Day 50 – Friday July 7/17  

A travel day today, from Parents Beach Provincial Park Campground to 'Ksan Campground at New Hazelton (some 410km, one of our longest travel days yet!) (map)

Leaving the beachfront campsite near Fort St. James was not easy. This was one of the nicest campsites we’ve had, even given the lack of any facilities. But we have places to go and so we left Paarens Provincial Park at 9:20 this morning after a granola with three fruits (raspberries, strawberries and apples) and yogurt breakfast. It was 19C with hazy sun. A bald eagle was perched in a tree as we pulled onto the road.

A brief detour back to Vanderhoof to fill-up on gas and we were headed into new territory by 10:15. The road (still Hwy 16 – The Yellowhead Hwy - The Highway of Tears) was mostly two lanes with few passing opportunities for others to get around us but traffic headed west was fairly light so the drive went easily. The scenery was river valley and forested hills with a few towns scattered along the route. It was lovely countryside but not the breathtaking grandeur of the Rockies. We hope we aren’t becoming blasé about the beauty and variety of landscape and vistas we see. We did find today peaceful and relaxing despite logging over 400 km.

Just past Fraser Lake, we stopped at a plaque commemorating the driving of 'the last spike' in Canada's second transcontinental railroad - the Grand Trunk Pacific (photos)

Our lunch stop was a cheese and tomato sandwich at a roadside rest stop between Burns Lake and Decker Lake, just about at the half-way point - in the trailer to avoid the blazing 30C sun. 

As we drove into Houston, we saw "The World's Largest Fly-Fishing Rod", so of course we had to stop for a quick photo!

Just past Smithers where we stopped for a second fill-up of gas we were delayed for about 20 minutes by an accident. Although sitting with the truck turned off didn’t bother us (as we had a terrific view of snowcapped mountains in the distance), we were very dismayed to pass the accident site and see the problem was a battered motorcycle laying in the ditch. With Michael’s motorcycling background this struck close to home. We had seen the ambulance racing away from the scene and we have sent light and love to the victim and medical workers who will care for him or her. A sobering incident indeed. We realize how fortunate we are to have travelled over 10,000 km safely.

We are breaking our trip to Prince Rupert in the area of The Hazeltons for two nights. The landscape is now again beginning to feature rugged snow-capped mountains. We arrived at our campsite in ‘Ksan RV park without a reservation. This devil-may-care attitude is challenging for Nancy especially on a summer Friday night but this indigenous owned and operated RV park had lots of space with many fully serviced sites- sewer, water and electricity. How nice not to have to conserve water and limit the use of lights. We got a 10% senior discount when the very sweet clerk asked if we might be over 50. How diplomatic!

On the drive in from Hwy 69 we traversed a single lane suspension bridge – one of North America’s highest suspension bridges according to Wikipedia - over the Hagwilget Canyon of there Bulkley River. With Nancy white-knuckled at the wheel we didn’t stop to view the sight but will tomorrow on our day of touring. 

It felt very civilized to sit with a rum and coke and read for half an hour before making supper. Free high-speed Wi-Fi has also made catching up on our blog posts a breeze (almost). 

PS An eagle is soaring overhead as we write this. Some symmetry to the day.

Sunset photo: