In tumbler Ridge

Tuesday July 8th 2008 Alaska highway trip

Today we got away later than anticipated.  I decided to change Rylan’s car seat out for a new one. The old one wasn’t fitting him to well so.  I decided since the boys and I were putting on some serious miles that I wanted a car seat that fit him better. We left Vanderhoof by about 1pm.
The small inverter I bought seems to be working excellent. I pluged the back massager into it and had a Shiatsu massage from Vanderhoof to PG.  I also charged my FRS radios.
We stopped in Prince George at Walmart. I met guy there in the parking lot from Kitwanga. He was asking about the boat loader. Nice guy, he said to look him up when I come through. On the way north of PG we ran into the mother of road construction sites. There had to be at least 20 miles of paving and gravel road on the way to MacLeod (sp) lake. There were three or four paving crews and couple of graders and various other machines, trucks and even a couple medical emergency vans. We stopped off at a rest area for a pit stop on crooked river then continued on for a bit. Zach and I were talking and decided to stop at Whiskars Point provincial campsite as it was already getting to be supper time (5:30ish. It was a good time to stop and I think I am going to try and stop around this time in the future.
As I am setting up camp and turn on some water to heat Rylan’s bottle I find that my freshly charged battery is stone dead. WTF!!! I must have a short somewhere. I’ll get to Brad’s and see if we can figure it out. Good thing I brought the jumper cables! The boys had a bath in the trailer… man it really worked out pretty well. The bathroom is really a vanity, toilet and shower all built into one. The shower is about 4” lower than the rest of the bathroom. We plugged the drain and viola instant tub. Both kids fit in it just fine. Since Rylan was eating cherries he needed a bath in the worst way, not to mention that we had a poop incident just before bath time. Note to self, always put a diaper on the boy even if he just went and it is just five minutes to bathtime. You think I’d learn that the first time but we had a pee incident immediately after the poop incident. (shaking my head) 
We should make it to Tumbler Ridge tomorrow and hopefully find a nice place where we can do some fishing.  Well it looks like I am going to be sleeping in the middle of the two boys tonight as Zach really didn’t want to sleep beside his brother. We’ll see how that goes tonight.
Write more later.

j.

Wednesday July 9th 2008

Rylan and I woke up  at quarter to 7 am. Rylan ate his bottle as well as well as two pieces of thick bacon and one of Zach’s waffles. He eats like a horse in the morning as usual. I virtually had to pry Zach out of bed and he didn’t even want to wake up for bacon, eggs and hash browns. Rylan and I ate them all and Zach had frozen waffles and corn syrup. After breakfast we decided to go for a bike ride and explore the campsite. It was a beautiful spot. There were many awesome sites but few were filled. There is a day use area and this is the spot from where the campsite gets its name. The area has a nice sandy beach and a cool spit of sand jutting out into the lake. The day use area has a jungle gm for the kids to play but is not that great for the younger kids Rylans age. As we biked around the site we counted at least four bridges crossing a creek that winds its way throughout the campsite. We also found a short hiking trail.
We left Whiskars point at around 12:30 just after lunch, a little late but that park attendant didn’t come sniffing around for more money.  There was bridge maintenance going on at the MacKenzie junction. That narrow little bridge had only one way traffic flowing through. They had some sort of siccor lift and they were inspecting the upper braces of the bridge. They were using all of there lane and then some. Fitting the trailer through felt a little like threading a needle at 50kph.
After the junction we started into the pine pass.  I haven’t been up here since high school, I had forgotten how pretty it was. We stopped at Bijoux Falls Provincial Park for a pee break and a photo opp. Rylan was really taken with the falls which really surprised me. They were fairly loud. At first when I set him on the ground he wouldn’t leave the truck as was quite worried. I think he was scared for Zach as he was already at the fence up close looking at the falls. Once I picked him up and carried him up to them, I couldn’t get him to turn around for a photo.
Now we are entering Pine Le Moray Provincial Park (essentially the Pine Pass). Two words, very cool! We were going to stop in a Azouzetta Lake (yes that is spelled correctly, but the only access that I could see was the Lodge with the same name and all the gates were closed. It looked like a very nice place. Also, there was a cool blue unimog that someone was working on as to cruised through the parking lot.
We passed the summit and started to wind our way down and I was imagining what it must be like to drive this pass in the winter (read narrow pass, large mountains). The Pine river kept us company on this part of the journey, its green ribbon winding its way next to us through the pass. The mountains are now starting to turn to large hills as we pass Fur Thief Creek and head out to Hulcross. I am noticing on this part of my trek that there are many abandoned houses and farms along the side of the highway. I also notice that there are quite a few interesting looking roads and trails too. Wishing right now that the land cruiser and the tent trailer were up nd running. I really want to do some exploring right now instead of hitting the highway, but it isn’t going to happen with a newer truck and a fifth wheel trailer in tow.
We fuelled up in Chetwynd at a buck fifty three for mid-grade, kicking myself in the nuts may have felt better. Upon pulling into town the cell phone starts going off. I pick up the phone and I have a text. I check the text, but before I get a chance to finish it the new text comes in and overlays it self so that I can’t read the first, then a third one does the same to the second. Turns out the SPOT needs to be reset every 24 hrs or the tracking mode shuts off.  So the SPOT is reset and will now be turned off at night and started in the morning. Off into the unknown, we turn right and head toward Tumbler Ridge. Instead of heading all the way into Tumbler and beyond ( Zach and I were thinking of heading into Flat bed Creek forestry site) we decided on Gwilliam Lake. I can remember my brother Steve telling NO BUGS so I thought I’d stop and have a look at least. It was about 4-4:30 ish and I decided to just stop and have some fun… and cook a real meal. Homemade pizza, with broccoli MMMM. The campsite was a good spot, smaller than Whiskars but paved roads again which Zach and Rylan are really liking for biking and playing hockey on. So we are going to shoot for Brads place tmorrow where I am hoping to post this on the Blog

g-nite

Pics not loaded yet, they will come

j.