FARMINGTON - Brad's place

July 10th

We drove to Tumbler Ridge today and stopped at the info center and took pictures of Zach in a huge mining bucket and also in front of the caboose that was there. Rylan was sleeping. We went into the info center to ask what there was to do in Tumbler and discovered that in Tumbler there is a mini dinosaur museum and also a “dinosaur trackway” (tracks) at a nearby creek. We were also encouraged to check out Kinuso Falls in Monkman park about 50-60kms away, most of it gravel road. We dropped the trailer in the parking lot and went exploring. We checked out the museum and found some Ankylsaurus and Theropod skeletons as well as countless fish and plant fossils. I love natural history. Zach and Rylan loved it and were running from one thing to the next. I got some good pics. Speaking of pics, I seem to have miss placed my cable to down load the pictures into the computer. I will come across it sooner or later but no pics for now. Sorry.
From there we went to find the dinosaur tracks at Flat Bed creek. This creek has some sections of sandstone that are quite flat, hence its name. The trail winds its way across the top of some rather narrow hills that reminded me of Eskers. There was a steep drop on both sides of the trail, but Zach handled it like a pro. I on the other hand, with Rylan in the backpack, was making sure of my steps.  I felt rather top heavy. (he is a heavy kid!) It was a rather steep decent into the creek bed but Zach seemed to do really well. When we got to the creek Zach was the first one to find the tracks. We took some pics of the tracks and of our selves and threw some rocks. We played with beetles, then took off for the truck, but not before Zach collected some rocks. We high tailed it out of there as Rylan decided to drop a load in his drawers. Since I changed him just as we left, I risked it and didn’t bring a change for him… note to self ALWAYS be prepared.  No harm done, changed him at the truck an we has happy.
From here we were off to Monkman park and we drove by the CO-OP card lock… “cool” I thought to myself. I have a card and can put off some of the cost of the trip right here.  On our way to Kinuso falls we stop to look at a black bear on the side of the highway.  I sent Zack out with hotdogs so we could get a better picture… just kidding. Ya really got to be a dumb ass to feed the animals. People get eaten like that. We stayed in the truck of course and got some ok pics, Zach was pretty excited about seeing the bear so close.  From there we turned right to go past Quintet mine. They have two tunnels that you pass through on the way to the park. The gravel road out to the park has a lot of active logging happening at the moment and one had to watch for trucks and the occasional processor parked on the side of the road. I waved at a few people out there but none seemed all that friendly (unlike the campsites I have stopped at.) We finally get to the falls and walk the short jaunt to the viewing platform and … WOW. The Murray river is a nice tourquise blue and has gathered a lot of water at this point!  The drop is 60 meters and the viewing platform (made of chainlink fence and two by fours) was right next to the very top! I really had to keep a close eye on Rylan as we likes to take off and will not stop but will run when you go after him… I left the harness in the trailer . I could have really used it then. The platform was really safe but if he managed go off of it at all it could have been bad! In spite of my worry (and trust me it is for good reason) I managed to keep Rylan reined in and got some good pictures… again you have to wait til I find my cable. We hiked up the upper viewing area and were not disappointed. We had a great view from up there as well. Holding on to Rylan’s hand he walked the whole way there. It wasn’t that far but quite steep. I needed to work off some of his energy as he was a real go and concern at that point.
On the way back Zach fell asleep but Rylan was pumped and stayed a wake for the whole thing. We got back to town and were starving (7:30ish pm) We had been eating nutrigrain bars and taco chips to keep the kids from rebelling. I couldn’t find any fast food joints so stopped and a gas station and ordered three hotdogs, three mini pizzas and some weggies. Zach was feeling sick so didn’t eat a thing til just before bed (hotdog) Rylan ate some weggies and I ate all three pizzas… hey they were good!
Over the heritage highway we went (hwy 52). We climbed our ass off leaving Tumbler Ridge holy crap! I stopped part way up to cool the tranny and more importantly get Rylan his bottle as he was rebelling. In order to prevent a full scale nucular melt down, Zach and I were playing peakaboo with both back doors open as the bottle was warming up on the stove in the trailer at just over 900 meters above sea level. The highest point I found when I finally got the batteries changed over on the gps was 976 meteres. It was a good thing that the road was virtually deserted as I was using all of it. Running down the highway changing batteries on the GPS does not come recommended. Someone would have called me in for DUI for sure.  There were some whoop tee dos on the highway as well that really got the truck bouncing with the lack of shocks in the Tundra. With a few wrong turns I finally made it to Brad and Denise’s and settled the kids into bed late about 11pm. They were real troopers and Rylan found a big truck pushing, it around the yard.  He didn’t want to go to bed and put up a fight when I finally snagged him. He dropped off quick though after pouncing on his bother in bed a couple time and once he got settled.

July 11th,
I the morning once we got mobile Brad and I tracked down the charging problem on the trailer to a blown fuse. That was easy. I picked up a new plug later in the day and we plan to install it on the 12th. The plug on the back of the truck is busted and hanging down. It still works but you can plug the trailer in at any orientation, that is why I had the blown fuse. While working on the truck we only lost Rylan twice. Once he was about to open the neighbors basement door about 200ft away and the second time he made it to the back yard and was playing on the lawn tractor. After that he got the harness and I hammered a big spike into the lawn with a rope attatched. He wasn’t that impressed but dealt with it. It is amazing how fast that kid can be, given 30 seconds of parental inattention.

Brad, Jordan (his boy) Zach, Rylan and myself took brads new 2006 dodge crewcab 250 to fort st john to pick up a cheque. We took part of the Old Alaska highway, an original stretch of road that has the only remaining useable tressel bridges built in 1942. It is over 500 meters long the drop is over 30meteres deep and it is curved 9 degrees. That 9 degrees may not sound like a lot but wow it looks more like 30 degrees. A very interesting wooden piece of history. Next we popped out on to the new road and we crossed the bridge at Taylor that crosses the Peace river. Very cool. Apparently, according to Brad, that bridge fell down at one point in its history. We then drove to Dawson creek and ran around all day looking for shocks for the Tundra. Strangely enough we found the front struts but no where had the rears. We got the front struts from Toyota, so I took it in the rear and walked out of there $394 dollars lighter in the wallet.  So we rented a strut compressor from Canadian tire which cost me $123, but I get ALL of it back when I bring the tool back. I missed the lower bushing washer on the passenger side and ended up doing it twice, man struts are easy to change once you know hat you are doing. I changed it out in record time! Brad and I test drove the truck and without the trailer it was an amazing difference! We should be good to go.

Later
j.