Vancouver to Prince Rupert

It’s a long way! About 1100 km or the equivalent of driving NP to Auckland three times. This drive was going to take us to Prince Rupert on the coast of northern British Columbia from where we are going to ferry hop up the inside passage of Alaska. It was obvious on our first day out of Whistler that our usual leisurely pace would get us to the Alaska ferry about 3 days after it sailed!  But that first day was through such beautiful mountain scenery it required lots of stops and photos. We camped beside a semi-frozen lake with towering cliffs behind. Our finely honed survival skills noted deer and maybe moose prints by the lake edge, but they were not showing themselves to us. Earlier in the day we hiked to a waterfall and dutifully carried our bear spray. It is obviously good stuff because we didn’t see any of them either!

Once off our scenic mountain road and on to the Cariboo Hwy 97 we were able to put our V8 on to cruise control and make some real distance. The prairie-like scenery was fairly monotonous with small settlements spread out along the highway. Although most of the snow had gone the temperatures were still very cool even in the sun.

At Prince George we headed west on Hwy 16 towards Prince Rupert on the coast. We still had over 700 km to go and only two days to get there.

Apart from really important things like stop signs and traffic lights, other posted signs are pretty much ignored here. Cars speed past us on the open road even though we are at the travelling at the limit. Double yellow lines are often ignored when passing – admittedly they are on long straight stretches that seem safe anyway. We have only seen one or two police cars the whole time … but more on that in the next blog! It feels safe driving here though, and drivers are very polite despite our own occasional blunders. The signs we have taken to ignoring though are the ‘closed for the season’ signs on the beautiful Provincial Park campgrounds. We have discovered that we can park overnight in the prime spots and there is no-one around to say otherwise! 

While out walking one evening we were commenting on the size of the trees that had obviously been chewed through by beaver. They fell large trees then take off the branches to build their dams. Right then, over the other side of the river, we spotted a family of 4 beavers. We think their home had been destroyed by the large chunks of ice floating down the river as they would not normally be seen out at that time of day. Needless to say we were without our binoculars! These wonderful creatures are programmed to block off running water, and apparently make a nuisance of themselves when they try to dam up culverts in the towns! Eager little beavers!

The last day’s drive from Smithers to Prince Rupert through the Skeena River valley was truly magic – a picture postcard drive with towering snow-covered mountains, frozen lakes and miles of fir, cedar and spruce forests. It was a cloudless, stunning, memorable drive! Prince Rupert was the end of our land journey for about 10 days and we were scheduled to check in for the ferry at 3.45 am for a 7 am sailing. Our first leg was from PR to the island of Wrangell, a journey of nearly 14 hours – the same as the flight from Auckland to Vancouver - but with more leg room and much better views! Neverthess it was going to be a long day!

Our lakeside camp

Idiots with bear spray!

A beaver-felled tree - huge big chips

Ice chunks that wiped out the beaver home

One of us has a bear bum

Historic village in Hazelton

Seven sisters peaks on the road to Prince Rupert

Lake Louise to Vancouver

We are adjusting to the ‘variable’ spring weather! Snow falling  in the mountain passes, brilliant sunshine in the Okanagan Valley, snow again in Princeton and full on Taranaki rain in Vancouver with a stunning sunny day in the middle. We have added umbrellas to our kit – hopefully sometime in the next few weeks we will be using them as sunshades!

But where the weather has been a bit lacking in consistency, the people we have met along the way have been great. Okay2stay provided us with two contacts in Vernon in the Okanagan Valley. We met up for lunch with an expat Brit and his family and then parked over for a night with another Okay2stay member a little further down the road.

A few years ago Jenni, Kathy and Katy all worked at Silverstar, a beautiful ski village close to Vernon. We visited to see where they had worked and played. I shed a tear or two, but mostly I was able to imagine the good times they had enjoyed there.

Because we are such avid freedom campers at home, we looked for something similar in Canada/Alaska and found a site called ‘Boondockers Welcome’. It is a community of RVers who have a bit of land or a driveway and are happy to have other members park over for a night or so. We struck gold near Princeton (a couple of hundred kms east of Vancouver). We were invited to stay by an enterprising couple, Bob and Pam, who are clearing, draining and developing a couple of hectares on which to build their new house. It is covered with several feet of snow all winter so they head south in their RV to Baja California (Mexico) equipped with a webcam. It obviously helps with security on the property, but most importantly though, the webcam tells them when the snow has cleared and is time to come home! They sold a business in Vancouver and bought themselves an excavator, two tractors, a back hoe, a dump truck and a portable saw mill to work their land. There are no male/female roles in this partnership and Pam is as at home using all this equipment as Bob is in the kitchen. She is also the ‘registered’ builder overseeing the construction of the house. Really hospitable, salt-of-the-earth people.

Mostly, though we have been staying in campgrounds as proper freedom camping isn’t so easy in the more populated parts of BC. While writing this (13 April) we are in Whistler, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics and it is the most expensive yet - $52 per night – with useless internet and they still want to charge to use the showers! In comparison the two nights we spent in a Vancouver RV park right next to Lions Gate Bridge were brilliant.

While in Vancouver we were well looked after by Sue Boutwood, another friend from the happy, hippy 70’s. Twenty-five years ago Sue bought a little apartment in a relatively undeveloped area near the waterfront. It is now one of the most desirable and has wonderful views over the waterways and parks. Sue showed us around all the sites that we would never have been able to see otherwise. On a fine day it is a beautiful city – and we were very lucky to get one of those!

Vancouver has a lot of similarities to Auckland – scenic waterfront, high property prices, rapid immigration and traffic congestion. However, they do have a very efficient and well used skytrain and ferry system. We wandered through Gastown and China town, and visited the Science Centre. (It was okay, but once we had paid and were inside, we realised that it was mainly for kids. Never mind, it kept us amused on a wet day).

So that is the end of big cities for us for some time. The next one of any size is Anchorage and that is over 3500 kms away. Time to put that big V8 engine to good use!

Biking in Kelowna sunshine

Bob and Pam - and snow

Beautiful Silverstar Resort

The girls spent quite a bit of time here apparently!

Biking in Stanley Park, Vancouver

Sue and me - 35+ years of catching up

The beautiful view from Sue's apartment

Vancouver skyline at dusk

Spring in Canada - not quite what we expected

It was a relief to land in Vancouver after a 13 1/2 hr flight. Despite the Sky Couch (extra seat in the middle) neither of us really slept. We tried to keep ourselves awake and adjust to the new time zone by exploring the area around our hotel. 

A snow storm welcomed us in Calgary the next day – not quite what we had expected. People keep telling us what a long snowy winter it has been and how late the spring is. We are not daunted though as we have our merinos, warm boots and puffer jackets. I guess it means the bears stay tucked up in their dens a bit longer too – but we are taking no chances, and have bought our bear spray. It’s $48 a can and has to be registered as a weapon! That should just about guarantee we never see a bear!

Back in the 1970's I travelled with a group of friends overland to the UK. Jim Blum, one of those old friends, met us at the airport. And in his garage I was re-acquainted with another old friend - the 1930 Model A Ford we travelled in. I am sure none of us look like we have aged at all! Hmmm

We stayed in luxury for three nights at Jim’s beautiful property on the outskirts of Calgary. Deer grazed outside the window in the evenings, a coyote travelled up through the valley and apparently there are moose and porcupines that visit as well.

After picking up the RV from Cruise Canada, a day was spent kitting it out with the essentials for 3 months on the road. We even bought cheap bikes and set ourselves up with a phone. It is going to be a bit of a challenge maintaining Okay2stay on the road but I guess we will visit a lot of coffee shops for the free wifi.

Eventually, we had to fly our comfortable nest and venture off on the ‘wrong’ side of the road into the mountains. The van is very warm and cosy. Jim loaned us a down duvet and I made some silver insulating screens for the front windows. They are not pretty but very effective. There is a gas heater that heats up the small living space and excellent heating in the cab when driving. Speaking of driving, it is on a Ford V8 truck and goes up the steep mountain passes with no problem at all.

Banff was our first overnight stop. It is a stunning winter wonderland. We camped among the trees, still surrounded by snow, and cooked our first meal on our limited facilities – just 2 gas burners and no grill or oven.

The next day we took a gondola ride up Sulphur Mountain to 2,285 m with views over Banff township, up the Bow Valley and lakes in the distance.

After a couple of hours the weather started to deteriorate so we headed northwards to Lake Louise. I was here in the 1970’s and have this picture firmly in my mind of a gorgeous blue lake surrounded by wooded mountains. Strange how the old images hold despite evidence to suggest something different. Even walking the snow-covered path to the lake edge I still expected to see blue lake …. but you guessed it .. we could have happily driven the RV over it! Frozen solid. Oh well, we will be back this way in June … but that lake has a lot of melting to do before then.

Happy, hippy 1970's

It's obvious none of us have changed a bit!

View from Jim's window

Our Banff campsite

Good things those puffer jackets!

View from the top of the gondola

Lake Louise - not quite as I remember it!