Waterfalls, Mountains, and Mist

The morning mist in the mountains.

Waterfalls and snow gates.

The view from our sun roof.

Waterfalls and streams.

And, more waterfalls and lush green vegetation.

Thursday, June 9

I stepped out of the trailer in the gray morning to go to the shower and stopped in wonder. The mountains rose huge around me with misty clouds enclosing the top. It was so quiet and it almost felt sacred. I just stood there for a minute while I soaked it in.

I popped out of it pretty quickly when I got to the rustic showers and put my Canadian dollar, a loony, in for 4 minutes of shower time. The owner, Ruby, said to only turn on hot as sometimes it doesn't heat up real good. Well, I'm here to tell you, I knew those minutes were ticking away, so as soon as it wasn't freezing, I jumped in. It was so cold that I showered in record time and forgot shaving my legs as I would have cut myself cutting off the tops of my goose bumps! I did not use my full four minutes. By the way, I'd like to thank Nance, my yoga teacher, for the ability to stand on one foot while using these showers.

We had coffee, watched the Today Show and went into town to the bakery for breakfast. It was fun meeting some locals and chatting over coffee. It reminded us of Northgate up by our cabin at Montreal River Harbour. We found out that our "Gayle" character at the General Store,was full of hot air and exaggerations. We laughed and had fun with these great, hardy people.

We packed up and started out of Stewart in a soft rain. Thirty kilometers down the road, we realized we were low on gas. After checking maps, we decided we had to go back. I can't think of a more beautiful road to have to backtrack. We marveled at the sights both ways. At one point, when there was no pull over to stop for pictures, Bob slowed and I stood up through the sun roof. It was probably not a smart idea, but it was fun.

We saw gates all along the road like at a railroad crossing for roads to be closed in heavy snow. I guess it happens often in this area.

The temperature came up to 54 and the clouds burned off. We saw more black bear. We saw more green vegetation, glaciers, birds, waterfalls, rocky cliffs, streams, clouds, beautiful textures....HEAVEN!

We turned south on 37 down to 16, the Yellowhead Highway, and turned west on a whim towards the west coast town of Prince Rupert. It clouded up and began to rain, but we hit a nice stretch of smooth road. We passed a few First Nation Villages and saw their interesting totem poles. The highway followed the wide, fast moving, Skeena River and the drive became more scenic as we went.

We drove through the nice town of Terrace, which has the Kermodei Bear (white spirit bear) as their symbol. It was the first actual town we had been in in a while with traffic lights, Walmart, McDonalds and everything. It felt weird.

We climbed higher in the mountains as we neared the coast. It just got prettier and prettier and definitely rivaled the drive in to Stewart. The huge dark pines, the misty clouds, the massive mountains and numerous waterfalls gave the surroundings a spiritual, Holy place, feeling.

Our brains went on overload as we were unable to absorb any more. We quit talking and just clicked pictures. Then we quit doing that too as the vastness of it and the feel of it could not be captured.

We found a camp in Prince Edward 6 miles from Prince Rupert. It was built into the side of a mountain. Bob showed his ability with trailers backing into that narrow spot. There were steps up to a landing for the picnic table as everything was steep and in tiers.

We drove into Prince Rupert and watched the Skeena River widen with small rocky, pine covered islands dotted throughout.

We were bone tired and stopped for dinner at the edge of town with a view of the Harbor. There was a Norwegian Cruise Ship docked and we also watched a rowing team practice. We had the sweetest waitress who was First Nation. She made us feel so welcome and she followed us out to meet Ben who liked her right off and is a good judge of character.

We were feeling so overwhelmed and tired, that we actually drove down to the Alaskan Ferry Dock to see about taking a ferry to Seattle to drive home. People load their RVs on and it is a great way to travel. Luckily, they were closed and we went back to camp for a good night's sleep and a clearer head.