North to Alaska: Fraser Lake to Gitanyow, BC

We took off for Fraser Lake on the Solstice.  We had a marginal lunch at Tim Horton’s and finally got some tick medicine for Boo at the Petsmart in Prince George’s.  This is the home of the Fraser and Nechako Rivers where early trappers and explorers found it to be rich in fox, wolves, minks (we saw one cross the road in front of us), otters and muskrat.  The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway came in the early nineteen hundreds and the town eventually became a major logging center.  There certainly are a lot of huge logging trucks.  Signs ask other motorists to respect the truckers, as they are very important to this area.  

We had met the Carlsons in San Carlos many times and contacted them about routes through BC and they were kind enough to suggest a great route and to invite us to their cabin.  We made it to Fraser Lake around 3-and were much better guests because we had another day to get ourselves together.  We have been saying we have a problem every single day.  Today’s was simple-we lost a hubcap! We had the tires looked at in Quesnel and think the guy (whom Jim tipped!!) didn’t put it on right.  Just our luck!  We drove west on the Yellowhead Highway through Vanderhoof to get here.

We just loved the Carlson’s fabulous cabin enclave!  They have added on another floor (now a studio for Marjorie) to Marjorie’s parents’ original cabin on the lake, added a greenhouse area, a workshop building (Blair’s doghouse), a gardening shed for Marjorie and a guest cabin!  It is delightful and so were they.  Blair is the original can-do handyman who can figure out a way to do almost anything.  Marjorie is a multi-talented soul who cooks, paints and assists Blair in his outrageous projects, like helping him reconstruct a log cabin (Darn!  I didn't get a picture of it-it is adorable!).  They bought it, tore it down piece by piece and reassembled it at their lakefront-this is an ongoing project, complete with an outhouse, made of tree rounds which Blair made by  hand-chiseling the bark off and taking a chainsaw to get rid of limbs.  We were treated to a grilled steak dinner and a goodbye breakfast the next morning.  The area was fascinating as it is part of the tribal lands of two First Nations’ tribes-one on one side of the lake and the other on the far side.  This area marks the eastern edge of what they call the Lake District.  (It seems to us that all of British Columbia should be designated a lake district).

Blair and Marjorie at their cabin on Fraser Lake

Their wonderful cabin and Maxine's spot for the night

Blair even shoveled up Boo's poop-what a host!

Such a comfortable place to sit and meditate on the beauty of this area

The gardening shed

Blair's tool cabin

The perfect hostess!

Our goal was to make it through Smithers to the Hazelton area where we planned to stay at Ross Lake.  Because it was only about 2 when we got there, we decided to push on north on the Cassiar Highway from Kitwanga to Meziadin and stay a few days.  Smithers looked like a cute little town, but we are so large when we are carrying a car that it was too challenging to park downtown.  We got some fast food at DQ and vowed never to do that again!  Our next stop was a Moricetown Canyon where the Bulkley River roars through the canyon there.  We were hoping to see some Carrier natives fishing with spears and nets but they must have been somewhere else this day.  

Moricetown Canyon

The drive through Cariboo Country was beautiful.  We had perfect weather; mountains were snowcapped and glowing in the sunshine, rivers and wildflowers kept our eyes glued to the side of the road.  West of Hazelton are the Seven Sisters peaks and the drive up to Meziadin is just spectacular.  The Cassiar is a great 2 lane highway with very few motorists (a few RVs and trucks) and virtually no stores or gas stations to speak of.  This is certainly wilderness area.  Daisies, goatsbeard and Queen Anne’s lace line the sides of the roads and snow capped peaks abound.  There are many water lilies blooming in the ponds along the road.  We think this highway is every bit the equal of our other favorite roads-191 through Utah and the Icefields Parkway from Jasper to Banff. And, of course, Rte 1 in California, Oregon and Washington.

We stopped in Gitanyow to see the “world’s greatest remaining concentration of totem poles still in their original location.”  The oldest is 140 years old. 

Jim had a great conversation with Ed, a local native who told him that this community is in a legal situation with a big mine down the road called the Bruce Jack.  It is on tribal land and competing tribes have laid claim to a royalty interest in the mine. Two of the tribes had the necessary paperwork to validate their claims.  Interestingly the one closest to the mine, Ed’s tribe, did not have the paperwork in order and were denied a share of the $15 million dollars per year for the next 25 years ($8 M that the larger tribe got and $7 M that the other tribe got).  The larger of the two tribes offered Ed’s tribe 20% interest in the annual royalty payments but

the chief refused, stating that his tribe should have half interest in all royalties.  Now they are in court to settle this.  Ed felt 20% with no challenges was the better deal than taking a chance of losing altogether.  It would have been worth about $1778 per year per person for the next 25 years, or roughly $45,000 per person.