Smithers

 




Smithers

 

I want to let you know I did not mean to make my last post so sad. Many people sent me love and words of encouragement.  I just felt that I needed to let my true feelings come thru as not everything is unicorns and rainbows, even at home or when your on vacation. Appreciate all the feedback.


We decided on camping at the municipal campground here as it’s location is great. It is next to the river and walking to town was an option. One App I have recently downloaded and find full of information is iOverlander. This is an app that gives you info on all the free, provincial and private campgrounds, along with all the amenities one would need when travelling. Like laundry! Who knew- $14 is a large load of clothes washed and dried.  After talking with the local park operator, who came to Smithers for a vacation and never left, she recommended some appealing things to do. We quickly added them to our future agenda.

We woke up the next day to another semi-smokey day. All the days in PG were SO smokey. We are all sick of the smoke and are sad that this seems to be a regular thing in the summers across BC.


We started our exploration of Smithers with a walk to town. We hit up the local sausage market some for Landjaeger and a local coffee shop for some fresh ice tea. We followed up with the local library and got ourselves a library one card (good throughout all of BC) so we can use it through out the province.

After lunch we did the hike up to Crater lake which is a local favourite. This lake is glacier fed, beautiful and cold! We were ready to cool down so everyone had a dip!. Brrrr.  I learned the ‘the Alpine’ means the area above the tree line. So we hiked to Crater lake up in the Alpine.






 By 7 pm the rain came. Not Okanagan rain, but some serious thunder, lightening and downpour. Did I mention we are tent camping?!?!  So anyone who knows me knows I have a semi irrational fear of water and what destruction it can do. So I asked Adam to get the tarp out to put over our eating/mosquito tent. Adam told me it was not worth it. What do you mean not worth it? The tarp ended up being the size of a table cloth. USELESS! So,….. tomorrow we are picking up some tarps.!!  It is suppose to continue to rain for 2 full days. Ugh! Wyatt and Gibson think its cool this evening as we are playing crib with a lantern, listening to the thunder (and lightening) that is loud and intense, however, this feeling/atmosphere will not last past a few hours.  


Bugs, lets talk about them. I don’t like mosquitos even when they are in the amount in the Okanagan. Moving North, I know that they are more prevalent and I actually packed some netting to go over our hats. It was not until today, when hiking in the Alpine, that the black flies, horse flies and mosquitos made us realize the extent of the attacks!. I am so HAPPY I made Adam pack our mosquito cover for the picnic table. It has been the most handy item as the wasps are also really bad. Adam questioned it, and I am so happy that I held strong and made him make room for the bug netting.


We are not your hardcore dry campers. I NEED a shower (with warm water) every 2/3 days, and a washing machine at least every week( which I have not yet tested). Im thinking this is not an unreasonable request, however going north might prove trickier than I initially thought. Also, why do out houses have to be so much dirtier than going to the bathroom in the forest. I have come to realize that bathrooms are something that can make or break my feelings of being able to relax and wanting to stay somewhere or leave. I made Adam buy me a lug-a-loo on the Island (after Rathtrevor). This is a glorified personal toilet made out of a 5-gallon pale. Funny that this has brought me a sense of peace, even though I have yet to use it, but knowing it’s there…. Priceless (remember those Mastercard commercials?? HaHa… I made my own joke!)


Rain, and rain and more rain. What to do inside? Lucky for us Smithers has some stellar indoor facilities( especially for a town 5400). A fun pool with sauna and hot tub. Yes please. They also have indoor rock climbing which is on for the agenda tomorrow when the rain continues. We were advised to go to Rustica bakery- which is on instagram if you want to check it out( they are only open on saturdays, otherwise they bake for a local coffee shop in town). I am so excited for good baked goods tomorrow!!!  


When the rain let up for a few hours we drove out to Witset (Moricetown Canyon) and watched the First Nations people netting/catching salmon out of mid air while they jumped out of the river trying to get up the falls. What a cool experience to see. Wyatt wanted us to try fishing like that. Sorry Bud, First Nations only!




Oh Rustica Bakery was an experience. You drive out to someone’s farm- literally in the middle of farmland in Telkwa. You park in the field and walk down a path where pedal bikers are welcome to ride right up to the little bakery cottage. All the seating and atmosphere is brought to you by wood stumps for seating, wildflowers for ambiance, hand made eclectic pottery to drink out of, and your choice of creative fresh baked goods that were oh so delicious!  Wish we had our bikes to make the experience even more authentic. We choose to leave the bikes in PG as we were too worried about how to secure them in the more rustic campsites we were going to. Plus with the bear situation up north we wanted to do more hiking together than spread out on bikes. We definitely wished we had them here in Smithers. Lots of trails and biking to be had.






Last day with the rain, we tried some river fishing with no luck, some indoor rock climbing and hit up the library. They had the 6th Harry Potter book on CD’s! I know it archaic but our Highlander only has a CD player. This is really exciting as we now have 17 hours of entertainment!! The car seems to be the worst for when the kids fight.  I can imagine how all the parents are wondering how the sibling fighting is going with us being in such close quarters. Yes, it’s happening, as I write this Wyatt and Gibson are full on wrestling and have each other in head locks trying to trip the other one down. So much for learning boundaries!





Location: Smithers, BC, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Deep South

Image
      As I mentioned briefly in the last blog, the last few days in Texas we hit up Houston. We took the longer scenic drive towards Galveston, and spent the night on the beach in Seaside before making it to Houston the following day. The drive was so beautiful, aside from the brown water in the ocean. Also, it was way more built up than the Baja. Here, all the houses are on stilts. That sure was a surprise to see. I did love how colorful they all were! I heard from a local that Galveston used to be the biggest city on the east coast way back, and then it was hammered by a storm that flooded it, causing major damage. Since then, they have raised all of Galveston 12 feet, put all the houses up on stilts (building code) and built an extensive sea wall. If anything, the US people will not back down and move their location. They will adapt! I think mother nature always wins, and because of that, this is not a place I would live. But, who am I say. Another thing I asked about ...
Read more

Nashville -Wyatt

Image
       Chugging along going through lots of other places we arrived at Nashville. When we got to Nashville mom had already booked us a few different places to go play, see or watch something. In Nashville we went to a trampoline park called Altitude. At Altitude they had a mechanism called Wipeout. The setup for Wipeout was four trampolines in a circle and a big bar that swung around and I had to jump over it. The first time that I went on it, I was wondering how fast it could go. I think that the Wipeout mechanism was fun because if Gibson or I hit it with a part of our body and it stopped, I could push it and it would make it go twice as fast as it normally would. One time when I went to jump over it I jumped too late and my legs got hit by the soft bar and went face first into the trampoline. It felt weird to do a face plant into the trampoline because I had never done one before. Altitude also had a balance beam fighting game. When Gibson and I where fighting, I ...
Read more

I Don't Want To Title This - Gibson

Image
  These are some highlights from, Georgia, Nashville, and Kentucky. In Georgia we did a lot, but it was raining most of the while. Georgia is known for its antiquing. We did quite a bit of antiquing. We went to 3 antiquing shops, my Omie would have been all about it. My dad got an old fishing rod to hang in his garage.   I can’t lie Georgia was a pretty cool place. I like antiquing and I loved Georgia very very much. Next I went to Nashville Tennessee. Tennessee brought some more antiquing, but this time my mom got an old, working train light. The train light has red and blue lights.   My mom also bought a ladder and some jars. In Nashville, we went to a professional soccer game, Nashville vs LA. The professional soccer game was pretty cool to see in person.   The stadium was not as big as on TV but it was still big.   The players and goalies are so good compared to my level of soccer.   I liked Kentucky. In Kentucky we met some friends named Liam and ...
Read more