Day 138-141, Terrace – Silver Star, 1318 kms, Aug 19-22 3

Aug 19th

It was a chilly morning at Ferry Island campground in Terrace but fortunately we had some leftover wood to burn. Made breakfast then packed up and got going, plenty of ground to cover. The road was fairly quiet, low clouds hung down and occasional patches of drizzle. We stopped to check out Old Hazelton, a small town, and crossed a narrow bridge over a steep gorge which was cool. No food in town there so we had lunch in New Hazelton, at a cozy little cafe. Carried on, past a couple of Black bears munching, and now wilting wildflowers. We eventually stopped at Burns Lake at a grocery store, then drove out of town to a cycling state park which had free camping by Kager lake. Unfortunately no running water so we carefully cooked dinner with what we had, and set up to sleep on a comfy woodchip pad.

Snow proof bridge, great unless you are scared of heights

A: Burns Lake camp, B: Purden Lake camp, C: Clearwater, D: Silver Star Ski resort

Aug 20th

Early morning the drizzle caught up with us; what was dusty and dry was unfortunately all wet the next morning. We packed up, didn’t bother with food and hit the road before we got any more wet. Stopped for Brunch at a Motel in Port Fraser where we had a budget Chinese style  meal. Looking out the window a very familiar bike showed up; Gino and Manu, our Italian friends! Caught with their adventures since we had seen them last, then hit the road, sadly we were taking different routes from Prince George so wouldn’t see them tonight. We carried on driving, past piles of logging wood, more traffic and towns until we past through Prince George. On the other side the traffic dropped right off and we were back to the Boonies.

Purden Lake in Drizzly weather

Day 21

It rained most of the night (again) but we were doing fine under our tarp and in our sandy tent pad. By the time we woke up the rain had stopped and things were looking good! Clouds thinned out and there was a hint of sunshine, enough to bring out our sleeping mat and other damp items to dry out in the sun. The sun warmth was short lived as it was eclipse day in North America… it wasn’t a full eclipse but enough to cool everything down and stall the drying out process. Soon the clouds and drizzle came back… we got on the road and as we headed east and the south the weather improved, traffic grew denser and we slowly started to realize we were headed back towards “civilization”. The odd bear on the side of the road reminded us that we are still in wild territory but that is slowly fading.

By the time we arrived in Clearwater it was relatively warm and most important, dry! We camped at a KOA, which we normally wouldn’t do but we had laundry to catch up on and needed a shower! All our gear finally dried out and the tent got a good waterproofing spray.

It’s laundry time!!!

We woke up under a blue sky and at 09:30 it was already warm. Breakfast across the road at the Strawberry Moose and off we went, destination Silver Star ski resort where we are planning on meeting a friend for some downhill mountain biking. As we progressed further south and inland it got really hot and dry. It’s amazing the contrast from the damp rainforest a few days ago to this hot, arid and dried out vegetation. It was now 36 degrees and no fun riding either! No wonder BC had over 1000 forest fires in the last few weeks… we wished for sun but this is a little extreme! 

The dried out scenery of inland BC. Very different from what we saw 2 months ago headed north

One of a few minor wildfire traces we passed so far

We made it up to Silverstar where it was a few degrees cooler, still hot though, and sat down in the shade with an ice tea and some food. We pitched our tent in the shade of a hill in the local campground which is nothing more than an empty car park.

Silver Star car park camping

TA