Blogs from Smithers, British Columbia, Canada, North America

Sunday we left the ALCAN Highway and got on Hwy. 37 crossing from the Yukon in to British Columbia. Hwy 37 consists of many twists and turns and is literally in the middle of nowhere (this is coming from a Burke native). Most of it is paved, but we found some sections that were just dirt. While coming around a curve near the side of a mountain we saw 5 mountain goats hanging out by the side of the road. We stayed in our tent at Mountain Shadow RV Park in Iskut. It was such a pretty place with a lake and mountains towering above it. They had a nice trail down to the lake, so we took Duke for a walk. The fish were literally flipping and flying around the lake. The mosquitoes were terrible! ... read more

We four drove north from Smithers yesterday, First stop was Moricetown Canyon beside the fish-ladders. First Nations men, secured to the bank by ropes around their waists, were dip-fishing with nets on long poles in the fast-flowing currents, and hoisting out salmon by the score. The fish were carried to a holding tank, then measured and released upstream. A census-taker wrote down records of the fish caught. Dangerous work. But for the man with a chainsaw it was more dangerous yet, standing sometimes on the bank, sometimes on the wedged logs themselves, trying to free the jam thirty feet above the summer water level. A maze of tree trunks had become snarled in the narrowest part of the canyon. Earlier attempts to set fire to the tangle had resulted in blackened wood, nothing more. As we ... read more

(Jack is singing) Happy Birthday to me. Today I turned 63. I'm cruising through Canada And I saw a lot of tree(s). (tune by Patty and Mildred J. Hill) And many of the trees that I saw today were dead or dying due to the Mountain Pine Beetle. The infestation is MASSIVE and can be seen almost everywhere in this part of British Columbia. In years past the beetles would largely die out in the winter, but due to changing weather patterns (i.e. global warming), the beetles are surviving the winters and multiplying each year. All they need is one good, cold winter to slow them down. For now, all they can do is cut the dead trees as soon as possible (to salvage the lumber) and then replant new seedlings. It's hard to see in ... read more

Snowshoeing on Evelyn Moutain A good friend and myself took our annual spring trip to Hidden Valley. It was a beautiful day looking at the blue sky with a light wind blowing. We snowmobiled the first 8 miles to the head of the trail where we were dropped off. We continued up steep pitch hills/mountains they seemed with a cover of approx 8 inches of fresh snow. It was a tough climb until the legs aclimatized. Once we had been hiking for about 1 1/2 hr the level of the ground got a little better. After a rest we continued the next three hours treking up the mountain. We got to the top of the little valley where our cabin lay nestled amoung huge snow cornices. We could only see the top of the outhouse ... read more