Day Eleven - Prince George

Today we continued our journey back to the coast. The day started out early as I was sleeping on living room couch and the sun shone through the windows really early! We had a really nostalgia breakfast - hotcakes with strawberry freezer jam! The only real difference was that Grampa used to cook the breakfasts when they were on the coast.

We left with a promise to visit more often (than every 20 years!) and well wishes. If anyone is looking to move, the farm is for sale and the community is quite beautiful! I would be tempted except for the whole winter factor!!!! It's well known just how much I love cold winters!!

After saying goodbye to the dogs, Ab, and Gran we headed south to Dawson Creek which is the historic mile zero of the Alaska (ALCAN) Highway. We stopped at the tourism info centre where I left goodies for a former student and of course I took some pictures of the old grain elevator in the parking lot. After that we headed to the RCMP Offices for about 30 minutes.

No I wasn't arrested or even stopped for speeding! We stopped by to visit Officer Nowicki - a guy I went to college with with. We had a short but great visit and then we headed out for Prince George.

The drive from Dawson to Prince George was much more scenic than yesterday's drive. It was also very familiar territory for dad who was quite talkative on the drive down! The first place we stopped along the way was Chetwynd - a community where they have an annual chainsaw carving championship. Throughout town there are examples of the entries each year. It was amazing!!! This was a great example of what small communities can do to have people stop for a bit longer.

As we moved on dad started to share stories of his time up in the Pine Pass. I learned about all the snowplow routes and about the time that he managed to shoot snow into the train! To make the time pass a little faster I was listening to an audio book (Janet Evanovich's Fearless Fourteen) - this proved to be somewhat frustrating as dad would start conversations at random times! We made it work though as occasionally he would drift off to sleep and after a couple of hours he even got into the story!

Dad seemed quite nostalgic as we moved through the Pine Pass. We stopped at Bijoux Falls Provincial Park - it was a beautiful picnic spot that was a popular spot for travellers to stop and take pictures. You guessed it...I took pictures!

Just down the road from the falls was Honeymoon Creek and the Highways Maintenance yard that was my parents' home over 36 years ago! I don't know the actual dates but I do know that Cameron and I were born up there and Cam's 36 now! We were actually born in McKenzie but mom and dad lived in the Pine Pass for the first two years of Cam's life and the first 3 weeks of mine! Oddly enough I did not actually remember most of the stories that dad was sharing. He kept making reference to a hunting trip that Cam, Mom, and I were along for...I think I was around 2 or 3 years old at the time. Again...didn't really have much memory of the trip and I've only seen one photo from the trip!!

As we were driving through monsoons we didn't linger too much on the way south. I took the time to take some pictures of the hillsides as we drove through the past. The photo on the left has been enhanced to show the contrast between the dead pine trees (killed by pine beetles) and the small patches of healthy trees. Living on the coast and hearing about the pine beetle infestation does not prepare one for just how devastating these insects have been to the north/central BC. Not only is this tangible evidence of climate change but it is something that all British Colombians should be concerned with. If we do not do something soon we will not only loose much of our pine forests but we also run the risk of having an extreme forest fire as there is a whole lot of dry firewood standing in these forests!

We didn't see a lot of wildlife on this section of the highway but the scenery was lovely and the small communities along the way were great. Our only other stop was the tourism info centre at the highway access of McKenzie. The lady working there was incredibly friendly and when I asked whether or not she had worked with the Malaspina students who took part in TRIP last year, she very enthusiastically stated that not only was she involved in the project but that they were adopting many of the recommendations. She indicated that they had improved signage and made many changes within the info centre itself. Further, she felt that the recommendation that were made had resulted in increased visitorship to the centre. It was very cool to see and hear the results of the great work that our students and my colleagues do!

From there it was straight on to Prince George and a visit with Auntie Alice and Uncle Jim.