I got up and wanted to find out about the solstice. I couldn't remember which one moves from the 21st to the 22nd. I thought it was probably the summer solstice because that would make the halves of the year between winter and summer more equal. If it was December that went from 21 to 22, then it would really skew the halves, at least to my way of thinking. So I went to McDonald's for breakfast and searched it. Drat it!!! This was the summer solstice. And it had moved because of the leap year this year. I cogitated for a moment and just decided that I didn't care. When I was little there was no question that summer began on June 21st. So I don't care what the astronomers say. I could go on ... read more

I decided that it might be possible to get to the Arctic and Inuvik for the summer solstice. I wasn't really sure about that, but I thought it might be possible. I am going to have to boot it though in order to make it in time. I got up and headed out from the campground and up the highway. My first stop was the local Gitwangak Battle Hill. A couple hundred years ago, there was a local native band. They were quite successful raiding other bands and at times had to defend themselves. It happened that in their territory was a marvelously defensible hill that was right beside a river. The made their homes on top and got logs ready with spikes that could be rolled down up on their enemies. The leader of the ... read more

Rain. Rain. More rain. Prince Rupert lived up to its reputation as being the rainiest place on earth. And it is going to have to be in terms of number of days raining because the place that gets the most rain is in India and it is 23 meters or something ridiculous like that. But it apparently rains 300 or so days a year in Prince Rupert. And it was raining when I arrived on the ferry. And it was raining when I woke up the next morning in the hostel. The Black Rooster Hostel is an excellent place, by the way. I decided to check out the North Coast Cannery, a national historic site. I expected it to be a ruined little place with maybe a few buildings that were rotting away, on the site ... read more

My tent is pretty waterproof, or at least water resistant. It rained during the night, but I didn't have any water come into the tent. This answered a question I had about what inclement weather was going to be like. I imagine there may be some water that gets in, but if I can set the tent up during a period of no rain, I shouldn't be having too much of a problem, except for breaking camp in a morning. It would suck to have to do that in the rain, but I will wait for that time to come and see how annoying it is. Once I got up, I packed up and then headed into the village area. It turned out that one man owns the whole village, or so I was told. He ... read more

During the night I spent at Qualicum Bay, I was online and showing my photo of the bald eagle from Pacific Rim area. I ended up being contacted by someone I used to work with in the casino. She invited me to come and visit, but I didn't have any contact information for them. I left her a message to let me know. By the morning, I hadn't heard anything, but I decided to give her some time to get in touch. That meant I was going to need something to keep me occupied for a while as I waited. Nearby Qualicum Bay is a place called Horne Lake Provincial Park. There are caves there and so I decided to go and have a look. When I arrived, I found there were three caves in the ... read more