We started the
trip to Prince George on Friday by stopping at the free power wash in
Fort Telkwa to blow a layer of bugs and dirt off the trailer and
truck. It is a bit of challenge keeping clean when traveling,
because only a few of the RV parks have washes, so it is handy when
one does. The scenery between Smithers and Prince George gradually
changed from snow-capped mountains to rolling hills. Despite
cautions to watch for moose on many stretches of the road, we didn't
see any. We decided to try out Beaumont Provincial Park on Fraser
Lake. However, the roadway was too narrow to even try to back our
trailer into a site. Fine for shorter trailers, but not for larger
ones.
We pulled into
the Kal Tire in Vanderhoef, because the tire that we had filled at
Iskut was going low again. After finishing up with a logging truck,
the technician took the tire off, found the leak, and had it back on
in a short time. When he was done, he wished us a good trip. We
said that we would be on our way once we had gone to the office to
pay up. But, he said, there was no charge for fixing the leak. We
were very pleasantly surprised. The last time we had a tire plugged,
at least 10 years ago, it hadn't cost much, but there was a charge.
Once in Prince
George, we turned south on 97 about 16 km to the Bee Lazee RV Park.
We were able to get everything setup, including satellite, with one
of the strongest signals we have found, and the steps. Summer is
definitely here, with 30 degree weather, and bunches of young
children around taking advantage of the swimming pool here.
We did some
shopping in Prince George on Saturday. We stopped at Happy Trails RV
to pick up a crank for the rear stabilizer jacks and some florescent
bulbs. We went to Coles and found one of the BC Backroad Mapbooks,
which we paid with a gift certificate Karen gave us for Christmas.
Joan got a haircut. We picked up a new portable CD player (so we
have music and radio when we don't have power), since the old one
died when something fell on its cassette controls. And, finally, we
bought a simple replacement camera.
Sunday morning,
we went to John's Aunt Trudy's. She has a very nice condo in
downtown Prince George, within walking distance of most things she
needs. We tried to connect our laptops to the internet there so she
could have a Skype conversation with Dad, but didn't have any luck.
She treated us to a very nice lunch at Mr. Mike. Then we drove back
to the trailer so she could see our accommodations. We were able to
Skype with Dad from the trailer, and she was quite impressed with how
it worked. She decided that she should have Skype setup on her
machine, so we stopped at Walmart to pick up a webcam, went back to
her place. After getting it setup, we Skyped with Dad again to make
sure everything was working. We had a very enjoyable day with her.
When we returned
to the campground, we went for a short dip in the swimming pool. This
was the first day since we have been here that the pool has not been
full of young children.
We had a
campground day on Monday. We did some cleaning in the morning, and
then went for a dip in the pool after lunch. Basically just taking
it easy.
We took a trip
to check out a couple of recreation areas on Tuesday. We drove a
short distance back toward Smithers, then drove south down Blackwater
Road. Our destination was Punchaw Lake Recreation Center. The first
24 km of the road was paved, although the first few km had a
multitude of small pot holes. Once we got past a treatment center,
the road changed to gravel. It was oiled or watered, at least, for
the next 24 km. We encountered a small black bear on the road ahead.
It took one look at us, and dashed into the bush. The road into the
rec site was a bit rutted, and fairly narrow, so we didn't feel we
would like to take the trailer down it. The truck had a thin layer
of mud on its bottom half by the time we arrived.
The lake was
fairly shallow, with a bunch of lily pads floating near the boat
launch. We ate lunch at one of the tables, and enjoyed basking in
the sun for a while. We heard this hum or buzz near the truck, and
noticed a hummingbird hovering around the truck. We tried to get a
picture of it, but it did not sit long enough for us to get one. On
the way back, we stopped at a smaller rec site at McKenzie Lake (this
area was traveled by Alexander McKenzie during his explorations).
The road into this site was very bumpy, and we could see why this rec
site was labelled as a tenting only site (no Rvs) in the Backroads
book.
Carrying on, we
stopped at West Lake Provincial Park. It is a popular park with a
nice grassy area above a narrow fine gravel beach. There is a very
wide and deep swimming area. We floated on our tubes for a while
before heading back to town. We stopped at the first car wash we
could find, to remove the layer of mud from the truck, and to wash
out the wheel wells a bit before taking the truck to Kal Tire to swap
the front and back tires. Again, we were pleasantly surprised that
they did not charge us for this, which included a quick inspection.
We were planning
on a trip to Fort George Canyon Provincial Park on Wednesday, which
our map showed as being just a few km south down highway 97.
However, when we did some research on the web, we found that to the
only access was on the west side of the river, which would have meant
driving back into Prince George, and back down the road to West Lake
PP (where we were yesterday), and then hiking 5 km to the park and
another 5 km back. Instead, we did some laundry and then checked out
a rec area just east of us at Buckhorn Lake. Although only a short
distance away, the road had a lot of washboard, and the campsite
would have been awkward to get the trailer into. Additionally, there
was a lot of broken glass and nails from boards people had burned in
the fires. While we were there, a retired fellow drove in. He
chatted with us for a few minutes about what type of RV would work
best for him. Then, we drove into Prince George to pick up a few
more groceries.
Thursday
morning, while packing up the trailer, we noticed that the problem
tire on the trailer was low again. We stopped at Kal Tire again,
where they found that the tire was leaking all the way around, so was
not repairable. They quickly replaced it with a new tire of the same
type, which actually cost us less in BC than the previous one had
cost in Ottawa. We headed east on Highway 16, and stopped about 30
km out to torque the truck tires, only to find out that the socket
that works for the trailer is too small for the truck. So we headed
back to Kal Tire again, to get the truck tires torqued, and while we
were at it, since we had already put on about 60 km, the trailer tire
as well. So back we headed onto the highway. About 150 km, just
short of planned stop, the Little Lasalle Lake Recreation Area, we
passed about 15 bicyclers heading east. When we got to the turnoff
to the rec area, we noticed a sign, that the Jasper bicycle group was
stopping here for the night. We parked the trailer along the edge of
the highway, and walked the half km down to the campground. We
checked with the people doing the bike tour to see how many sites
they were taking, and then checked out the rest of the (many) sites.
We found a couple that would work for us, while beating off hordes of
mosquitoes. Of course the repellant was at the top of the hill in
the truck. We walked back up the hill, sprayed some repellant on,
and took the trailer down the hill. We were able to manouver the
trailer into one side of a double site, with the back window looking
out over the little lake. This will be our first night so far in an
unserviced free rec area. We spent a quiet evening, swatting the
occasional mosquito that snuck in while we were
getting in the trailer.
No internet of
course, so we can't post the blog on Thursday night, but we drove
into McBride on Friday to pick up some more water, mosquito repellant
(we were lulled into forgetting about it in the Prince George area),
check e-mail, phone, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment