The start

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Everyone loves adventure, everyone loves to take to the road and experience something new (or at least I like to think they do) and as such this is the introduction to our adventure down the Mackenzie trail. Sitting on the front steps one afternoon we were contemplating adventures to do once Jeremy was down field school and I was done work when a proposal came about for writing an article from a magazine seeing Jeremy's photos on flickr. When Jeremy brought it up it seemed like the perfect time to put forward my desire to take horses down the Alexander Mackenzie trail and camp along the way. While I would have loved to ride the whole 427 km trail it was not to be this trip. We decided on a short and sweet adventure around the Lower Blackwater crossing. So we put the plans in motion and began planning, we borrowed two horses from my parents and the trailer to move them the hour and half down the blackwater road to get to the trail head we were going to start at.

After a great dinner at my parents we head to pack the horse trailer with gear for a 3 day adventure down the mackenzie trail where we will get to see the Blackwater river and the ancient 'grease' trail that was used for hundreds of years, by the First Nations of the area, to transport Eulachon oil from the Central West Coast of British Columbia (Bella Coola) to the interior of British Columbia (Quesnel and the Prince George Region). It is here that the trail begins and the historical story of the first european explorer to reach the Pacific Ocean from the East Coast of Canada takes place. The 427 km trail winds on ridges far above the Blackwater River, crossing creeks, trails and lakes all the while moving through terrain that shows beauty through the roughest of days. From the furthest point east of the trail the Fraser river surges south while the furthest point west is the Bella Coola fjords jutting into the Pacific ocean.

We headed out just above the lower bridge of the blackwater river onto the Alexander Mackenzie historic trail. The two horses (Cruise and Shadow)were loaded with a tent, tarps, enough food and snacks to get through a couple nights and everything else we may need on the trail. Backpacks were packed and strapped onto me as cruise was the larger horse with more room to carry the pack. The smaller horse, Shadow, with Jeremy on board was loaded down with a dry bag with sleeping bags and camp gear in it and even Nanuk (Jeremy's Husky/Shephard cross) was loaded with tarps, his own food and the water filter. There was no one getting out of packing their fair share of gear.... except Jeremy it seems? We set out with nothing to lose but our water supply.
This first day we made it to where the Mackenzie trail crosses the Telegraph trail and we took the chance to head towards the river and let the animals drink and try to find a spot to use the water filter. The steep banks to the river led us to trying a spot that was questionable but do able. We set up camp on the banks of the river and tied a highline for the horses (perhaps a bit too far apart but functional). The first nights sleep was bitter sweet as not far into the night a massive, rolling thunder and lightening show started that lasted for 3 hours. As our tent was red on the outside and yellow on the inside everytime the lightening flashed it seemed like there was a fire raging outside the tent, but it was merely the color of the tent combined with the sheet lightening. Worrying over the horses in this storm I tried to see the horses but couldn't so Jeremy took the chance to look out of the tent with the lightening only to realize when it flashed it was blinding and we realized we just had to wait. Along with checking the horses Nanuk had taken into the tent and was standing over us with a open mouthed half grin waiting for the storm to pass. As we lay hunkered into the tent with Nanuk squished between us using my legs as his pillow in between his hovering drooling stance over us we waited the storm out until early morning, hoping for no forest fire starts and that the horses would be there when the storm was over.

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Comments

[Marla]

hey how come I haven't seen this before??
I enjoyed reading this Alyson - I won't even say anything about the spelling errors! It was good writing! WOw