Side trip to Barkerville

We’ve been following the Milepost book from the time we crossed the border in Montana. It has led us on some incredible journeys to some fascinating places, so when we read about the town of Barkerville, we knew we had to take this side trip. Barkerville was the site of the biggest gold find in British Columbia, named after Billy Barker who, with his partner, made the discovery.

It’s 51 miles from the junction of the Cariboo Highway to Barkerville.  First we come to Cottonwood, a restored village on the gold trail.

We decide to camp in Wells, a short distance away from the town site we are seeking.  After setting up the rig and a quick lunch, we are off to see Barkerville.

We soon learn that there are over 130 buildings here that have been restored, some are open for walking thru while others have view ports to see in.  There are some business operating in town and all the townspeople are in period costume.

  

The approved method of transportation is by horse and buggy,but this fellow looked so tired, he was resting his head on the bar he was tied to.

Next we looked into one of the cabins, next door was the bookmakers shop.

Down the street a bit was the theater.

The we came to the Chinese portion of the town.  Lots of Chinese worked in the mines but a few were shopkeepers.  There was even a school just for the Chinese kids.

Jon is trying to figure out how this water wheel works.

This lovely lass, in period costume, related how Barkerville came to be and how the gold was followed up the rivers from southern British Columbia to the mother lode.

Then she told us about the waterwheel.  She is the owner of the mine, the waterwheel is used to haul the gravel up where it is poured into a sluice box, water added and the gold nuggets picked out.

The randy looking fellow is one of her mine workers.  Here they are looking for investors so they can continue working the mine.

The Barkerville choir, and below is the cemetery.

By now it is almost 6pm, we’ve wandered all over town, in and out of shops (the bakery, the post office and the general store), listened to costumed villagers explain and regale us with tales of Barkerville.  It’s been a great day, we are bone weary by the time we get back to the trailer.

Yellowhead Highway

This is a lovely road heads basically West thru valleys, farmland and forest.

We travel beside rivers and railroad tracks with views of lakes in the distance.  The “villages” along here are mostly First Nation, not too many services available for the traveler.  For the first time in a long time there is no rain.  We found a provincial park on Lake Beaumont for the night.  And even though this is still August, it is getting dark earlier and there is a chill in the air, trees are beginning to come into their fall colors.

Yesterday’s drive took us thru the small (by some standards) town of Smithers. In the downtown area we found a sausage factory/store.  Course we had to stop!  They had some very good sausages, we especially liked the Elk and Buffalo Cranberry.  Then there was the bakery around the corner where they had some wonderful Raisin bread.

Today was Prince George, this is a large town with good shopping so we re-stocked the food supplies and filled the fuel tank then continued south to the really small village of Hixon.  There is a small campground next to a small stream where we are spent the night.  This is a belted Kingfisher.

and this is its playground

Kitwanga

The drive today was thru some beautiful country,  the trees are just beginning to change into their colors, and it’s still August!

We drove thru the village of Gitanyow, famous for the Totem Poles, which are not religious, but rather clan identifiers.  They can also relate stories.  Sometimes the images are mythological.

 

 

These are truly amazing!

More Hyder

Woke to rain pelting the roof.  Or maybe that’s just dripping off the trees, we are at Rainey Creek Municipal Park in the middle of Stewart.  Nice park with power only.  We headed back out to Bear Creek, but no bears!  This is the Blue Lagoon first with the fog on it and the next day.

So we decided to drive out to Salmon Glacier, it’s 17 miles from Bear Creek.

  

This tunnel thru the mountain was bored by the miners because this portion of the road was impassable in winter, later it was used to store equipment, now it is blocked off.

And this was another glacier we saw, don’t know the name of this one.

Tomorrow we head east to Kitwanga.

Day 4 on to Stewart/Hyder

Today’s drive was longer, about 160 miles.  Rain early this morning, we just did not want to get out of bed, got really cold, for us, last night.  But we did and soon the sun was shinning.  Very pleasant drive, especially because we saw a Black Bear, two of them.  The first one ran up the hill into the brush but the second was beside the road eating bushes.

The road wound up and down the hills and round and round too.

That’s our friends Kim and Jim in front of us.

Then we came to Bear Glacier, it used to be all the way across the lake to the road, but it is receding up the draw, still a beautiful sight.

Jon and I decided to head over to Hyder to try to see some bears this afternoon.  Only thing we saw were Salmon and a few birds, a Great Blue Heron, a Belted Kingfisher and a Cedar Waxwing.  We also saw a Yellow Rumped Warbler but it was too fast for a photo.

We’ll try for bears again tomorrow.

Day three Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park

 

The drive to Kinaskan Lake was short, only 76 miles, one of our shorter days.  Down the hill and there’s the lake.

Our Campsite from the lake, and looking at the lake from our campsite.

This brave squirrel  was even on the picnic table looking for handouts.  He/she found the piece of cracker that I dropped, seemed to enjoy munching on it.

Tomorrow we reach Hyder!