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.