...very beautiful, but not much happening.

When we checked into Beaumont Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Fraser we purchased some firewood from the park ranger Naomi. She had a short career as a concert celloist in some big City, can't remember - maybe the Toronto symphony?....hated the big City life and longed for her hometown out in the wilds of BC. Anyway, she chucks it, moves back to her hometown of Fraser Lake (where we are now) gets a day job with BC Parks and starts playing upright bass in a country band at night. Very nice and smart, so we chatted, hit it off and she returned in 20 minutes with 6 of the biggest logs I have ever seen. Jeez Naomi, we're here for 2 nites, not the whole summer. Seriously, these things could have burned all summer long.

The only problem was getting them to burn.

And one small, but major detail was missing, no kindling.

So we have this small axe that was not even denting the stuff. Out of desperation we resort to using a shovel blade as a wedge and pounded it with the axe hammer to try to get little pieces off of these humongous logs to start our fire.
We were making a huge commotion and associated noise with this operation, although Debbie was succeeding in getting enough kindling to make a fire.

Mid way thru our shovel/axe operation another local gal named Laura is camping a few sites away and must have felt sorry for us City slickers 'cause she comes over with a proper long handled axe for us to use. We were mostly done (and, quite honestly I did not want to embarass myself with my horrible woodsman skills in front of this true home girl wielding a proper axe) so we said thanks just the same.
What about kindling for tomorrow nite she asks. Well, Debbie responds, tomorrow we'll just go into town and buy some kindling.
This nice woman looked at us like we were from Mars....Go into Town?... as in, there is no town within a hundred miles of here. She then asks, Buy Kindling?..as if our sole misinformed purpose in visiting this mythical town is to buy kindling. Then, the inevitable question... 'Where are you guys from?'.
Debbie says, you see down in southern CA, where we come from, you get kindling with your firewood purchase to help get it started.
Ole Laura just shook her head, wished us good luck and returned to her camp with the big ass axe.
Turns out she was raised here on Lake Fraser and shared some nice tips and stories of the area with us...extremely pleasant person, like everyone up here.

As a side note, we have met a ton of cool people on this trip with very interesting stories to tell and I would love to have photos of them for our remembrances as well as sharing with you guys. But I've always felt it very rude to take photos of people you barely know, kind of an invasion of privacy I feel - so you won't be seeing any photos of the people we meet along the road, but you will be hearing their stories.

That's good enough for us I think.

Went to Fort St. James and visited the recreated fur trapper outpost from the early 1800's. We're really not big fans of these recreated historical complexes but this one was excellent, probably the best we've visited.......



Got to look at and feel ALL of the various pelts and furs found in this region, very cool.

Spent some time talking to a direct decendent of Chief Kw'eh and was really moved. While growing up in Fraser Lake she was....ashamed is not the right word....maybe self conscious is better...of her heritage. She told us as a young girl she would stay out of the sun as she felt it made her skin darker to make her look even further different from her peers. It drove her to excel in school (high school valedictorian) so she could say, 'not only am I as good as you, I am better'. Good for you Nicole, happy you embraced your heritage and are proud of your roots.



Out in the parking lot I
went agressive friendly on a guy with a pick up truck that had an advert on it claiming his stellar experience in finding underground water aquifers using seismic techniques. Now, you know I wanted to talk with this cat.
I am very dubious of claims such as this so I wanted to hear the whole story straight from the dowsers mouth. I was on board with the ability for seismic profiling to capture a view of the vertical extent of the aquifer but what about the horizontal limits? He claimed that he could determine the yield of the aquifer using only seismic profiling and for that, I maintain, you need to know not only the depth but the surface area as well to come up with a volume. Here, we seperated views on our scientific discussion. Lets just say things got a little fuzzy on his side of the debate. He did say that he would love to spend his winters in San Diego so if we need help finding groundwater, he's ready to go. Google Seismic Waterfinder, Jeremiah Cram. Nice guy that turned me on to this alternative for mosquito abatement...take notes Kim and Sue. Think I'm going to buy one to field check it, report to follow.


The Thermocell in action...maybe just as dubious as his waterfinding abilities, we'll see.

Just in case you find yourself in Fraser Lake, BC and require the services for a tow...or a yank...here's the only number you need....



Got the DirectTV satellite feed for the Stanley Cup finals tonight. Had a bothersome kid come by the campsite asking....'hey mister, where you from?'..a popular question in these here parts it seems. I respond, hey kid, I've got Game 3 on and I'm pounding a few beers...why don't you go find a tree to climb and stop bothering me...yeh, cranky old guy strikes again.

I bailed on the 3rd period to go fishing. Told Debbie at the end of the second period that this one is going to OT, see you in OT after I've fished. Returned to watch the Sharks...come on Pens!...win it in OT.

Went out and nailed 4 trout in less than an hour - 3 of them on 4 casts...decent - all rainbows, nice sized fish. Casting into the setting sun on a beautiful lake with nearby loons calling and distant train whistles bellowing was absolute heaven. Ron, your light casting tackle was the bomb...slaughter on the water my friend, thanks!

Is this guy adorable or what?

All that is required for a successful day of trout fishing in Canada...a Canadian  fishing license, $80 for an annual pass for foreigner, thought that was fair since CA resident fishing license is nearing $60...some lures, click on photo and check out the center one, the Hockey Stick...that's the one I used to slay the 4 rainbows 'eh?...and of course a 12 pak of the Goose.

Speaking of setting sun, was up till round midnight last night coaxing the fire along and the sky at that hour appeared dusk like. Got up at 6 AM and it was dawn...not sure if it ever got dark. Welcome to the northern latitudes in summer.

Our very first moose siting at the Fort St. James Visitors Centre, Debbie is overcome with excitement!

Well we're off at first light to God knows where, maybe Seelye Lake or Meziadin Lake - well, some damn lake, somewhere, hey I'm just the driver...later good folks.

Highways 99/97 to the North

We left Alice Lake and headed north along Highway 99...the Sea to Sky Highway but curiously after Cache Creek, BC it undergoes a name change to the Cariboo Highway.


Made a wrong turn out of Pemberton, BC and happened upon this golf course with these objets de artes situated on all of the holes.....kind of interesting, 'eh?

At Cache Creek we exit Highway 99, take a left and start up the Cariboo Highway labeled as Highway 97 on the road maps - the road that we will be following for the next several days as we make our way el norte. With a name like Cariboo Highway we are now on full alert for caribou and moose, decent!
The only radio station that we found in this desolate region was a French speaking PBS kind of a deal....surprisingly, I was able to catch about every fourth word or so.

So the Marble Canyon Provincial Park we stayed at on Wednesday nite was touted as 30 "delightful" campsites..well, just stay with the H Man on this one. Delightful is in the eye of the beholder and for this viewer it was gorgeous.
The park was situated right next to Highway 99 which kind of sucked with traffic noise, etc but she made up for it with sheer beauty and grandeur. I snapped many photos of the surrounding terrain but they do not do justice in being able to visualize
the absolute magnitude of this country. And the sky, talk about big sky country, not sure any photographer could accurately catch the essence of the sky we witnessed around the campfire that night....breathtaking.

A turqouise colored lake ringed our campsite and I even had a chance to wet the fishing line with no luck. But, hey that's why they call it fishing and not catching, right? Fished with a young man visiting from Utrecht, Netherlands with his girlfriend and had a fine time talking with him and hearing his story...shared my Power Bait with him and lots of fishing lies...we had a grand ole time me and Robin did.

We pulled out in the morning, went into Cache Creek, gassed up, hit the ATM and hauled burro north towards 100 Mile House, BC.

We really love Canadians, they are so cool but in such an understated way...hard to put a single word to it but we really love their attitude and outlook on life....wild and free.


"Oh, Canada, We Stand on Guard for Thee!"

Currently camped at Lac La Hache Provincial Park where there is a gorgeous (I'm really starting to run out of superlative adjectives on this trip!) lake and surrounding environs.




Debbie, enjoying a sun filled afternoon on Lac la Hache....


A little history on the name Lac la Hache(click on the photo to read the story)...I'm betting the dude on the right failed to secure the axe blade to the handle properly 'cause the other guy looks pissed....


This shot is for Grandpap.....Grandpap, these guys were high ballin' down the grade as we drove by, could have used your 4 finger blast right here. God, would he have loved a trip like this!

Next planned stop is Fraser Lake BC, will post as items of interest crop up..later good folks.

Feelin' All Vancouvery Up in this Bitch

OK, full disclosure - my standard  nite of pre trip planning sort of went to hell with this one dear readers and I must say, as lead navigator, I'm not very proud of my performance. If I was the navigator on the Pinta, the Nina and/or the Santa Maria with Columbus I would have maybe gotten us to the breakwater at the departure port of Lisbon and heading back to land.



I do however have a damned good excuse...a final late nite with Susie and Ron on Orcas coupled with a very early ferry departure yesterday morning had me all flummoxed to the max.


The ferry leaving Orcas Island to the mainland at Anna C......

We successfully completed the 90 minute ferry crossing and picked up the RV in Anna C - by the way, if you are travelling in an RV up this way and want to check out the San Juan Islands, most definitely check your RV in at the Summit Park RV Storage place in Anacortes and hook up with Andie the owner. A home girl who will watch over your RV like it's her own...highly recommended.


Don't lose that number good friends........

Picked up the RV and then gassed up, propane fill and tooled on up I-5.

Next thing we know we're at the Canadian border and passports were courteously presented...where do you guys live, eh? San Diego. Can you put the RV in park so I can check your front license plate....done and done. Canadian immigration official returns to booth...where you going? Alaska, for the summer...business or pleasure? Pleasure, oh yeh, pleasure for sure my kind customs man. You carrying any firearms? No. Welcome to Canada and you two have a safe trip, eh?

We're in.

Now that that was settled, I had absolutely no clue where we were, where we're headed or what route to take. I knew from a limited 65 mph look at the AAA roadmap sans reading glasses that we needed to take Highway 99 North towards Whistler - the Sea to Sky Highway. Suddenly we found ourselves smack dab in downtown Vancouver, BC cruising with a 28 foot RV and a passenger car in tow.

I have been to Vancouver a couple of times so was not really that interested in seeing the sights but Debbie has not visited here before so I ask....want to see much of Vancouver? Well, she responds, since we've been sitting in downtown city traffic for the past 2 hours I'd have to say I've seen it. That's my gal, let's haul ass to points north then.

Truth be told I think she was a bit reticent about staying in Vancouver based on our recent big city stay in Seattle, where I was somewhat...restless. Don't think she was looking foward to a repeat performance, can't say I blame her.

The major positive is that this will be the last big city we encounter until Anchorage in mid July and I'm not sure that will be such a large city to have to deal with. Perhaps San Francisco will be the next big city for us to manage on our way south in September. I'm all in on that proposition.

So off el norte we went along the very beautiful Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway (doesn't that sound enchanting?) - huge waterfalls, glaciers and steep, rocky, mountain terrain - spectacular, with an emphasis on sheer magnitude, does that make any sense to you? Well, it did to us.

We posted up for the nite at the Alice Lake Provincial Park right outside of Whistler, a very nice BC provincial park campground with a view of Alice Lake - showing off her glaciers in the background and steep, pine covered mountains in the foreground...that's what we were looking for - stuff your City traffic and teeming masses Vancouver.


Alice Lake on an overcast morning.......

I read a recent City of Vancouver Planning Department memo online where they are estimating 1.5 million new residents in the City before the year 2040. The City is currently shackled by steep, undevelopable mountains and the sea so I have NO idea where all of these people are going to live or work...apparently, neither do the City planners. Just hope that when they designed and built the current highrises they beefed up the foundations to accomodate another 30 or 40 stories, 'cause they gonna need 'em. The only solution I see is to continue to go up and up and up...awesome.

That's it for today good friends...stay tuned, we have another month or so of British Columbia and then the Yukon before we hit AK.

Oh yeh, when checking in here the friendly park ranger said to be on the lookout for black bears....we'll keep you posted.

Heading north later today to Marble Canyon Provincial Park near Lilloet, BC. Hyped as turquoise lakes with 30 "delightful" campsites.....I've heard that one before, we'll see - full report with pics to follow.

Leaving America...Briefly

Our Memorial Day weekend in Orcas Island, WA was memorable indeed. We had a fantastic visit with cousins Ron and Susie in their beautiful home and property near the cool village of Eastsound on Orcas Island.

Debbie and her cousin Ron shared their Cory family memories one evening over cocktails and we had a lot of laughs (and yes, cried a little bit too) hearing their stories spanning 70 years. Susie and I had of course heard some of them but there were some new nuggets that had us in stitches...a very fine evening was had by all.

Ron and Debbie solving the world's problems

Now to the title of today's post...yes, in coming out to Orcas Island we briefly left America. Seems recently a certain US Border Patrol agent had been very zealous in his duties and was a constant presence on the ferry linking the island to the mainland that left many local residents feeling like they were leaving the country to come to and from their island homes. Apparently this has subsided a bit as the agent is no longer in the area but the attitude with the local residents persists. When someone leaves the island to go to the mainland they are said to be "going to America".
This also has some historical context as well. Seems it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that Orcas and the other San Juan Islands would be a part of the United States until a German arbitrator settled a boundary dispute between the United States and Britain in 1872. Thirteen years earlier, the two nations nearly went to war after an American settler shot a pig owned by an Irishman who worked for the Hudson Bay Company (you really can't make this stuff up, right?). The so-called Pig War set in motion a process that eventually placed the border at the Haro Strait, which separates San Juan Island from Vancouver Island in Canada.
So based on these two observations we briefly left America to visit Orcas Island.

Now, what have we been up to you ask?

Saturday morning Ron and I were set to go shrimping - who knew shrimp lived in these cold waters, but they do good friends, and nice ones too - and his buddy Dick, the guy with the boat, called it off at the last minute due to high winds and rough sea conditions. Now when an experienced helo pilot with Vietnam war experience calls off an adventure, I'm all ears! This was really cool...so Ron and I are sitting at the local breakfast joint grabbing a quick bite before the fishing and the owner of the restaurant comes over to our table, hands Ron the phone and says..."Ron, Dick's on the phone". Now that is small town action right there, so cool! Ron, please extend my sincere thanks to Dick for the offer and tell him we'll nail 'em next time.
Here's a shot of Ron's "shed" containing every conceivable piece of fishing gear an angler could want...I was drooling. Ron fixed me up with a nice light weight tackle set up for fishing in Canada. Thanks Ron, the first cast will get a hard hit, I know it!



We drove up to Mt. Constitution, the highest point in the San Juan Islands with spectacular views of Mt. Rainier/Olympic Mountains to the south, Mt. Baker to the east and Vancouver and the BC coastal range to the north and ALL of the San Juan Islands.
Check out these views:

The views are best appreciated by climbing the observation tower to take it all in....




One of our favorite places we visited was Deer Harbor where we enjoyed a leisurely ice cream cone and chili dog on a gloriously sunfilled afternoon on the boat dock.



And, Doe Bay was lovely as well.....



I also enjoyed a nice hike out to the beach at Obstruction Pass early one morning and caught a decent photo for your enjoyment.....



Now, in closing out this post I'd like to mention we are not the only ones headed north. See, these hummingbirds are currently residing on Ron and Susie's terrace enjoying their fine hospitality as much as we did. They will be here till mid June and then complete the last of their journey from the Andes in South America to Alaska. Hey, if these little guys can do it, I'm liking our chances.



Finally, we want to say thank you to Susie and Ron for your generous hospitality and wonderful company, we had a great time and it was so nice to hang with you kind folks...thanks for sharing your slice of heaven with us...we're so happy for you guys!

Next up: this is the ferry taking us back to America...

but only for a couple of hours as we're scheduled to cross the border into Canada later this afternoon.
I don't know, suddenly I'm starting to feel all Vancouvery....later fine folks and thanks for tagging along.

Happy Memorial Day

This is a day that I like to reflect and remember. Many have given all for us to enjoy this day and they should not be forgotten on this important day.
Some of my fondest  Memorial Day memories come from my younger years in Pittsburgh, PA. It always marked the first days of summer with baseball, watermelon and playing cards pinned to the forks of my bicycle for that cool noise given off by the passing spokes.
So today I will keep the post brief as I'm sure all of you will be enjoying the day off and time making memories with your family.
I will leave you with this photo from cousins Ron and Susie's bee-u-tiful home on Orcas Island...here's Ron and color guard dog Luci handling the colors.



Tomorrow we leave Orcas and head towards the Canadian border. While on the ferry tomorrow I will write a post about our wonderful time here on Orcas Island and share with you the great hospitality and fun we had visiting with Ron and Susie.
Happy Memorial Day everyone.

Anna C - a Real Honest to Goodness Town

Before I dive into the topic of the post title, let me tell you all a little bit about Deception Pass State Park where we domiciled last night.

I think we may have been deceived.

We check in noonish  and, I should have been tipped off by this, the friendly ranger says, "well, go on thru and pick out a few campsites that you like, come back and I'll see if they are reserved for others or not". OK, fair enough. But, out of curiosity, how many reserved sites do you have? Oh, a couple, actually two. Well, how about marking those two sites on the map for us and we'll choose from one of the other 158 available sites. Got her to agree to this process, so off we go to find a site.
We pick out a great site and take our standard 5 minute set up, just sit down outside on a beautiful afternoon, say the ahhhsss...and then - all hell breaks loose.
Now I've been thinking all along, why is this place so deserted? Such a beautiful park situated at the entrance to Deception Pass and I then recalled driving by the Naval Air Station (NAS) Whidbey Island facility right before entering the campground.

About 500 feet above us came an F/18 Super Hornet on approach...awesome!
Now if you ask people to come out and witness an F/18 Super Hornet, 500 feet above you with twin F414/General Electric/400 turbofan power plants roaring at full throttle with afterburners deployed, I'm at the head of the line for sure. Shakes every bone in your body and leaves you marvelling at the engineering know how to generate so much thrust in such a relatively small package.
But....these Navy fly boys were doing take offs and landings and one of these flew over us each and every minute for...I kid you not...10 freaking hours! They went till 11 PM....so much for quiet time at the campground, we took advantage and cranked some loud tunes fireside.
I asked Debbie to go back to the park ranger to see if we could get a site a little closer to the airfield, like maybe a site on the runway, with full hook ups if you please.
Unreal....we laughed so hard, it was sheer madness I tell you.


Info sign at the State Park explaining how it just might get "a bit noisy at times".

Also had time this morning to hike out to see the bridges spanning Deception Pass. In my opinion, the only way to properly view or photo a bridge is from under it looking up.

Ain't she a graceful structure....striking.



Now, back to the post topic.
Before our trip I mentioned to some friends that we were going thru Anacortes, WA and they advised...not much to see there, it's OK but head to the San Juan Islands, which we are doing tomorrow morning.

View of Debbie and Anacortes in the background taken from the nearby headlands Cape Sante....



But, we found this town to be a real treat. It has all of the things we look for in a town - nice restored downtown with preservation at the heart; friendly townsfolk; industry to support the local economy and citizens that are proud of their City. Found all of this in Anacortes and then some.
In my opinion a real town needs a tablespoon of this....


And a pinch of this....

















And yes, even a dash of this....



Hey Cory, I'll bet you're thinking they named this town after you and your lovely bride - Anne Marie/Cortez, Anna Cortez? No?
Well, nice try 'Tez but here's the true dope - seems the town's name was penned by the post mistress one Anna Curtis back in the late 1800's (thanks local historian Susie Ward for this factoid!).
Took a bike ride along their excellent Thompson Trail and did my usual bicycle recon of the town. It was a lovely day and I thorougly enjoyed the ride, the sights and the friendly folks I met along the way.



You're welcome Anna Curtis and thanks for sharing your real town with us.
Well, we're off to Orcas tomorrow morning, I'll post again once we hit landfall on the Island.
Cheers everyone, thanks for reading.