We awake around 7AM to sunshine. It didn’t get very cold last night and the
storm did not come our way. Hudson Bay Mountain sits directly across the road
with a large glacier (Campground is called Glacier View). An AK RV pulled in
next to us for the night. They set up
and went to bed and were gone this morning before us, so we didn’t get to talk
with them. It appears at least one other
of our RV’s is going up the Cassiar. We
travel on Rt 16 the Yellowhead Highway. We follow the already swollen Bulkey
River and it joins up with the Skeena River, becoming the Skeena, river of
mists, flowing all the way to the ocean at Prince Rupert. The volume of water is incredible, tea brown
in color reflecting the amount of soil is erodes on its way. We pass by Rt. 37 the Cassiar Highway
start. We will come back here to start
that drive tomorrow. On down the river
valley to Prince Rupert today. The river
widens, the valley narrows and the railroad runs alongside. The road hugs the mountain sides at
times. They barely blew out enough rock
to let us through. The coastal peaks are
snow covered and have glaciated areas and rise straight up. We are level with the river most of the time,
flooding would be a problem. It is partly cloudy with spots of rain. The warm, humid Pacific Ocean air meets the
cold mountains. It is misty; the cedar
trees are huge as well as firs, aspen and birch, making deep dark forest. Lots of ferns, rock mosses and what looks
like Spanish moss hanging from the trees.
The ground is like a sponge with deep moss and tree needles. This is Tsimshian Indian Country comprising
of several klans. They collectively call
themselves First Nation people. The
various rivers and lakes are very disparate in their naming. Indian names and Anglo and Franco-Canadian
names by entrepreneurs, settlers etc. As
we get near Port Edward just outside Prince Rupert the great river meets the
tidal waters of the ocean. It’s very
violent current. The tides are 26
feet. This area reminds us of Turnagain
Arm in some ways. Our first stop is Port
Edward. We take a very narrow rode back
to a conserved historic cannery, Northern Pacific Cannery, now operated as a
museum by natives. It is fascinating to
see how they lived and worked. First as manual
labor and then mechanization. Chinese,
Japanese, First Nation people and Europeans labored there from 1889 to mid 1900’s. It was all about harvesting the great
migration of salmon and supplying Europe.
We learned about the different methods of fishing and maintaining
nets. Well worth taking the narrow
road. On to Prince Rupert, the
northernmost ice free port for Canada and terminus for the trans Canada
railroad. Other than birds we have not
seen any wildlife today along the road.
Parking with RV or trailer is never easy in a
town. With all the tourists coming here
there is still not much choice. We park
at the Safeway near the back. There is a
huge sawmill on the edge of town and Port Edward has a big factory. There are totem poles scattered around the
town. We stop off at the Northern
British Museum. It is housed in a newish
native long house type structure with huge trees inserted for support. We see the history from pre-historic native
activity of 10 k years ago through to today.
The art and craft styles and icon designs from the various klans is
significant in symbolism and materials used.
They recognize the Chinese culture as having great impact on the area. The Chinese were migrant can makers at the
cannery in the 1800’s. We walk down to
Cow Harbor. It is a tourist area of
shops and boardwalk right on the water.
PR sits on Chatham Sound with small islands separating it from the
Inside Passage. Large container ships
sit in the harbor among fishing boats and small locals. We stop for a Canadian beer at the local pub
looking at the harbor. A seal swims by
and a bald eagle flies by. We drive out
to the ferry dock which serves Alaska, BC and local ferries. Our campground tonight is PR RV
Campground. Nothing special. Has full hook-ups and we are on the side of a
hill. I think we have actually had the
RV level only once even with wood blocks.
The shower is a fair distance down the hill so it will take some
gumption to load everything in the bag and make the trek. We start the Cassiar Highway tomorrow. Nighty night.
RV Mileage total today 227
Total RV Mileage 2,621
Total road miles 3,519
Hours traveled today: 11 hours with stops
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