Pow Wow in Kamloops

Travelling to a place like Canada is a bit strange for me because I usually like to see cultures that are pretty far removed from my own... and Canadians aren't that different. So, I was pretty happy to find out that there was a big Pow Wow happening on the weekend in Kamloops.

Wikipedia defines a Pow-wow, Powwow or pow wow as a gathering of Native American People. This one had people from as far away as Colorado.

It was colourful! The music was not very good. But I loved it. I chatted to Indians - and one of them told me, when I asked about saying "First Nations people" rather than "Indians" (I asked because she kept saying Indian), that "you can say Indian, we are Indians". So if it's rude, I'm very sorry ... I don't mean to be... but I was told I could. I tried Haddock (like a fried bread, if that was a good example I'm not doing it again).

And finally there was sunshine and it was warm. (the locals said hot, but it wasn't really....)

And that was the end of my holiday. At 3am the next morning I told a 5 hour bus to Vancouver, 2 trains across town to the airport, waited something like 6 hours for my flight, then 2 x 10 hour flights, and a 3 hours wait in the middle, an airtrain and a walk, and finally I was home. and very tired. but, at least it was warmer in the winter here than the summer in British Columbia.

Mt Robson - hike to Kinney Lake

We spent 2 nights at Mt Robson and on the day in between we did the 7km hike to Mount Kinney (and the other 7kms back too).  We went early and we had nice views and only a little spitting of rain, and we were finished it in time to have lunch back at the cafeteria (I did, anyway).  I really enjoyed this walk. It is also part of the multi day Berg Lake Trail.

The afternoon was spent relaxing and I passed it trying to learn about edible plants, like the Thimble berry - yummo!

I also spent a good deal of time trying to figure out where the greedy squirrel was taking all the peanuts to... but he changed his path every time and I never did track him all the way home.

The next morning we left early... it was my last full day, and Kamloops had a big Pow Wow!

onwards to Mt Robson

After Houston, we did kind of make a bee-line for Mt Robson (the highest and most prominent point of the Canadian Rockies). My travel companion was quite determined that we had to get there early to get a camping spot before the long weekend - so we arrived early on Thursday morning (and the place filled up late Friday night).
We stopped on the way in Prince George (because I was determined to get a bus ticket for Kamloops to Vancouver and accommodation in Kamloops), but I thought the place was pretty uninspiring so we kept going.

(Note, originally we had been going to go North to Monkman Provincial Park, to see the massive waterfalls... but we were running out of time and although I could have flown back, it would have left my friend alone to drive back a long distance)

When we got to Mt Robson my travel companion was so keen to get a camp site (before we missed out), but the first thing I wanted to do was check out the Grizzly bear situation. I have a friend who was also travelling in the same area and had passed through Mt Robson a few days earlier and photographed a Grizzly crossing the highway and put the picture on Facebook. So, whereas on the other nights my companion had been afraid of the bears and slept in the car, this time I wanted to know there were no bears so that I wouldn't get left alone in the tent. The lovely people in the visitor centre said there was nothing to worry about. Good.

After we set up the camp, we headed across the border into the province of Alberta to Jasper National Park. The village is sweet, very touristy, and quite lovely. We looked in some shops, and then headed out to Maligne Canyon, which was a close drive from town.
We were glad we went, as it was a spectacular rush of rapids. I read how a missionary had named them using a French word for evil, because he had trouble getting his horse across... I never did figure out where he might have taken the horse across.

the cruelty of milling

Next morning, we headed to Houston, home of Canfor - the worlds largest timber mill. The tours (can I call them tours? they were more of a lead walk through by 2 young people, from the visitor centre I think, who were mostly unable to answer any questions), reveal an impressive operation.

The are hardly any staff operating the round the clock shifts. The machines are pretty much computer operated, and the staff seemed to mostly keep an eye of things. Computers would decide the most efficient use of every tree trunk and it would be conveyed on to be milled accordingly.

It made quite impression on me... please don't lock me away for my thoughts, but I found it quite horrible, like an abattoir with carcasses of what was living-not-so-long-ago being conveyed to uses mostly unnecessary. I left feeling shocked and horrified.

From there it must have been mostly just driving... because I didn't take anymore photo's aside from this beside the road shot until we visited Jasper the next day.

The most beautiful hike!

Next camp spot was Seeley Lake Provincial Park, beside the highway. In this camp site we got to feed the mosquitos and listen to the trucks on the highway all night long. We were up early and went to Hazeltons to visit a First Nations museum... but neither of us seemed to get too excited about this one. Not that it wasn't good, but we'd probably had first nations overload at that point.

Moving on from there, we asked at the local visitor centre if there was any chance of seeing the First Nations people catching fish using (modernised) traditional methods. We were in luck! Although it was early in the season, the salmon were running and I was very excited to watch these people simply put a net on a rod into the water and pull out a big salmon... I bet it was heavy though. They are the only people allowed to catch fish this way. It would have been even better to see a bear do it... but I never did.

And then, even though I was so excited about that, the day got even better. Next we went to Smithers, a lovely town, where we had a most delicious lunch and then did the most beautiful hike I have ever done in my life. Beautiful because we walked through gentle slopes of wildflowers, with the most spectacular vistas. This was the hike to the Crater Lake on Hudson Bay Mountain.

Nisga'a Lava Bed

After visiting the Salmon Cannery we drove along the spectacular highway 16 and then headed North to the Nisga'a Lave beds. Lava beds are always fascinating landscapes and it is interesting to see a landscape recovering, even after about 250 years.

Fishing in the Skeena River.

The Highway 16

Our camp site.

We arrived late in the day at the camp site. Our first night in Grizzly bear country, and we were the only tent... everybody else was in Recreational Vehicles (RV's). I woke up in the middle of the night and saw that my travelling companion was gone, at first I thought she must have gone too the loo, but she never came back. She had left me in the tent alone and gone to sleep in the car... such was her fear of bears. I wondered about the merits of sleeping in the car. I had heard a grizzly could trash a car, and that's where the food was. I also figured the the authorities would have told us not to camp if the risk was too real. I went back to sleep in the tent. The next 3 camping nights went exactly the same.

The next morning we packed up and went sightseeing. The Nisga'a people are also famous for signing a treaty with the British Columbian Government, giving them self governing and law making powers. As we proceeded down a road far more spectacular then the famous Highway 16, we visited 3 villages. The second had a new and terrific museum, and we had a tour from the director. At the the final village (Kincolith) we had a First Nations woman cook Halibut and chips for us, but more importantly I got to tried Eulachon oil... I had heard talk of this grease they made from rotting Eulachon fish. It was as horrible as it sounds, but I am proud that I ate lunch in the house of a first nations woman and tried the Eulachon oil. 

Lava Beds... some 250 years later.

Nisga's museum... full of amazing treasures restored from other parts of the world.

A home smoke house, for smoking salmon at home.

Old Salmon Cannery

I like to see how industry works and worked, so I had a visit to a cannery put onto the itinerary. We went to the North Pacific Cannery, just outside of Prince Rupert at Port Edward. It was a lengthy and interesting visit.

On arrival we paid entry and were lucky enough to get escorted around on a tour (I noted that not all visitors did). Our guide was a rough old fellow who introduced himself as "Spider" because "that's what you get called when you fix the holes in the (fishing) nets". He was the most unlikely tour guide, but with my constant questioning he gradually warmed up (at the end he commented that it was good to have someone with so many questions). I think he had worked there, in the cannery, fixing nets, for a good portion of his life.

I don't know a lot about fishing, especially commercial fishing, so when Spider started explaining things I had a lot of questions. Dumb ones apparently, because at one stage he promptly sat down with a look of despair, looked right at me, and said "Well, I must've been going too fast, we'll need to start again, right at the beginning". And then he fully explained the fishing industry, past and present.

At one stage Spider started working a net on showing us how a hole might be fixed. He got kind of engrossed in it, then looked up "oh, I guess I better finish your tour..."

Spider kept commenting about a cat that lives there, that the watchman had brought to live there but had never cared for. He said that lots of tour guides say that the watchman is cruel, the way he didn't feed the cat. Turned out Spider was the watchman.

Housing for the Indians.

It was most interesting to learn about the different ethnic groups that worked in the Cannery. Indians for fishing, Japanese to build and fix nets, Chinese to run the canning machines, White folk running the office side of things.... all living separately but side by side. Some of the old machinery was quite remarkable, and some models are still used in modern canneries.

At the end, we ate at the Cannery Cafe. It was the best Salmon chowder!

Grizzly Bears in the Kutzeymateen

In Prince Rupert, I woke up early as I always do. First thing I did some research, made a phone call and booked us on a day tour to see Grizzly Bears in the Kutzeymateen area. Then I went and woke up Lauren because we had to get going.

It was a great tour on a fantastic boat with a fantastic crew, and we learnt a lot about Grizzly's. First we saw a black bear and then 3 Grizzly's (one at a time) and all day we saw a lot of Bald Eagles.

Despite being extremely dangerous animals both Black and Grizzly bear look very loveable.

Inside passage on the ferry

You can travel the inside passage on a cruise ship, or you can do it on a BC Ferry. It's a big and very nice vehicle ferry, upstairs in the passenger area's you wouldn't even think you were on a vehicle ferry, the boat was so nice. It was a long Friday. 5.30am boarding at Port Hartdy, arrival at Prince Rupert at 10.30pm. One restaurant and one cafeteria on board. Some people had cabins (with beds).

The day was pleasant enough, but the weather was bad and so visibility wasn't great. I saw an Orca (killer whale), but it didn't do much so if it hadn't have been pointed out I wouldn't have noticed it.

My most impressive part of the day was chatting to an American who had been at the same hostel in Port Hardy as us. He had left his car in Port Hardy and had brought a kayak on board. Travelling alone, he got off 2/3's of the way along to kayak back... expecting it to take 2-3 weeks. The scariest part perhaps being that this is Grizzly Bear country now, and so camping had a reasonable risk. He was carrying food (rather than fishing) as the dehydrated food would have less smell to attract bears. Sometimes, he might have to spend the entire night in the kayak rather than camping. He has a wife who doesn't like kayaking, she mountain climbs instead!

We did manage to score a tour of the bridge, and it was impressive to go up there and learn how the big boat is navigated.

Telegraph Cove and onto Port Hardy

We left Salt Spring Island after 2 nights, and headed North. We camped one night at Telegraph cove, a village famous for it's houses built above the water. They were cute, but nothing like what I had expected, and not as good as what I expected. I will however remember Telegraph Cove for the wonderful BBQ'd Salmon dinner we ate at the pub. The Salmon (was it King? I can't remember), was secretly marinated by some old man.

The next morning, as we left telegraph cove, we saw a black bear beside the road. My first wild Black bear!!! He was young and cute and looked cuddly. After that we stopped to look at a sawmill operation. I was impressed with how they still transport the logs by floating them down river... I had memories of cowboys in western movies traversing the floating logs as they escaped from something.

From there we got into Port Hardy to the backpackers hostel, and the headed to San Josef Bay to do a hike out to a beautiful beach.

(me) walking to San Josef bay

The look on my face is because the Canadian the water was okay... but it was freezing!

Shoe tree. Next to San Josef bay is a difficult hike to Cape Scott Lighthouse. I think it takes 5 days. If you do it you can leave your shoes on the tree. 

Salt Spring Island camping at Ruckle

On Monday we headed off on our camping trip. First stop Ruckle Provincial Park on Salt Spring Island which is one of the Gulf islands near Victoria.

It's a lovely island, pleasant camping and hikes, and inhabitable by artistic types, which always makes for a pleasant place. At one point we went to a cafe where I comment that the music playing was that of Harry Manx (a Canadian folk musician who I have seen perform 3 times in Australia). I was delighted to discover he resides just up the road!

Sunrise at Ruckle, on Salt Spring Island. I wasn't the only person up, there were fisherman in the boat. 

They have seriously big slugs in Canada!

Camping at Ruckle, Lauren discovered that I am an early riser, and I was astonished at just how late the campers there (and everywhere else we went) rose in the morning.

Victoria

As mentioned I took the ferry from Vancouver to Victoria. I got in rather late, but Lauren and I eventually found each other. I 'checked-in' to her beautiful waterside apartment.

The next day (Saturday) we both needed to buy things for our planned camping trip, and she wanted some time to get things done, since she had just knocked off work the day prior. So, she left me in the city centre for sightseeing. I found a busking festival! It was great, and it being one of my few sun shiny days, I got sunburnt watching them! But... sunburn in North America is kinder than Sunburn in Australia.

The best busker I saw (and I blame him really for my sunburn) was an Argentine that holds 4 world records for tricks with soccer balls. His name is Victor Rubilar... if you want to look for him.

On Sunday Lauren and I went to the famous and absolutely beautiful world famous Butchart gardens. Wow. We even had High Tea there.

Butchart Gardens, Victoria.

The timber industry has long been massive in British Columbia. As testament to this, there is a street in Victoria which is paved in timber, as you can see. 

Vancouver

I landed in Vancouver mid afternoon. My friend had a day and a half of work left before her leave started and so I was to spend a day in the big city before heading over to Victoria to meet with her. This first day had beautiful weather... and in the entire trip I had another 2 days of great weather. The other days were filled with patchy rain.

I checked into a HI hostel in the Westend of Vancouver, took a map, and headed to walk off my 20 hours of flight time in Stanley park. It was lovely. It was a Thursday (19 July), and I was astonished how many people were on the beaches. I walked the coast of Stanley park for about half of it, and then cut back through the middle, where some locals introduced me to the edible Salmon berries, and I later found some racoons.

The next morning I bused to the University to check out the museum of Anthropology and learn more about the Canadian indigenous culture (First Nations people). I was great, and I learnt a lot. I was particularly impressed by the construction of bentwood boxes.
Later I took the ferry to Victoria to meet Lauren.

This Laughing men public art exhibition near English Bay Vancouver is a lot of fun!

The First Nations people had big beautiful serving dishes for their feasts.

Bentwood boxes. Steam the timber, cut the corners to be so they will be foldable, and stitch the final join. love it!