Our First Week on the Road

 First off, sorry for the lack of updates, we did start our trip but locations with WIFI have been few and far between.  We have finally found consistent WIFI and it just so happens to be in Masset BC on Haida Gwaii.  Below is a run down of our first week on the road :) 

July 5^th – And we are off

We are finally leaving Quesnel after what seems like years of thinking about this trip and not enough time truly preparing to do this trip.  However, how can you prepare for a trip that is not comparable to any other trip you have done before?  The decision of what day to leave on was dependent on when our full-size spare was ready.  I have heard from numerous people who have completed the Dempster highway that having a couple spare tires is a requirement, we had a small spare below the van[1] after purchasing one from the auto wreckers but I thought it best to also throw a full-size spare on top of the roof just in case. At 10:20 am Tuesday July 5^th I received a call from Fountain Tire letting me know the tire was ready for pickup. 

This call marked when we would start the trip, I drove the van to pick up the tire and my heart started racing, it was time to start.

After securing the tire and saying some goodbyes to the family we hit the road towards Prince George, a drive that we had done many times.  The drive felt weird this time. It definitely felt different.

We arrived to Prince George for a final drop off of the last of our stuff going into storage.  Once done, we had a room filled with our trinkets and household goods that we had accumulated over the last 7 years and a van filled with stuff we assumed we would need.  We finally left Prince George after grabbing some pizza and a bubble tea for the road and headed towards our first stop, Burns Lake.  This community has a free municipal campground right on the lake.

Once we arrived, we thought to just relax and decompress for the night and ponder our life choices.  Thankfully there was a vehicle in the campground from the Netherlands giving me some comfort that there are others out there just as crazy as us.

 

July 6^th – Ooof made our first mistake of the trip

We woke up feeling sore.  We had spent some money on new foam for our bed since we had planned to sleep on the bed for the next years or so.  We worked with the Foam Shop in Prince George to create a mix of high-quality high-density foam, with Memory Foam and a Copper Foam topper.  The foam mattress has three distinct layers and when placed properly provides a very comfortable sleep.  However, in our delirium we just assumed we had forgotten how comfortable the mattress is supposed to be so we slept with the mattress upside down.  They do not call it high density foam for no reason, it was firm meaning we slept poorly and woke up with sore backs.

WE WILL NEVER MAKE THIS MISTAKE AGAIN!

 

First stop after leaving Burns Lake was Tyhee Provincial Park for a quick shower then into Smithers for some shopping and some drinking.  After grabbing some sausages from the Sausage factory and some bread from Paul’s Bakery we sat at the best brewery in BC (in my opinion) Smither’s Brewing where unbelievably Kendra ran into one of her childhood friends.

After leaving Smithers happy and excited to continue the trip we drove off to our next campsite at Kitsumkalum Provincial Park.  This was a spot we had stayed at before; it is beautiful and free!

 

Unfortunately, between Terrace and Kitsumsalum Lake we had some vehicle issues, hopefully nothing serious, just an airbag sensor; hopefully just a glitch, but enough to make us concerned, unfortunately we can’t get it looked at until after we return from Haida Gwaii, so we will just have to cross our fingers and toes that this issue was a fluke and it doesn’t indicate a bigger issue. More to come.

After watching a nice sunset, it was time for bed, another day done.

 

July 7^th – GOD DAMN MOSQUITOS!!!

Wasn’t this supposed to be fun?  Can we skip to the good part? No? Okay.  We didn’t “encounter” mosquitos; we encountered SWARMS of mosquitos.  Before going to bed we ended up lighting a mosquito coil in the van to kill a swarm of mosquitos that had decided to make our home their home, it killed them (or maybe made them go to sleep?) but when we awoke, I felt terrible for breathing in the smoke from the coil and had mosquito bites all over my body.

Thankfully I knew today was going to be a great day, we were retuning to the Nisga’a area North of Terrace.  This beautiful area has a rich history and culture and did I mention its beautiful, because it is, 10/10.  There are short trails to water falls and interesting water features as well as a Hot Spring you can reserve through the Nisga’a Government.  For $8 a person you can book the hot spring to yourself, so that is what we did.

 

The hot spring was great; however, it was HOT and the mosquitos were vicious.  For the 45 minutes I was constantly switching between being full submersed in hot water until my body couldn’t stand it to jumping out of the water until my mind couldn’t stand being bitten any longer.  When you’d jump into the hot pools these mosquitos would cling to your body and drink until they would die from the heat.  After every initial jump in the pool, I’d have to wipe the bodies of dead mosquitos off my arm.

That being said there were many moments of bliss and relaxation in the hot springs, I definitely recommend.  Unfortunately, because it was just Kendra and I thought to take off my swimsuit and ring it out after I was done in the hot springs and of course the next group for the hot springs (and the Nisga’a land officer) end up entering the area while I am butt naked.  I frantically tried to put my swimsuit back on after the encounter the Nisga’a Land Officer seemed a bit awkward around me; hopefully a part of me hasn’t formed a new memory in his mind.

It was time for food so we drove to the end of the Nisga’a highway (113) and sat eating amazing fish and chips looking at an inlet to the Pacific Ocean.  It was so relaxing to cool off from the hot springs, get a break from the mosquitos and watch eagles swoop at fish.

We drove back to Terrace and planned our stop of the night while having a pint at Terrace’s local brewery. We decided on a spot near the Skeena River.  After arriving we started cooking dinner but unbeknownst to us the swarms of mosquitos had found us and were in the middle of taking over our van.  After we had cooked and cleaned up, they were everywhere.  We decided to jump in the van and go for a drive with all the windows open thinking that would force them out.  We THOUGHT it worked.  There seemed to be only a handful of mosquitos left so we parked back near the river, killed the few we saw and went to sleep…until 1:30 am.

Somehow there was a swarm in our van again, we didn’t quite understand why, but we were going to war.  The battle was fierce and although we were wounded with bites over our bodies, we assumed we had won this war.  The felt of the roof of the van was bloody (will have to try to clean it at some point). Once again, we went to sleep…until 7am.

A new battle had started, a larger swarm was now attacking, where were these mosquitos coming from?  Kendra was convinced I had left a window open, but turns out when we drove the van, we had just thrown the mosquitos to the back the van and they must have hidden amongst our food for the night.  We jumped out of bed, started the van and drove towards Prince Rupert, every window was open with Kendra flailing her arms trying to move as many mosquitos outside as possible.  We got to a rest stop and were happy to see the area did not have any mosquitos.  We unloaded the back of the van killed or moved more mosquitos outside then finally went back to sleep.

We have bites everywhere, Kendra started to count the bites on my lower back but gave up after 70 (on the bottom 1/4). After waking up from a nap, a family from Vanderhoof informed us that Prince Rupert had no mosquitoes, so we ventured onwards to find a mosquito-less land.

 

July 8^th – Wandering Prince Rupert.

4 years ago, we had arrived to Prince Rupert on the train and spent quite a few days exploring the city meaning we were okay to just wander and relax.  We spent the day doing a hike around the Butze rapids area, drinking coffee in Cow Bay and having a pint at the local brewery (are you sensing a trend here?).  It was nice to relax and just people watch while the sun was shining.

The only thing we didn’t do in Prince Rupert 4 years ago was eat a Smiles Restaurant in Cow Bay, so that was our plan.  Unfortunately, the fish and chips were not great, but the clam chowder was out of this world.

We found a mosquito-less camping spot near the Butze Rapids trailhead and returned to relax for the night.  We finally had a pleasant night in the van reading and relaxing with a view of the mountains in the distance. 

 

July 9^th – The Ferry

Our ferry to Haida Gwaii was at 10am, but BC Ferries requested us there 2 hours early for check-in, so we awoke at 7:30 and drove the to terminal very well rested.  We cooked our breakfast in the ferry lane much to the amusement of other drivers in our lane.  The loading processes for this ferry took longer than I would have guessed as once it was 8:30am they started to load the ferry, and it wasn’t until 10am when loading was completed. 

Something we were very thankful for is that the ferry had public showers on it.  It was SOOO good to have a shower after a few days without one.  One thing I’m not thankful for is the rocking of the boat.  We are on open water and you can feel it, probably should have grabbed some gravol as Paul was hit hard with a bit of seasickness.  When we arrived, we drove around the city of Queen Charlotte only to learn all the campgrounds were booked, so we drove a 50 kms north to southern portion of Naikoon Provincial Park and stayed at Misty Meadows campground.  The view was something out of a postcard and there were no mosquitos.

 

July 10^th – A walk on the beach

When we were in Prince Rupert the weather network was clear Sunday (today) was going to rain so our original plan was to relax; however, it wasn’t raining so what’s more relaxing then taking a 10 km walk to an old shipwreck?  After having a bit of breakfast, going to a farmers’ market for some local food, we started our walk to Pesuta Shipwreck, it was a great walk through the woods for 2.5 kms, then along the beach for 2.5 kms.  Highly recommend!  Unfortunately, after 5 kms Rupert was done walking for a bit so it was up to Paul to carry him (in his new backpack) for 3 kms to give him a bit of a rest.

After the walk we drove to the North End of Naikoon Provincial Park and stayed at Agate Beach.  Wow!!  We ended up spending the evening relaxing and having a few drinks while watching the waves crash on the beach.

 

 

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[1] Pre-pandemic times we had plan to drive our van from Quesnel to Ursa Minor Brewing via the Blackwater rd.  This forestry road I’ve heard is good, but it was raining, and I was going faster then I should, all of a sudden, the tire was making an odd sound, turns out the tire was gone and we were driving on the rim.  I looked under the van for the tiny spare tire and it was missing.  Our van, we bought from the dealership didn’t have the spare tire (thanks Regency Chrysler...)