Friday was a bit
of a lazy day. We tried to adapt our satellite connection so we
could connect outside instead of through a window. Unfortunately,
the connector was the wrong size. The internal connections are
smaller than the cables running to the outside connection. After
lunch, we did a quick test on our generator, figuring it would be
better to do that where we have an alternate power source than
waiting until we were in an unpowered site. Then we went for a short
walk through the woods next to the RV park. The views weren't as
good as the one from our trailer.
We had a bit of
an issue on Saturday morning. While backing off far enough to see if
all of the vents were closed on the trailer, we noticed that a brake
line on the trailer was disconnected. Flashbacks of last June in
Ottawa. The folks at Mountain Shadows RV Park kindly phoned Joe at
Bandstra Trucking to see if he was around. We drove the few
kilometers to his place just south of Iskut. After about an hour of
working on the problem, he had fixed the brake line, found the fluid
reservoir, filled it, bled the lines, and made sure that the brakes
were operational again. He also topped up the air in one of the
tires that was a bit low. We were back on the road again by 10:30,
happy to have brakes on both the truck and trailer again, all for a
very reasonable price.
The section of
the Cassiar Highway between Iskut and Meziadin Lake Provincial Park
showed hints of beautiful mountains, peaking through the clouds that
hung over the valley. We encountered a nice little black bear that
was walking along the ditch right next to the road, heading south
like us. We got a quick picture from the driver's side, then drove
forward a bit further, as the bear just kept walking along. Before
we got another shot, he crossed the road behind the trailer, and
started walking towards us on the other side. We got a few more
decent pictures. We also saw another bear, further along, but it wasn't
posing for us.
Once we arrived
at Meziadin Lake Provincial Park, we chose a site on the lakeshore.
After about 20 minutes of frustration, bickering, and flaying away
at the mosquitoes while trying to back the trailer into the site, we
gave up, and backed into a site above the lake with much more elbow
room for the truck, and still decent views of the lake. We have lost
our touch, having too many pull-thrus. No power here, so this was
our first live experience with the generator. Hours allowed are 7 to
10 AM and 5 to 8 PM. At 5 sharp, we went through the process of
adding some gas, and starting the generator, after spending some time
deciding where we could run it out of the drizzle, with adequate
ventilation. We got it going with no problems, plugged in, and it
almost immediately went off, due to an overload. We decided to
switch from the electric heater to the propane furnace, since we are
paying for the fuel one way or the other, and the furnace is probably
more efficient anyway. We also switched the fridge to propane, then
started cooking burgers in the electric frying pan, and everything
was going fine, TV's on, computer plugged in. Then we turned on the
hot water heater. Overload again. Switched that off, restarted the
generator, and started cooking supper again. 10 minutes later, the
generator stopped. Out of gas this time. Put in more gas than the
last time. Hopefully that will get us through to 8 PM. We finished
cooking and eating supper, and watched the last two thirds of the
NASCAR race. Meanwhile, we smacked the occasional mosquito as it
came near us. Mosquito season has definitely arrived.
We drove to
Stewart along Bear River on Sunday morning. The views of the
mountains, glaciers and waterfalls along this route are fantastic.
Once in Stewart, we walked along the estuary boardwalk, out towards
Portland Canal, which connects to the Pacific Ocean.
We stopped at a
recreation area on the way back, just past the temporary bridge that
was put in place while they fix the washout that happened this
spring. The rec area was a little lake where a couple were teaching
their grandchildren to fish. They told us that someone had seen a
large bear in the area.
It was drizzling
on Monday morning when we packed up to head south, so we didn't even
bother turning on the generator, had a breakfast of biscuits Joan
made the day before, and were on the road by about 7:30. We saw
fairly large black bear that was crossing the highway well ahead of
us. We took too long trying to zoom in, and it dashed into the bush
and disappeared. We stopped at the Gitwangak Battle Hill National
Historic site, just north of highway 16. We walked down 108 steps to
the valley floor, and then back up about half that to the top of
little hill where a warrior chief had located 5 lodges which were
defended by rolling large logs down the hill on attacking enemies
from the coastal tribes. We were also able to get good views of
the Seven Sisters mountain range.
Just down the
road, we stopped at a restaurant at the junction for coffee, which
turned into brunch. Then we carried on to Smithers, where we
refreshed our cash and grocery supplies. Once done there, we headed
to the Fort Telkwa RV Park, 12 km east of Smithers, and set up
overlooking the Bulkley River. A nice spot, but a little noisy,
between the highway and the CNR line. However, it didn't keep us awake, and after a while, you don't really notice the traffic. The weather here is the
warmest we have seen for weeks, quite different than the drizzle we
left behind this morning. The wi-fi process here is interesting.
Included in the price for the day, 75 mb of internet use are
included. When you have used that up, your account is stopped for
the day. This keeps people from downloading videos, and doing other
bandwidth intensive stuff. We found this worked okay, except for our weekly Skype talk.
Tuesday, we
drove to the Twin Falls Recreation Area and had lunch at a picnic
table with great views of the falls.
Then we did Smithers Culture
Crawl 2012 walking tour using a brochure we had picked up at a rest
stop coming down the Cassiar. It told us about 4 'kit' houses that
were bought from Eaton's and an American catalog company. We were
surprised to see that these were significantly sized two story
houses. We read about Swiss and Dutch emigration to the area, saw a
display of information on the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the town
hall, and walked through the gardens at St. James Anglican Church.
We checked and sent e-mail at the library. When we got back, we
checked our camera, after replacing the batteries, and found that it
appears to work okay except the display screen doesn't show anything.
We will just have to hope that we have the camera pointed in the
right direction, or start using the camera in the phone.
We had a quiet
morning on Wednesday, doing laundry, and installing the satellite
connector so we don't have to run the cable through the back window
of the trailer. In the afternoon, we took our 'floaties' to Tyee
Provincial Park, and enjoyed the sun and the water.
We drove to
Driftwood Canyon Provincial Park on Thursday, and walked the short
interpretive trail describing the First Nations in the area, and the
fossil beds, where fossils of ancient plants, insects and fish were
discovered. Then we drove out to Chapman Lake, a recreation area
about 38 km from the highway through the Babine Range. It is a nice
little site, with about 8 campsites on a decent size lake. A lady
that had been there for about a week told us that there were leaches
in the lake, so that , and the hungry insects, made our stay fairly
short.
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