Nearly there

We're following a green corridor towards snow capped mountains. We're past the mountain pine beatle areas with red, dead trees covering about 40% of the more southern forests. It's just beautiful and very peaceful up here. You feel quite alone with so little traffic. We saw 1 young black bear at roadside and saw the mountains, 7 Sisters as we went by. We came to the 30' high slide 48 Km east of Terrace and proceeded through, one lane at a time. It's still sliding as fast as they haul dirt away so it's a worry. This is the bottom right side, as the slide area goes up nearly to the top of the mountian toward the right. We're following the Skeena Rover now which is down 4' but you can see the silt left on the vegetation where it covered the road last week for 2 kilometers. This is the only road, Highway 16, into Terrace and beyond so the weather conditions have really wrecked havoc with many people. There is still a tremendous amount of snow up on the mountains. We arrived in Kitimat at 10:30 a.m. and settled in at Jed Stump's Estates, the name of this 40? year old campground which is never going to make it into any prestigious guidebook with its 15 amp power. Popped over to see Ron's niece and sister and getting organized.

Driving through History

Cooler in the morning here. It's a delight to follow the Cariboo Wagon Trail as we head north. We passed 100 Mile and 150 Mile and many more small towns that used to be roadhouses for the horse-drawn stagecoaches and freight wagons of the B.C. Express Line known as the B.X. This drive is a living history lesson when you're passing the old log cabins, barns and fences. We lunched and fueled at Prince George and ended at Smithers at 7 p.m. We parked in the lot of the Bulkley Valley Wholesale warehouse under the ski runs on the mountain. After dinner and cards, I read by the daylight until 10:40 p.m. These long northern days always surprise me.

On the Road Again

We saw that highway 16 into Kitimat opened up late Saturday afternoon so we got the motorhome ready. Ron got the call for the 7 day job at 2 p.m. Sunday and we were on the road an hour later.
We fueled at Le Paz in Aldergrove and drove through sun, clouds and rain. The Fraser River at Hope was very high and running very fast. It certainly was the 'muddy Fraser' coming down through the Fraser Canyon with all the silt, uprooted trees and debris. The trees on the banks had water up their trunks. The sun came out at Lytton, the junction of the Fraser and Thompson rivers, one brown and the other blue/green. It was beautiful driving through the greenish grey sage brush country. Lytton/Lilloette was 'mile 0' the start of the road up to the goldfields back in the 1850s. I was disappointed that there were no mountain sheep at Spences Bridge. Sometimes they're right down on the road. Stopped for the night at 7:10 pm. right on the highway in front of the Bear Claw Lodge, a lovely log restaurant and motel outside of Cache Creek.

Floods and Slides

We were going to leave Saturday and head up to Kitimat for a week's job for Ron before his school reunion July 1st weekend, but the hot weather is causing a huge snow pack melt, plus rain and the rivers are starting to head for the top of the banks. The Fraser Valley and most rivers in the province are sandbagging to avoid devastation like the 1948 flood. I remember mom and I making millions of sandwiches and dad and Peter down at the river filling sandbags right through the night. A week ago there was a huge slide down a mountainside 48 Km before Terrace which blocked Highway 16 and there is no way in, so our trip is on hold at the moment. The hillside is so unstable crews don't dare go near it and now it is raining. The Skeena River is so high that it has gone over the banks flooding Terrace and flooded Highway 16 for 2 Km shown above. Watching the news means flood watch every hour and many people have evacuated their homes and many more may need to leave at a moment's notice. This shows the slide which is 30' deep covering the highway. The semis are crossing the water earlier this week but blocked out now.

Lunch with High School friends

I wanted to get together with Joni from high school but she is so busy she didn't have a free day.
So I picked up Jeanie and some sandwiches and we went to Joni's condo and met Max and had a great visit. We are planning a get together Aug. 22 at the Sheraton in Guildford for all the classmates around the lower mainland. We already have the our 50th planned for next Sept. at Ann R's in Richmond. Here we are.

Aldergrove Zoo

I went out to meet the Ingrams and Doyles at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove today. Ron's knee is not up to walking that much. What a delight the six grandkids are. We started at the playground, then took the train around the whole area, viewing lions, giraffes, deer, hippos, lions and much more. After lunch, we rode a bike around for an hour stopping at different animal exhibits along the way. Zebras were a big hit and the bison had two small new babies, as did the goats. We found out that the ostrich's brain is smaller than their eyeball.
A special treat was having their picture taken with the owl after the Birds of Prey show. Hana was brave enough to put the leather gauntlet on her arm and held the owl. A fun day was had by all.

Confirmation

Here's another part of our family. We went out to Abbotsford today for Josh's confirmation in the Church. The ceremony was very impressive and the archbishop spoke to all 50 children. There was a lot of music with piano, guitar and singing and it was very nice. Julie's family were all there and we went back to their house and enjoyed dinner and a very nice visit together.
Here's the Doyles.