DARN ! We missed an opportunity ! The vendor selling Indian Ice Cream was not at the PowWow this morning. Now I don't know what Indian Ice Cream is supposed to taste like when done properly. How will I know if I make it correctly ? I suppose ... if the Soapberry Indian Ice Cream I make tastes bad ... I've done it wrong !
Today was cool with frequent rain. The Chief Will-Yum PowWow was supposed to continue today but ... when we were preparing to leave the Chief Will-Yum Campground adjacent to the Sugar Cane PowWow Arena this morning ... there weren't many Indians there. And those that were still there didn't look all that enthused about attending more PowWow.
We drove north on Hwy. 97 to Williams Lake. We stopped at the Williams Lake Tourism Discovery Centre. WOW ! WOW ! ! ! The building is a showcase for the local log building expertise. We watched a brief video. We picked up lots of information brochures.
I retrieved e-mail on their public access computer. I took pictures of the astounding log architecture !
We continued north on Hwy. 97. We had lunch at a roadside rest area. We stopped and browsed at a "Canadiana" gift shop. We drove through ... and got a bit confused and twisted around in ... Quesnel. We continued north a short distance to Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park. I'm a bit annoyed and embarrassed by BC's Provincial Parks. They're underserviced and overpriced. Around 7 PM the rain finally stopped and we were able to walk around the park, viewing the variety of trees and wild plants and flowers.
This close to summer solstice, this far north ... it was twilight when we went to sleep at 11 PM.
Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park to Wells
When we started travelling on June 18, 2004, the weather was ... perfect ! We've always referred to perfect weather days as "June 18" days. Today ... June 18, 2012 ... was not a June 18 day. It was cold and it was raining. And the forecast for the next week is much more of the same !
This morning before leaving Ten Mile Lake Provincial Park we refilled our fresh water tank. BUT ... I refused to pay $5 to dump our waste holding tanks. I think it is unconscionable for the Province of BC to require payment for the use of the provincial park's trailer dump station when camping has already been paid for ! We headed back south on Hwy. 97 to Quesnel. We went to the municipal sani-dump to dump our grey waste tanks. We refilled with diesel, and refilled our small "gas can" of generator fuel, then headed east on Hwy. 26 towards Wells and Barkerville.
Barkerville is the objective of this trip. It is an old gold mining town. It was the reason for the Cariboo Gold Rush. Now it is a restored, functioning, period re-creation of a gold mining town of 150 years ago. Wells is a nearby gold mining "company town" of the 1930's, now almost abandoned but still home to a few artists, hippies, and other "throwbacks" ( as are a lot of small BC towns ! ), as well as a couple of RV parks, motels, and restaurants.
We stopped at the Wells Visitor Information Centre to buy some admission tickets for Barkerville, then checked into a small RV park in Wells. We unhitched the truck and walked around the campground with Bo during the brief periods when it wasn't raining.
I did some computer work, getting caught up on processing photos of the last few days.
We saw quite a bit of wildlife today. A few deer, a bear, a Red Fox ( right in Quesnel ! ), and a Silver Fox. I think it's the first time I've seen a Silver Fox.
Joanne's been whining about needing help with menu planning. So ... I just finished "inventing" a recipe for supper tomorrow.
Smoked Sockeye Salmon & Eggs "Danedict"
On sliced, fresh sourdough buns ( to be purchased tomorrow ) from the bakery in Barkerville, shred or crumble some freshly caught and smoked Sockeye Salmon from the Chief Will-Yum PowWow, poach an egg and place on top, slice and sauté some fresh mushrooms and place on top, make some dill cream sauce using dill cream cheese and milk, pour over top ... MMMMM ! ! ! My arteries are already screaming in horror ! HA HA HA ! Too bad we don't have any poutine to serve with that ! HA HA HA HA HA !
By 9 PM the rain had stopped and the sky cleared a bit. We went for a long, leisurely walk around part of the village of Wells. BRRRRR ... it was cold !
Today was partially sunny, with only a few brief periods of light rain. All in all, not a bad day to be walking around exploring historic Barkerville.
We spent the entire day wandering around the restored gold mining town of Barkerville. Billy Barker's discovery of gold here in 1862 triggered the Cariboo Gold Rush. Barkerville is now a town of 125 restored buildings with period room displays, mining demonstrations, gold panning, stage coach rides, street theatre, live stage shows, court room trials with "The Hanging Judge", shops, restaurants, period schools and churches, ... and so on ! One of the interesting things we did today was attend an abacus lesson in the Chinese School. At the end of our long day we walked about a kilometre to the old Barkerville Cemetery. Gee, those miners of 150 years ago were lucky to make it to forty ! Must have been a pretty tough life !
On the way from Barkerville to our campground in Wells, a distance of 8 km. / 5 miles, we drove around the town of Wells. What a dump ! You would think that a little town adjacent to a large and successful tourist attraction would be thriving based on the economics that the tourist attraction brings.
And yes, yes ... Eggs Danedict is excellent !
The weather today ranged from summer to winter !
Yesterday we wandered around Barkerville all day. Today our plan was to return specifically to attend a variety of scheduled events. We hitched up the trailer to the truck, departed the campground in Wells, and arrived at Barkerville shortly before 11:30 AM to attend the Cornish Waterwheel demonstration only to find that it had been cancelled because of very high and fast water on Williams Creek. That would describe most creeks and rivers in BC this spring ! Oh, well ... time for “Plan B”.
We went to the Post Office. Joanne mailed a birthday card to her sister. She had purchased it yesterday in Barkerville. Today the Post Mistress in the Barkerville Post Office “hand cancelled” the stamp with an 1872 postmark. She uses the actual hand cancellation hammer used in Barkerville in 1872. As a former employee of Canada Post
I found that fascinating and we chatted with her for awhile. We went to the bakery and bought more sourdough buns and bread.
We headed over to the 11:45 AM “Street Discourse”. This morning’s topic was “The Hurdies”. A young woman playing the role of a Hurdy Gurdy Girl gave a wonderful “discourse” on the Hurdy Gurdy Girls and their musical instrument, the Hurdy Gurdy, of course. She had ... and played ... a beautiful, old Hurdy Gurdy. From there we headed over to China Town for a Historical Tour of the Chinese Community. During the tour the weather became cold and it began to rain lightly. BRRRRR ! Before the tour ended we left and headed over to Theatre Royal to buy tickets for the 1 PM “Gold Rush Revue” musical show. We bought our tickets and went inside the warm theatre to wait for the performance to begin. The actors / musicians began to play outside the theatre shortly before 1 PM to drum up business. I stepped outside to take a photo of them and ... < sputter > ... a very cold, very heavy, hail storm began ! YIKES !
We enjoyed the musical. I wonder how they find talented actors / musicians to perform for four months in such a godforsaken place as Barkerville ? ! ? After the performance we walked back to the trailer in the RV parking lot to have lunch. The weather had improved. The hail was finished. The sky was clearing a bit. The temperature had come up a bit. After lunch we headed back into the historic town site to attend a 3:30 PM “School Lesson” in the small, one room school.
HA HA HA ! It turned out to be the highlight of Barkerville for both of us. We were two of five students in this class ; four adults and one child. Mr. Mundel, the teacher, was very strict ! He played his role superbly, stern faced throughout the 45 minute lesson. We practiced our penmanship on slate boards with slate pencils. We had a spelling bee. DARN ... I spelled “rhythm” wrong. Joanne and the other two women had to wear bonnets. We had to stand each time we spoke. And address Mr. Mundel as “sir”. The four adults enjoyed the experience and found it amusing as well as informative. The nine year old boy didn’t seem to “get it”, and seemed bewildered and intimidated by an “1872” classroom experience. While we were lining up outside to enter the classroom, under Mr. Mundel’s supervision, I probably shouldn’t have told him about my experience at his age, getting strapped by my grade 3 teacher. HA HA HA !
After “school” we left Barkerville, returned to the trailer, and hit the road, returning west on Hwy. 26 to Quesnel. Saw a deer and a bear on the way. In Quesnel we dumped all our waste holding tanks and refilled with fresh water at the municipal sani-dump station, then went to Wal-Mart to replenish supplies. While Joanne started the Wal-Martin’ I returned a phone call to my sister. I’m very glad to hear that my brother-in-law’s recuperation from prostate cancer surgery is complete, and all is well !
We continued driving south on Hwy. 97, all the way back to Williams Lake. It was a long day ! We boondocked overnight in the parking lot of the Tourism Discovery Centre. Upon arrival we had a very late supper. Then I discovered that the Wi-Fi signal from inside the building reached the trailer. I stayed up very late getting caught up on some online work, reviewing e-mail, downloading our MasterCard statement, and posting last week’s journal to my blog.
Today was sunny and warm. Let me say that again. Today was sunny and warm !
Our plan for today was to find a place to park near Boitanio Park so that we could watch the National Aboriginal Day Parade as it approached at 1 PM, and then wander around the National Aboriginal Day festivities in the park before departing Williams Lake and heading to Green Lake Provincial Park. With guidance from the staff at the Tourism Discovery Centre we headed for the parking lot of the Save-On-Foods grocery store near Boitanio Park. We could park at the grocery store, watch the parade, wander around the festivities in the park, then do some grocery shopping before leaving. GREAT !
As we approached Boitanio Park just after 10 AM there was a traffic jam, police directing traffic, kids everywhere ... HUH ? ? ? The parade had just ended ? ! ? WHAT THE ... ? ? ? ! ! ! Evidently the newspaper article that Joanne had seen regarding the parade had a misprint. The parade arrival time at the park was 10 o'clock, not 1 o'clock !
We wound our way through the heavy vehicle and pedestrian traffic and got parked in the grocery store's parking lot. We walked over to the park, and wandered around for awhile. Not much happening ! I bought a sample bag of dried deer meat to try. Sort of like venison jerky, I guess. Joanne didn't like it. I'm sort of indifferent to it. Bo LOOOOOVES it ! ! ! < rolling eyes >
We had lunch in the trailer in the grocery store's parking lot, then did some grocery shopping. We found our way to the municipal trailer sani-dump station, refilled with fresh water, and dumped the grey waste tanks. Quesnel and Williams Lake both have excellent, free, trailer dump stations operated by their respective municipalities. Thank you, Quesnel and Williams Lake.
Before leaving Williams Lake I wanted to shop at Surplus Herbie's, a discount store I had heard about. I wanted to see an axe I had seen advertised in their flyer. It was a neat sort of "Army Surplus" kind of place. I didn't like the axe that was on sale, but I bought some axe head wooden wedges to refurbish my very old axe.
We left Williams Lake heading south on Hwy. 97. Through 150 Mile House, Lac La Hache, and 100 Mile House, then we turned east on Hwy. 24 to Lone Butte. South on Watch Lake / Green Lake Road to Green Lake Provincial Park. AHHHHH ! ! ! Beautiful British Columbia lakeside wilderness. I want to stay here two nights so that tomorrow I don't have to drive anywhere, just relax, get caught up on a few chores, and enjoy the outdoors.
Today at Save-On-Foods in Williams Lake we bought some teriyaki marinated sirloin beef cubes. Joanne made "kabob" skewers with the meat, mushrooms, onions, carrots, eggplant, and potatoes, and I cooked them over a campfire. AHHHHH ! ! ! We spent the evening outdoors enjoying the campfire and lovely weather.
I’m typing this at 9:30 PM sitting outside by the campfire. Loons on the lake are calling. To quote some graffiti we saw a few hours ago as we were walking around the campground ... “This Is Freedom” !
Joanne suggested that I start a campfire and we have a wiener roast for lunch. Okay ! Angus beef wieners roasted over the campfire, served in sourdough buns toasted over the campfire, with cheese melted in the buns. MMMMM ! A great idea by Joanne, executed well by me ! Good teamwork !
The weather was so nice after lunch that we took Bo to the beach to play "beach doughnut" fetch in the lake. His "beach doughnut" is a foam fishing net float that he picked up on the beach in Teacapán, Mexico, and he LOOOOOVES to play fetch in the water with it ! HA HA HA ... well done, Bo !
We had a lazy afternoon. I napped. Joanne read. I processed photos on the computer. We sat down with the BC map and planned the remainder of this adventure trip. We'll probably be back home in six days. I made another campfire to cook supper. Joanne prepared foil packets of haddock, mushrooms, zucchini, and potatoes. I cooked them on the campfire.
Life is good !
This morning we were warned by a park attendant that there was a weather warning for this area, with heavy rains expected. Darn ! We slowly prepared for departure and left Green Lake Provincial Park's Emerald Bay Campground around 11 AM.
We drove southwest along Green Lake Road along the north shore of Green Lake towards Hwy. 97 at 70 Mile House. We were intrigued by the many interesting properties for sale along the north shore of Green Lake, so before heading south on Hwy. 97 we went for a sightseeing drive on Green Lake Road along the south shore. We stopped to look at a couple of properties. HMPH ! Overpriced ! As seems to be the norm in BC !
A huge glut of properties, with supply far exceeding demand because BC residents ( and real estate agents, obviously ) don't seem to comprehend the supply / demand pricing concept. And Riverside RV Park Resort is certainly no exception !
We drove south on Hwy. 97 to Clinton where we checked into Gold Trail RV Park. We had a late lunch and I went to nap with Sully. The heavy rain began ! But ... it rained heavily for a couple of hours, then that was it ! After the rain stopped we loaded into the truck the four wood planters we bought here a week ago and had placed in storage in the owner's shed. We took Bo for a walk. I did some computer work. Joanne read and rested, sitting on the sofa with Sully wrapped in his "TV time blankie", cuddled up against her. For a late afternoon snack Bo and I finished the dried deer meat I bought at the National Aboriginal Day festivities in Williams Lake. Bo likes it a lot more than I do !
I guess venison jerky ranks right up there with date shakes as far as Bo is concerned. HA HA HA !
DSK
Yes I was at Barkerville too and saw that hurdy, so incredible, her name is Tracy Froese.
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