Blogging @ GetSkinHelp.com

Over the last couple of years I have had the pleasure of doing some work with the GetSkinHelp team, and I’m pleased to continue! Wrote a blog for them – click here to read:

What to Expect at the Dermatologist

GetSkinHelp is leading the charge when it comes to digitizing the complete patient circle-of-care.

Not only are they providing quality virtual services across Canada, but they are collaborating with government agencies and hospitals to bring their technology and services to more people.

GetSkinHelp found its footing amid the Spring 2020 lockdown, when Dr. Colin Hong saw a surge in people coming in for skin cancer. Teaming up with entrepreneur, Keith Loo, the two began planning how to help patients right from their own homes. From there, what started simply as an online skin cancer screening tool, has quickly amassed to become a company that covers a variety of skin conditions.

They are also working to demystify the Canadian healthcare sector, particularly as it relates to dermatology, chronic skin conditions, and skin cancers. They investigate how drugs are developed, how AI will affect healthcare, and the forces at play in society that affect our wellbeing.

Some of the challenging questions they investigate include:

Why are there so few Dermatologists in Canada?

And

How much do you think it costs to remove a melanoma?

I'm fascinated to learn the answers to these questions - much of it is news even to me!  So thanks for your great work GetSkinHelp, I look forward to continuing to support your initiatives.

To learn all about how the GetSkinHelp app works click here to go to their website.  They also have their informative discussions and interviews on their youTube channel, and their podcasts are on Spotify and iTunes

Once a Nosy Patient, Always a Nosy Patient (Advocate)

Note from a reader: Enough gallivanting around Natalie, get back to work!  

OK, back to work I go - I have cancer to write about, experience to share, fellow patients and warriors to help through their crappy time the way others helped me through mine (and still do). 

Earlier this year I wrote about my most recent surgery (not cancer-related), and the results of that - not anemic anymore - good stuff! But there is more... I have learned a lot in the past couple of years about my health and options. Thanks to a move in provinces, I basically qualified for a whole new round of Physician referrals and perspectives, which is pretty interesting to experience. I was very happy with my care before, but now I have some new tools to add to my repertoire.

First off, I am fortunate to have another great family doctor (GP), who has been fantastic acting as my advocate and connecting me with specialists I may not have discovered otherwise. 

Right out of the gate he got me referred to the BC Cancer Agency (the equivalent of the formerly named Cancer Care Ontario, which governs all cancer care in the province - in the western provinces and some of the east, they actually refer to it as "Cancer Agency," which I had learned in my work with SYSF, but hadn't encountered personally, in Ontario). Every province has its own health care budget so if you move you get a new health card and you fall into that province's budget, and you no longer get services in the other province. There are times when patients can qualify for out-of-province treatment/care, but I'll save that topic for another day.

BC Cancer (BCCA) has a beautiful Cancer Centre here in Prince George, and a couple of CT scanners in the adjacent hospital UHNBC, as well as MRI (though for PET we have to go to Vancouver). My first experience with the centre here was interesting, as, being new to BC Cancer, I was to follow the "new patient intake" pathway. My intake interview was conducted by a nurse over the phone (thanks covid), and I was struck by the complete line of questioning as it was almost exactly what I had experienced seven years prior, when I was first diagnosed with melanoma. 

It was rather surreal, and to the surprise of the nurse, so many of my answers were detailed and knowledgeable. In 2014, being brand new on the scene I had stumbled with many of the questions, not understanding what the staff were saying to me, not knowing my family/cancer history, being in shock in general as a brand new cancer patient. They were very sensitive and gentle with the questioning, but to be asked again this far down the line if I had a Will in place and a Personal Care representative and my affairs in order was a stark reminder of the deadly disease I am dealing with.

This time around I heard the questions and knew what to say and what to expect, from my years of personal research as well as work in the space, but I couldn't help being taken back to my first cancer centre experience, sitting in the waiting room holding that tell-tale newly-diagnosed envelope. It was emotionally difficult to answer some of the interview, as I had entered the process knowing I was new to this centre, but not comprehending that they wouldn't just read my file, they would treat me as an entirely new patient. 

Overall it was interesting to have that experience and it reminded me of the compassion all newly diagnosed patients require.

Image source: All.Can Canada

Intake complete, I was referred to the Medical Oncologist who travels here to cover melanoma patient care, among other indications. My first impression - aside from knowing no one could compare to The Boss - was that I would have to advocate for myself right out of the gate. Because I was past five years with no evidence of disease since melanoma diagnosis, in this Oncologist's opinion, I no longer needed to be followed. Well I know otherwise! 

A metastatic melanoma diagnosis is forever. It is a sneaky disease too, in which one might not experience symptoms of recurrence for months, and if not for being followed, one would not find out they have recurred until it is potentially too late to treat. 

A patient has the right to choose their follow schedule based on guidance from their medical team, but also on how they are feeling and doing, and any symptoms they may or may not be experiencing. I am clearly aware that I can request a CT scan any time I wish. I want one annually even in good health, so annually one I will get.

Simultaneously I received a referral to a Dermatologist for a full skin exam, which I should also have every year, but hadn't in I won't say how long. That one I'm not as hot to pursue, as I was educated from my first Derm years ago, my metastatic melanoma would not cause new moles or lesions. I may get new ones, but they would be unrelated to the first. While of course I do my monthly skin self-exams, it's the internal melanoma spread to lymph nodes and beyond I need the cancer centre's help watching out for. 

There are not official guidelines in place across Canada for metastatic melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers at this time. There are some guidelines in a few provinces, but not a complete set, so this explains why patients in some centres will receive completely different information about their disease than patients in other areas. 

It is a disparity that continues, and that should be addressed so that patients will no longer fall through cracks in the system, as I could for example, if I wasn't being scanned. Or as melanoma friends I have met on many occasion could, when they receive outdated treatment information or options. It is discouraging that we still see many of the same things happening in skin cancer care now as Mike experienced when he was first (mis-)diagnosed in 2007. But I digress...

Got a clear bill of skin health from the visiting Dermatologist, and that's great. Since then though, I'm happy to report that PG has gotten two new Dermatologists here full time, so that will help to address the Derm shortage for everyone in the Northern Health region of BC. I go see my new Derm for the first time in January so stay tuned for updates on that. You can be sure I'll be doing my usual dig-for-info-as-informed-patient at that one!

Alongside all this melanoma-maintenance, my GP referred me to an Endocrinologist. You may know from my thyroid cancer battle that I had dabbled in Endocrinology lessons in 2015-2016 at the same time as melanoma, and that involved neck surgery and radioactive iodine treatment. Completely different experience from skin cancer, but again a whole bunch of information a patient needs to know.

My new Endocrinologist here in PG was extremely compassionate and thorough, and once more it was like I was a new patient all over again. He requested all of my surgery and pathology reports from Sunnybrook, and explained things to me in a way I had not heard before. We did bloodwork several times to get full stats on my TSH/T3/T4/Thyroxine/Thyroglobulin, and he ordered an ultrasound on my neck/throat to get a baseline in case we needed it for future. 

It hadn't occurred to me to get an ultrasound sooner, as since my thyroidectomy and follow-ups in Toronto I was on a maintenance-dose of daily thyroid hormone supplement to keep my system running and keep any potential thyroid cancer cells away. Plus with the head to toe CT scans for melanoma I figured I was covered for metastasis-checks. 

Turns out an ultrasound every few years is a good idea as well, to check for any lumps or bumps that may not show up on a CT scan. In any case, ultrasound was clear, bloodwork was good, he adjusted my dose gradually down a little bit, and I'm rolling with that for the foreseeable future, consistent bloodwork pending.

So that's my informal cancer lesson for the day, work done - check and check! Though I do continue to look for ways to help myself and others in this disease space, so consider this an open invitation: if you have any questions you need help answering, about cancer, but especially skin cancer or thyroid cancer, I may be able to steer you toward the right source of information. I hang out with lots of health care providers and patient advocates alike and am always open to helping someone get the support they need. With gratitude, chat again soon. 💝

the Blog Dog moved to BC too!

If you don't already know this guy, let me tell you about him: 

Click here for his first blog, and puppy pics :-)

Reese, my chocolate Lab (a.k.a. my husband) for many years, loves getting treats, having car rides, going for walks, swimming, eating treats, cuddling, napping, mooching snacks, going for more walks, napping some more, oh and did I mention - treats?!!

He has his own tag on this blog, as he kept me company for much of my writing time. He was my cancer dog. He liked to photo bomb my posts every chance he got, and he inspired me to keep going, always. I love him so very much!

When I moved to Prince George, he stayed in Ontario, moving from Meaford to Toronto with the girls to their new house. They were good for each other, I got to see him when I visited the girls, and Reese also had his little buddy Diego. 

As time went on and the girls got busier and I got Prince George-ier, we made the family decision to move Reese here to a new home where he could enjoy the fresh northern BC air and I could visit him lots. There were definitely stressful moments in this process, but in the end it was infinitely worth it. 

A blur of activity finding Reese the perfect home here, booking flights, planning the drive, having a giant kennel delivered to the girls' house (getting Reese used to being in a kennel), vet appointments, a wee bit of doggy sedative (and a lot of human sedatives!) and we were set to go: Reese would arrive in PG on March 20, 2022. Mike and I had even bought him a new collar from our fave brewery here in town! 

For the first time, I drove on my own all the way from PG to Vancouver - a full day's drive to arrive at the airport for my red-eye flight to Toronto that night, parking the Jeep there for the few days I'd be away. Had a whirlwind visit with the girls, and prepped for the tearful parting and our big journey home. 

In all the planning, we decided it would be best for Reese to have only one flight Toronto to Van, rather than add the second one from Vancouver to PG.  Plus then I could spend a couple of days with him coming back, let him recover from the flight and not land at his new home jetlagged, and "show him" the sights driving up the roads I mentioned in my post the other day. 

Labs are very intelligent, malleable, and reactive dogs, with human-like tendencies and charm. Knowing Reese's personality so well, I had full confidence he would roll with the trip and it would be fun, so I was looking forward to spending the weekend with him in this way.

A shout-out to WestJet - they were awesome. From booking the large pet flight to the helpful staff at check-in, to the compassionate care they took of Reese while he was in their possession, everything was outstanding. I was a nervous wreck, but the WestJet staff kept my pieces together, and delivered my favourite four-legged man to Vancouver, happy as a clam. 

   

We made our way out of the airport, onto the park 'n' fly bus, and to my Jeep in the parking lot (with MUCH help from random strangers - this dog and kennel combo was veeeeerry heavy) where I could finally release him from the kennel. He was pretty thirsty when he got out but I had brought a bunch of water, and clippers to undo the zip tie locks on the kennel (thanks for the tip Kath!) so in no time flat Reese was free, walked, quenched, and reunited with my Jeep. I swear he looked at me like... what the heck...I know this car! 

He waited patiently while I took the kennel all apart and jigsaw puzzled it and all of our bags and stuff into my baby SUV. It must have been a comical sight for anyone who may have seen us! I didn't care, I just wanted to get on the road and start showing Reese the BC sights.

We were going a relatively short distance to our first pet-friendly hotel, as we both needed to unwind after our long day. Reese had never been to a hotel before, or in an elevator, but he waltzed right through all of it like a pro. I had brought his blankets from home so he had lots of familiar smells and padding for the road trip and hotel rooms. Judging by how quickly he settled in, he felt like the royalty he is!

We went for walks, ordered-in pizza, watched TV, and cuddled. It was so much fun! Had a great sleep and a good re-set for the rest of the trip home. Woke up ready to explore and just soak up my brown fuzzy guy. 

He sat patiently in the front seat while I re-organized the Jeep, and we decided the kennel just had to go. It was too big to fit, and Reese needed the full back seat to nap between sights and stops. I found a local animal shelter to donate it to, so after a stop for *hashbrowns!* *doggy eyes!!* we offloaded the kennel, re-packed the Jeep again, and headed up the highway. 

First stop? Whistler of course!

We got a bit soaked from the March snow-rain, but we walked all around the village and Reese posed for pictures wherever we went. He always was a ham for photos so this was working out just as I had hoped it would. Too cute! Good stretch of the legs, toweled ourselves off, and got back on the road to head north. Over the Duffy Lake road through the scenic - and often harrowing - curvy roads up and down, we stopped a few times for photo ops, to go for walks, and have water and snacks. 

He's a mountain dog at heart

Seton Lake - look familiar? 😁

(Let's not talk about the dirty shape the Jeep was in, inside and out, by the time I got home)

Destination that evening was our motel in 100 Mile House, about four hours south of PG. We had taken all day to get there, Mike suggested that I had set the family record for the taking the longest to make the drive from Whistler to 100 Mile. LOL - well we had to stop and sniff at every place!!

We checked in to our motel with kitchenette, ran over to the grocery store to get some dinner to make later, and then went to the pet store, for a BATH. Everybody appreciates a good shower after flying on an airplane, right? Hhmm.... turns out no, not everybody does appreciate that....but we did it anyway. Reese needed to be spiffy for his new family tomorrow!

He's always been tolerant of baths, not impressed, but gets the job done.

Got back to the motel, cranked up the heat for the wet-fur baby, unpacked and settled in. Lots of cuddles again, honestly I could hardly believe we were doing this trip together, it was so fun, and funny!

After Reese had thoroughly dried, we went for a night walk around 100 Mile House, which now holds a sweet place in my heart, I'll always think of Reese and the time we spent there. I love that Mike and I drove through it a few times again later this year.

More walks in the morning, and we got all packed up and ready to head up the last leg of our trip. 

Lots of tourist stops in this stretch too - and I don't even feel like a crazy person for telling you I wanted to show Reese all the cool places I love. He was about to become a BC dog after all, he needed to know about mountains, gold, and jade! 

So we stopped at the jade place I mentioned on a previous blog - the folks from Jade Fever were planning on opening a smaller store south of Quesnel, and had already placed a bunch of their giant jade chunks on the property. We stopped to take a walk around. Claudia wasn't there, but we checked out the place and then went on our way. 

And the giant gold nugget pan in Quesnel!

Next stop - Prince George. I was starting to get a bit weepy-eyed, knowing we were getting close to home. I was thrilled to be introducing Reese to his new family later in the day, but it was bittersweet at the same time. I just love him to bits and miss him all the time.

We drove straight to see Mike, gather his supportive hugs, ask him to take our picture together, and then all go together to Reese's new home. 

WITH a stop at Mr. PG of course!!

And with that, it was time to take Reese to his new family, who were having a little welcome party for him. I had regaled them with stories, photos, and videos but they had never met Reese in person so I was deeply hoping that they would hit it off right away. 

Thankfully, our instincts about this family were bang on! In addition to being absolutely lovely in general, they are very experienced with Labs and understood his personality right away. By the time we got there Reese was a bit tired and worked up from all of the excitement, so Mike and I made a fairly quick exit so that they could all get to know each other, and Reese would be able to calm down without me there. I didn't say goodbye as I knew I would see him again soon.

And I did! I have several times and will be seeing him again soon. It's wonderful! I join his new owner on his morning walks every now and then, and this summer they even invited us to a banquet event for which Reese was the official mascot! It was awesome.

And here he is in all his BC glory, when we went for a walk together on my birthday:

🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎

OK well, two of my family imported here, now two to go... Claire and Cass - PG is coming for youuuuuu!  😉

Meeting Local Celebrities

Among my BC-travel highlights are the times I have had the privilege of meeting people who I think are pretty neat. Of course family and friends rank at the very top of my neat-people list! But there are some additional folks that have touched my life that I'd love to mention here, in the name of blog-updating and British-Columbia-life-sharing.  

For years I have been honoured to meet, travel, and work with many of our absolute stars in melanoma skin cancer treatment in Canada, namely from Toronto, Edmonton, Victoria, and Vancouver. Last year I even got to pop down to the Okanagan to have a SYSF dinner with a number of our treating Dermatologists, Oncologists and Surgeons in the area. As always, it was humbling and inspiring at the same time: learning on behalf of skin cancer patients, and speaking on behalf of skin cancer patients. 

In addition to these meaningful exchanges, I have had the fun of meeting up with local celebrities that are on TV. And yes, I do count medical-educational webinars and recorded zoom meetings that are online as valuable viewing material! 

But in this case I'm referring to celebrities on Netflix, History channel, CTV, Prime, Discovery, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc etc etc - you get the idea. Sheer fun!

Let's start with Mike Hall from Rust Bros, in the Shuswap area. I've watched every episode of his show, laughing out loud at all the casts' antics, and learning a lot about cool car restorations at the invitation of my boyfriend Mike. Mike first got to meet Mike on a boys' trip a couple years ago, when he stumbled upon the Rust Valley Restorers shop/property/set and decided to pop in. As (my) Mike always says, just try... "nothing bad is going to happen" - they drove in, and were respectfully checking out the place when the boss came out and hung out to look at their cars and chat.

So when we were with family in the area last summer and went out on some exploring, Mike said hey let's stop in - maybe you can meet Mike too! And so we did. He was so gracious, obviously busy but still stopped to chat with us and take a photo. So cool, very fun!

A second local celebrity honourable mention goes here, to Avery from Rust Bros, and Wildman Restorations. Little did we know, when we were in the Shuswap we drove right by Avery's place several times - and we didn't know it until this past season when we watched on TV and saw the road! Didn't get to meet Avery, but if you watch the show you'd know he goes with Mike Hall, two peas in a pod if you ask me. 😂

Click photo for creds

Shifting gears... ha ha ha...

As I've mentioned before, since I've moved here I've learned a lot about gold mining, minerals, the environment, and the terrain in northern BC. Mike and I dabble in gold panning and have plans for more next season. But in the winters when we can't be out on the land, we occasionally watch TV. And guess what's on there - Gold Rush! Yes, I am completely hooked. But alongside Gold Rush are the likes of The Curse of Oak Island and Jade Fever. Ok no we haven't met the Lagina brothers or Parker Schnabel (though last season he did visit Barkerville!), BUT - Jade Fever! - Claudia Bunce! 

In my last post I talked about our visit to Jade City on the Yukon loop. The one thing I didn't mention is that Claudia was actually there, at the Jade City store when we stopped in. I didn't think she would be there, as it was the start of summer, and one would suspect they have to make the most of their time on the land up north in the short summer season. But lucky us - she was at home! I wasn't cool calm collected enough to ask her for a photo, so you'll have to see her in this one (and at the links below).

Click photo for creds

Just hangin' out all cool and prosperous in her jade store, as welcoming as if we had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner. Instantly we sensed her intelligence and business acumen, she was open and totally friendly, and absolutely not shy about her jade mining family history, business success, and current work as well as future plan speculation. 

She chatted with Mike while I (gaped and) shopped (quickly) - Claudia even said to Mike "Wow you are a Champ for letting her stop here to shop even with your hurt arm!"  A Champ! Well yes of course Mike is a Champ, but now it gets a capital C because Claudia said it too. She also referred to another shop she is/was working on, closer to us, but you'll have to wait to hear more about that one in a future post.  Claudia and her family happen to be from Prince George, so that bought me time to shop while Mike chatted. We have actually seen her at Costco since then too but without picture proof I feel like I can't say that 😅

https://jadecity.com/

https://www.ctv.ca/shows/jade-fever

And I will close with a couple more honourable mentions for Jade Fever.  On the day of the 2021 Father's Day Show n Shine fancy car tour here in PG, we saw Claudia's nephew Shane, to the very right in the crew photo above. I saw him and (so elegantly) exclaimed (from the window of Mike's Camaro) Oh wow it's Shane from Jade Fever!! and he smiled and waved. Yep, totally cool. 

Also Scrappy Larry, in the middle of the Jade Fever crew photo above. Scrappy Larry is a side-story in the Jade Fever show, and a captivating one at that! We love Scrappy Larry, have spotted him in PG as well, and we are thrilled that he now has his own website even. 

He is funny, sweet, genuine, and he loves cookies. We had brought a freshly baked care package of cookies for Scrappy Larry when we were planning to visit Cassiar and find him on our Yukon trip, but when we had to cancel that part of our trip we missed the chance to deliver to him. In any case, we'll keep trying!

So that's it for my BC celebrity update at the moment, but stay tuned... hangin' out with Mr. Nothing-Bad-is-Gonna-Happen you never know what  - or WHO - we might encounter next! 

Ryan Reynolds is from Vancouver after all..... 

😈

You can't be impatient going to the Yukon

Another check mark on my "wow I never thought that could happen!" list - we went to the Yukon. Commonly known here, the Great Northern Circle Route can be traveled in either direction. We went from PG up to Dawson Creek and north to Fort Nelson, Liard River Hot Springs, then Watson Lake (Yukon), then back down the Stewart-Cassiar highway through Jade City, to an overnight in Stewart and then down and back across through Smithers and hwy 16 eastbound home. We did it in nine days, though really we could have spent weeks and taken more time to go farther north and/or to poke around more at all the incredible spots to see along the way.

Mike had done this trip in varying degrees over the years, sometimes with off-roading as part of it, but this time we took our RV and camped every night in a different spot along the route. To give you a visual of the route and this part of BC in relation to the world here is a screenshot of our map:

We had downloaded offline maps and printed some notes, directions, and our camping reservations as guess what - there is no cell service or wifi to be found on this route! 

This was the longest I had ever gone without talking to my girls... six. whole. days.

But it was worth it, we had a tonne of fun along the way, wildlife views galore, adventure of course, and a sprinkling of peril here and there to keep us modest. 

I was intrigued by this trip from the time Mike suggested it, in part because I grew up with some vague knowledge of the far northwest from my Dad's truck-driving days. I knew from his lore that he used to haul dynamite somewhere up here at some point in history, perhaps for mining, or for highway building? I don't know the specifics but maybe my Uncles will be able to correct my missing details - I do know there was dynamite involved, crazy driving narrow northern highway passages, and Dawson. I'm assuming Dawson City, Yukon, though we couldn't go that far (yet), we have been to Dawson Creek a couple of times now, so that will be my Dawson-Dad connection for the sake of this story. :-)

In any case, as we were planning this trip and knew we would be stopping at the iconic "Sign Post City" in Watson Lake, it felt like the perfect time to commemorate my Dad in a small way. He passed away in 1998 when I was 21, and since then I have had in my possession his cowboy hat. It lived with us in Cambridge, then Meaford, Waterloo, back to Meaford, and then came with me across the country when I moved here to Prince George. Now it was going back to the Yukon.   

Another part of the allure of this trip was traveling the famous "Old Alaska Highway," which was built during World War II to connect the contiguous United States to Alaska, across Canada. It begins in Dawson Creek, at Mile 0.

To get the trip started, we left mid-day for Chetwynd, a few hours up the road to get a head start, fill the gas tank, and camp the night in order to be close to arrive at Dawson Creek first thing in the morning. 

We were pretty excited this was to be my first time "boondocking" - camping here can be quite wild in general but I was new to boondocking: no reservations, no organized park with hydro or water, just bush, wildlife, darkness, and whatever supplies you brought yourself. Here there is so much open land and it is not illegal to just pull up a piece of riverbank and set up camp on it. I was quite astonished when Mike first told me about it and my Ontario-brain couldn't comprehend, as I am used to two options: all the land everywhere being privately owned so you can't camp there unless you're invited, or an expensive and densely populated campground. But here there is so much open land the options are endless. Boondock wherever!

We used the iOverlander app to pick a cool-looking site on East Pine River outside of town with good road access. It was a former rec site so no problem, it was a nice easy way to break me in to being in the bush with no services (except of course for the glampy luxury of our trailer shower, battery, lights, heat, and propane lol 😇). 

We pulled into the little roundabout and settled in, left the trailer hitched, quickly BBQ'd dinner and then dashed back inside the trailer to eat without mosquitoes! We played cards in the shelter, hung out and passed the evening, making jokes about the remoteness of the location and slightly creepy road in - this is where I was introduced to "The Hills Have Eyes" reference. We did go for a quick walk (if you walk fast enough the bugs can't get you) (or the potentially creepy other inhabitants) and that confirmed our plan to get out of there ASAP in the morning.

All primed for the trip, we hit the Alaska highway. The evolving scenery and glimpses of wildlife began immediately, and we had a couple chances to pull off the main road to see historic sites and cool stuff on our way to Fort Nelson.

Every day on this trip brought us different types of mountains

...and wildlife

and crazy curvy roads!

In Fort Nelson itself too we got a great tour (outdoor tour, it was covid at that time) of the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum. It was quite something! And it was a short walk from our campsite so a fun way to spend the evening after the day of driving. 

We hit the road again in the morning, with the Liard River hot springs as our next destination. On the way we passed Muncho Lake, the bluest water I have ever seen. Gorgeous! And more mountains, and more wildlife.

And treats!! (did I mention we travel in style?)

The bulk of this route is extremely remote, with long stretches between places, people, gas stations (we carried a full jerry can of gas with us) and attractions. Because I'm basically highlighting our stops, I may not be properly conveying the long stretches of remote Alaska Highway we traversed. Even the truck nav system went blank and had nothing to say.

But we stopped at the few and far between options, one being this cinnamon bun shop in the middle of nowhere. Super cute little place, and again because it was covid it was pretty empty, though the owner told me on a normal summer day they would have 400 people by 9am!

A LOT of driving... absolutely beautiful, but a lot. 

We were starting to feel pretty far from home by this point. 

This is where patience really starts to come into the picture, between zero cell service, 

winding roads pulling a trailer, and random sheep attacks we had to stay chill. 

Mike loves Liard hot springs and had told me about it a few times - and now that I've been there I can see why, and it is one of my favourite places we have visited. It is a natural hot spring, where the water comes out of the ground and into a natural pool with a gravel bottom and literal forest surround, not like a concrete pool fake-y hot spring. 

We set up the trailer at our site and headed off down the trail toward the springs. Normally visitors have to book a time to go to the hot spring and swim etc., but because we were there during covid times it was not busy at all, and we had free run to go in and out whenever we wanted to. There is a long boardwalk through the boggy area leading to the hot springs, it is very beautiful and serene. Then the boardwalk goes through lush forest with some sign markers explaining the flora and fauna. 

There is a platform of change rooms and a deck with steps down into the hot spring, but beyond that it is all natural.  And hot! The water is very warm, it's gorgeous! (even in a record-breaking late-June heat wave) Therapeutic mineral water.  You can see where the spring comes out of the ground, and if you can stand it long enough to get close you can place a rock on one of the informal inukshuks people have built there.

We checked it all out, walked the boardwalks viewing the "Hanging Gardens" above the pool area, got smart reading all the signs around, and then headed back for dinner before we'd come back for a swim. These photos really tell the story, but they still don't give full justice to the beauty of the place. 

Having had a blast at Liard, it was time to move onto the next monumental stop on this trip: Watson Lake, Yukon! Today was to be the day - if we kept driving, we'd smack right into it!  And so we did... but not quickly... it took a while, as every bend in the road risked a surprise. :-)

One does not speed by these. 

But we did make it! And once we were through the covid checkpoint entering the territory, complete with warning to "be fast!" and not interact with anyone (the Yukon was experiencing a covid outbreak that we hadn't heard about as we had had zero cell service for 3.5 days) we headed straight for Watson Lake Sign Post Forest - yay!

So I didn't know this before, but Sign Post Forest is a collection of signs at Watson Lake, Yukon and is one of the most famous of the landmarks along the Alaska Highway. It was started by a homesick GI in 1942. He was assigned light duty while recovering from an injury and erected the signpost for his hometown: Danville, Ill. 2835 miles. Visitors may add their own signs to the over 80,000 already present. *

We added our own sign, and one for my Dad, along with his hat. 

And we found signs from all over the world; I was astonished to see signs of all kinds from many places I had lived or visited, including Meaford! (check out the bottom right of this photo below)

Mission accomplished, we dutifully left the Yukon, now officially heading "south" back into BC, and onto the Stewart-Cassiar highway. It was early afternoon of day four, and we were getting a bit tired from all the excitement, the driving, the heat, plus setting up and taking down the campsite every day. That is quite different from setting up camping somewhere and staying for a long weekend or vacation. So we decided to stop earlier in this day, and enjoy some time at Boya Lake. 

Again my breath was taken away by the scenery. Crazy blue water with a white silt bottom, gorgeous to look at, and heavenly to swim in. Cold! But heavenly. 

The next morning we suffered one of the perils I referred to earlier, Mike got a pretty bad burn cooking breakfast. And we were hours of driving away from the nearest centre. We patched him up the best we could with the trailer first aid kit, but then swiftly packed up and hit the road for Dease Lake, the nearest community which would have medical care. Mike was gracious for that few hours, but it was a pretty quiet drive. Burns are the worst, ouch! The scenery was a welcome distraction, as the mountains were changing yet again. 

Originally our goal for this day on the trip was to stop at Jade City, which you might know from the TV show "Jade Fever." This part of northern BC has the largest deposit of nephrite jade in the world.* We had planned to take a drive into Telegraph Creek as well, but the road was closed so no-go. It all worked out for the best anyway, after a quick tourist stop n shop at Jade City we bee-lined for the medical centre at Dease Lake and got Mike's arm properly fixed up to get us through the next couple of days (which would still be remote). Technically we were in our health region in northern BC so no problem getting care (thinking it was a good thing this didn't happen in the Yukon).

Looking back on it, I wish I had bought a set of these, but in the moment I cheap-ed out.

But I love my Jade City hat and hoodie! And we have a piece of jade from Claudia herself 

in the back yard pond stream now at home.

Anyhooooo... after that we were a bit deflated, hot, tired, and sore, so we again decided to pull up camp a little bit earlier in the day. We found a rustic little place called Red Goat Lodge, at Iskut, on Eddontenajon Lake. We napped, had dinner, and then amused ourselves playing with the washed up sticks all gathered around the little dock on our waterfront campsite. Camp-margaritas helped ease the pain, and I got to see what summertime looks like so far north, in the land of the midnight sun.

Unbelievable sky... and this was 11:30 at night!

Rested and refreshed, in the morning we set off on the next leg on this big journey. Destination: Stewart! Back onto the Cassiar highway twisting and turning and bumping along we stopped to make our lunch at the interesting little hamlet called Bell 2, surrounded by massive mountains. There is a beautiful lodge there, and a helicoptor company that flies in and out. We strolled around the little hobbit-ish buildings before getting back on the road.

Bell 2 Lodge

Next point of interest was to be Meziadin Junction, where we would turn to head out to Stewart.  By this long time on the road I was starting to seriously look at our maps to try to stay on track with wherever the heck we were - LOL - planning this trip at home is a far cry from actually doing it! We had had a couple hiccups and plan changes and we were prepared for all of it (thanks to Mike!) but I did have to do the odd double take to understand where we had been, the parts we had had to change or skip, the parts we had added on, and now the road out to Stewart would be the same one coming back out. Confused yet? Might be good to scroll back up to the map for a second! 

All that to say... the road to Stewart was breathtaking, in a whole new mountain range kind of way. Massive mountains. AND... drumroll please.... a massive glacier. Bear River Glacier, check this out:

And then we drove into the town of Stewart itself, remote scenic historic artsy colourful quirky little tiny Stewart. Even though it was rainy and misty while we were there the colours were so striking, all the little buildings and houses were painted and decorated brightly and stood out beautifully against the mountains soaring above.

After we replenished some supplies (this was day 6 after all), set up camp, and learned that "May is B.C. Mining Month," we went for a walkabout to explore.

Foreshadow...you have to know someday I'll blog about this and 

May being Melanoma Skin Cancer Awareness Month

Stewart is at the mouth of the Portland Canal, a 144km fjord separating BC and Alaska. Stewart is also right at the tiny border crossing into Heider, U.S.A., but due to the pandemic we couldn't cross. We happily settled for wandering around the estuary and awesome walking trail/boardwalk.

I fell very much in love with Stewart.

Would have been neat to stay longer; coincidentally we were there the day before Canada Day and they were about to lift some covid restrictions so there was going to be a big town party, that would have been so fun (and funny) to see! But that's okay, I know we will go back again. 

At this point we had also regained cell service, so we spent a bit of time catching up with home and kids, and then hit the road again - back to the main highway and head south-east-ish to next stop Smithers. We did a couple of slow drives around the Hazeltons, noted that we needed to come back to the area again to see the lava beds, historical totem poles, and explore westward toward Terrace and Prince Rupert. But at this point we were homeward bound. Well, with a couple of stops in between. 

We went to the hospital in Smithers to get Mike's arm re-checked and re-wrapped, and then went toward our camping spot for the next two nights. Tyhee Lake Provincial Park was huge, and really lovely! We set up, had a camping-food leftovers meal, and then checked out the park. 

The next day we drove into Smithers to go hiking at Twin Falls. 

Long story short, we saw Twin Falls, but we never did actually get TO Twin Falls. We mis-read the trail map, took the "difficult" route by accident and almost fell off the side of a cliff before turning around to take the shorter trail to the riverbed instead. 

Gave up on the hiking, went into town to go out for lunch, and then went back to the park to chill for the night before our final drive home. 

A little tired, but still smiling :-)

And to home we did get, parked the trailer in it's spot, took in all the laundry, and collapsed. LOL What an adventure! This trip was amazing in so many ways, incredibly memorable, and serves as a major highlight in our travel-together-repertoire. It gave me a huge education in northern BC terrain, history, and culture. And some lessons we learned from it will be very useful on our next big remote-explore camping trip - to Bella Coola!

To add to my highlight reel version of our trip along this route, I have pasted below a link to another website which goes into great detail (and with many helpful links to places and things) about the Great Northern Circle Route. They don't go to the Liard River hot springs (and we skipped Tumbler Ridge on this trip), but otherwise they cover the trip extremely well, and they even list a bunch of stuff about Prince George that I haven't yet shared. Feel free to check it out, we found it very helpful in planning our trip. Enjoy!

https://www.hellobc.com/road-trips/great-northern-circle-route/  

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~ In Loving Memory of my Dad ~

~ Cheers! ~

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