Week 39 - Canada - September 23 - September 29, 2024

MONDAY the 23rd

We explored Port Clements and discovered this little grocery store - another movie set.  We met locals and had good conversations.

We'd never heard about the Golden Spruce.  It was a big spruce tree with a genetic mutation that caused the needled to be golden rather than green in color.  For whatever reason, a disgruntled government employee took a chain saw to it and cut it down.

Some rooted a cutting of the tree and it is growing in Port Clement inside of a chain link fence.   We visited it.

But wait - there's more.  There is a trail to the site of the original tree...which we took.

The trail came to this river and three was no bridge....Dad was unwilling to slosh through the river, so we never saw the remaining stump -or whatever there might be.

There was a museum in Port Clement but it was really just a bunch of old stuff.

We headed north to the coast of Graham Island - the goal was to eat dinner in Masset and then camp at a campground along the cost at Toe Hill

Yummy fish and chips

We parked on the breach

It was beautiful and peaceful

TUESDAY the 24th

We headed back south to Skidegate where were took the Spirit Lake Trail up to Spirit Lake.  The sign warned of bears. And.....at one point on the trail I heard a loud sound of something the the brush and lo.....it was a bear climbing a tree.

WEDNESDAY the 25th

The ferry to Prince Rupert left late in the evening and was an overnighter.  We parked in the ferry parking lot and waited.

Since it was an overnight ferry we reserved a cabin so we didn't have to sleep in a chair.  We were so anxious to get under the covers and sleep as much as possible, that I didn't get a photo of the inside of the cabin.  Imagine a small  cabin with two bunkbeds.

THURSDAY the 26th

We arrived in Prince Rupert at about 5:00 am - pitch dark outside. After finding a gas station we headed back home to Oregon.  It took us two days and the scenery was magnificent.

Friday the 27th
The highway followed the Fraser River, and so did the railroad tracks.

There is rafting on the river.

In a little town called Boston Bay we found JB's Diner.  We had to stop!

We ordered - it's worth driving back for another meal.

At this point we fust wanted to get home.  And finally we got to the border.

We're back.   It was a great trip.  Saw new things, learned lots about Haida Gwaii.