JJDreamweaver: Hay Hay It's Canada

Blog no 7

Up early we hit the border at Sumas hoping to miss the crowds as we discover that although it’s only Friday it’s also the beginning of a long weekend in Canada, it seems we always manage to enter countries on holiday weekends. Happened to us all the time in Asia too. It’s also the beginning of school holidays in Canada so time will tell. We’ve managed to have summer school holidays everywhere we’ve been so far.

We are hoping to see a few but not up close

Our first day was spent getting info from the visitors centre in Abbottsford and sorting out phone/internet at Walmart. We decided to roam on our US sim card rather than purchase a Canadian card with a different number. Surprisingly, it was about the same cost for the month. The service coverage was the same, only problem was we lost our option for cheap calls to OZ, despite being told we wouldn’t. Oh well, that’s phone companies for you.

Hoping to see a few of these moose but again not close up, they are responsible for more human deaths than bears

We planned our route for the next month with the intent of doing a big loop of about 3,000 miles (5,000km) which would take us northeast along the “Gold Rush Trail”, then northwest, and finally south back to the US border. A huge area encompassing mountains, plains, rivers, lakes and the Pacific Ocean. It’s now the last month of summer and we expect temperatures between 10C and 30C, sunny days with little rain.

A grizzly bear close up, lucky for us it's stuffed

We headed east on Saturday morning after a night in the Walmart carpark, picked up some beer at the liquor store where we had to pay a deposit on the cans, 10 cents each, refundable when you return them. It’s also a popular source of income for the “not so well off” here in Canada, beats holding up begging signs all day, they just lug a big sack around dumpster diving instead.

Canada Geese taking advantage of the lush grass

A Bald Eagle in flight

Canada is more RV friendly than the US in that they provide free dump sites for grey and black water along with fresh potable water to fill our tank. The locations are all shown on an APP we have called Wikicamps. Facilities are available in most towns, making it much easier to keep mobile. The food here in Canadian grocery stores is very similar to OZ a big improvement on the US.

One of the many colourful examples of RV's travelling around

Out on the highway we strike a traffic jam with holiday makers heading east so we stop at another Walmart this one in Chilliwack where another 2 Majestic RV’s park up on both sides, one Canadian and the other Kiwi. Both the same size but older models.

Looks like a Majestic sales yard at this Walmart carpark

We decide to spend 2 nights in Chilliwack catching up on things and letting the holiday makers settle before heading off to the Bridal Veil Falls deep in the forest.

Bridal Veil Falls

As we head up the highway adjacent to the Fraser River Valley, the scenery changes from lush forest to a drier environment almost desert like, with ragged mountains and saltbush. It’s quite stunning, but a surprise to see such dry conditions. The river has a tremendous flow from a huge catchment stretching from the coast up to the Rocky Mountains further east.

This part of the Frazer River Valley is in a rain shadow creating desert like conditions

Our first camp is on the side of a chasm formed from a glacial river which existed until the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago. The river is now just a creek which trickles down about 500 feet into the valley below. Testament to the power of ice and water.

The Chasm

Ditto

The next night was a rest area on the side of the highway where Jen met a couple of First Nation (Indigenous) women who advised her that the wild life in this part of Canada is no longer what the advertisements proclaim and most is limited to the very few National Parks and along the Rocky Mountains. This info confirmed what we had suspected in the 2 days so far. Plenty of signs warning of crossing wildlife but not a single roadkill sighted in 500 mile. In the US we didn’t see a lot of wildlife but we did see some roadkill especially squirrels. It’s definitely an accurate telltale.

A pair of Sandhill Cranes

Refusing to be dissuaded we decide to go bush, we’re far enough away from major towns and cities we would expect to come across a few critters surely. We found a nice lake in the middle of nowhere with a couple of campsites which by dark were all full. We were informed that the wolf like howl we heard during the afternoon was in fact a bird called a Loon. It’s a water bird which mates for life and the sound it puts out day and night sounds anything but bird like. It’s also the figure on the $1 coin and as such the coin is commonly called a “Loonie”.

A Loon swimming on a lake

We head off early with a 50 km drive along a logging road back to the highway, the road’s very rough as we expected and not sign posted at all, it’s navigating by compass (Michelle can’t distinguish the difference between a logging road and a hiking trail), anyway luckily only a few trucks pushed us to the side. The roads are provided by the logging companies and as such are not well maintained, the ones which service private properties are better but not great, and as such take their toll on the vehicle, driver and passenger. We see a few animals but not the ones we were expecting or hoping for.

One of the very many logging trucks that thunder past, they own the roads here, literally

Along the way we discover where the term “make hay while the sun shines” originated. Every square millimetre of land which is not being logged is set aside for growing hay. We were informed that 1 cow eats 2 bales per winter, why we couldn’t see many cows seemed to us quite bizarre as the amount of hay would easily have supplied the entire cattle population of OZ. Where it all goes was one question no one could answer, they said it just goes.

More bales of hay than you can count in one paddock, this picture is typical for much of British Columbia

One of the very fortunate free range cows that will never starve here in Canada

Rather than free range these cattle are in pens and fed hay

Prince George is the main city in the northeast and also where we start to head northwest. It’s a railhead on the Fraser River and a supply centre for many more remote logging and mining towns. For us it’s a fuel, fruit and vegi supply stop.

With piles of logs like this in every town its hard to believe there are any forests left

Heading west we start getting away from the semi’s and it becomes a much more peaceful journey. This area is full of lakes many of which are iced over in winter. The lakes are reportedly full of fish, mainly trout and some salmon but you need a boat to get to them. Nearly all the lakes are accessed via logging roads, which is disappointing, as the poor quality is very restricting for us. Some are loops which is good while others just fade out into the distance at a desolate place in the woods.

Aussie RV splattered after a trip along the logging roads

We were hoping to see some wildlife at these lakes and along the back roads but unfortunately it seems they were all here last week or last month or even come back next month or winter time, everything but now?????? The locals don’t really want the wildlife nearby where they live and travel.

Even these cute little fellows are disliked by locals because apparently they bite, scratch, have rabies and also their fleas carry the black plague. WOW this can't be true surely.

One evening at Burns Lake we were woken about midnight by the sound of sirens blaring which then went intermittently for about 3 hours. The next morning while driving down to another lake, we were stopped at a road accident which we assumed was the cause of the sirens. The single vehicle was in a ditch and totally mangled, definitely no survivors. This was confirmed on the local news and the cause was assumed to be a moose. We doubt it, more likely just speed to cause the amount of damage we saw.

This deer was seen just down the road from the accident and since they frequent the town outskirts to protect their young from predators we wonder if she could be the culprit, It looks like a fresh wound on her side

We travelled more back roads in search of wildlife but to no avail, too many thunderous logging trucks and dust to have anything close by, we think we need to go much further away from civilisation. Despite all the warning signs and every garbage bin being a bear resistant bin there was not a single indication of their presence. We expected to see moose, elk and antelope in most places but again we were told they only come down to the road and close to towns in winter, they head for the hills in summer or further north. The complete opposite to what we expected.

Catching salmon and recording what fish are in the river

We decided to head for the west coast where we knew that summer was the time for salmon to return to their spawning grounds, surely bears would be catching the salmon while they swim against the river flow.

Only 1% make it up through the water fall, most have to climb the fish ladders

After a couple of camps and 200km north up the Alaska Hwy we turned left and headed through a very scenic valley to a seaport town called Stewart and the southern Alaska border town Hyder.

Hyder the sign says it all

Bear Glacier enroute to Stewart

A male Pink Salmon with the distinct hump it develops when returning to spawn

Hyder has 1 main road which leads out of town north for about 50km to the Salmon Glacier which is actually back across the border into Canada. The road is unsealed, with ruts and potholes, climbs about 4,000 feet to the summit and while we drove, it was shrouded in mist and fog. A very dangerous drive, but well worth the effort. We hung at the summit for a couple of hours with little sign of it clearing, another couple from Germany had been waiting there 2 days for a clear view. The location would be fog bound more than 50% of the time even in summer making it extremely difficult for any road maintenance. The road used to go down past the summit to give access onto the glacier but collapsed last year and may never open again.

Salmon Glacier shrouded in fog

Ditto showing a river of ice

Looks like an ice highway

Close up showing folds and crevasses

Many years ago a mine was operating nearby, where they blasted a tunnel beneath the glacier to transport material back to Hyder, not sure if it still exists today. The determination back in those days to make a dollar was mind blowing or just plain crazy, maybe they named the dollar coin.

Below the toe showing the U shaped valley and extent the glacier has retreated from over the years

The toe of the glacier

Inside a crevasse, shows how pure the water is that makes up the ice

It’s at Hyder or rather Fish Creek where for $5 you can see dead salmon floating around after they finish spawning, if you hang around for several days you might get a glimpse of a bear. We were told this place is where the bears are, “NOT”, well not while we or several hundred others were there. You can buy a weekly pass for $20 and still not see a bear like some others who sat patiently with camera on stand waiting, waiting, waiting. The salmon were the Chum variety and apparently early arrivals, they were actively spawning then dying en-mass. It was like paying an entry fee to visit a cemetery.

A gull making the most of an easy meal, possibly dragged out of the water by a bear who dropped the fish when running away

The more common way for gulls to get a feed.

Other varieties of salmon migrate at different times and the bears only eat fish in spring and fall (autumn), this is what we were told, also that a big grizzly (griz to the locals) had chased away all the black bears, jeez, don’t you just hate being a dumb assed tourist. The info centre told us to charter a helicopter like the Chinese and Japanese tourists and the operator will search out a bear somewhere along one of the rivers, then chase it down so we can get photos. It’s also still legal to hunt bears in both Canada and the US. Can you believe that??.

A female Bald Eagle at the waters edge protecting its catch

Up, up and away

The male Bald Eagle keeping guard

Baby eagles in the nest, they develop the distinct colouring when the get older

We checked out of the tourist town quick smart and headed back south via a logging road which linked us to an area habited mainly by First Nations people. Along the road which was 68km of dirt and traversed early morning, we came across many blobs of poop which we identified as bear scat (berry pie according to the locals). From this we deduced that the bears were nowhere near the fishing ground, but higher up eating the fruit and berries. This would make sense you think that while it’s available they would spend their time consuming as much as possible and probably hiding from hunters and tourists. A local confirmed this exactly when we stopped at a village for a walk around. Shame the rangers at Fish Creek couldn’t inform us of the same.

Wow is this 2016

A fresh berry pie, we had only just missed this bear

The local we met told us if we want some fresh seafood to head west to Gingolx which is a First Nation fishing village on the coast at the end of a very scenic drive along the Nass River. We took his advice and were rewarded not only with a lovely drive but with a freshly caught sockeye salmon. We’d asked to buy some crabs from a local fisherman at the marina and instead the guy who was a visitor up from Vancouver just offered it to us for free. He refused any form of payment saying he felt sorry for us convicts.

Our first salmon

Filleted and skinned, same way we prepare trout

We backtracked along the scenic drive then headed south through a very recent (250 years ago) volcanic lava flow which was a similar event to Mt St Helens except that lava flowed, it filled the adjacent lake and forced the Nass River to move further north to its current location. Many indigenous people were killed during the event which they blamed on the children behaving badly.