VANCOUVER TO DAWSON CREEK

We took the Sea to Sky highway visiting Whistler which still has sufficient snow to offer skiing and then Lillioot. We discovered that the rusty red pine trees we are seeing everywhere are caused by the Mountain Pine Beetle which kills the trees in a way that turns the needles red. The current outbreak of mountain pine beetles is ten times larger than previous outbreaks say Canadian forestry officials worried because the beetles will have a devastating impact on an ecosystem which may be ill-equipped naturally to deal with it.

CHARRO

We stopped off in Prince George on Friday the 13th to have Charro’s tongue looked at by a vet as we had noticed a lump which did not seem to be going down. The vet did not like the look of it and Carol made the hard decision to have it removed. As he is 14 + the vets did a full check up including blood work before going ahead the same day. We picked him up that evening and a wobbly old soldier he was. However by Monday he was much recovered and although still not eating much he is bright, alert and walking as much as he has been able to recently.

As he was better we pushed on to Dawson Creek the start of the Alaska Highway stopping briefly at Chetwynd the chain saw carving capital of the western world!










Mosquitoes

I looked up mosquitoes on Wikipedia and got this

“Both male and female mosquitoes are nectar feeders”

Well that is a lie. They are blood sucking little vampires and there is one h*** of a lot of them about because it has been a very wet spring.

OK I read a little further and found this

“but the female of many species is also capable of haematophagy
(drinking blood)”

This the first time since we arrived last September that we have been bitten. I got the DEET out and Carol is relying on a more natural defense, however both of us are scratching.
Even Charro is being attacked and has found his own defense strategy.












Bears

We are starting to see bears as we drive along. Three in total so far, this one ambled across the road in front of us spent a little while harvesting roadside goodies then climbed into the forest.






Huble Store

On the road to Dawson Creek we came across a pioneer homestead and storewhich was exploiting a short cut from one river system to another. The bit that struck me was that it had been bought to the attention of the western world by a black Jamaican, called John Robert Gisconne. Born in 1832 he arrived in California in 1858 and joined the gold rush to the Yukon. Keen to get there he asked a member of the first nation who showed him how to use an ancient Indian portage trail. John was a successful gold miner who managed to hang on to his money and died in 1907 a wealthy man.

LEAVING CIVILISATION BEHIND

We are noticing that it not quite as modern up in Northern British Columbia. Wshington and Oregon was full service at every petrol pump but in BC we are pumping our own gas. However it still came as a shock when in Tudyah Provincial Park we found that water was self service also.