My 5-year BC Citizenship – Check!!

British Columbia, Canada, is a land of adventure, varied landscapes, has the world’s only inland temperate rainforest, and much unique and fascinating industry and history that I continue to learn. I was thrilled to move here five years ago, to share life with the man of my dreams. Along with Mike’s warm welcome, I was embraced into his beautiful family, for whom I am grateful and enjoy spending lots of time with. I have also met and made many friends, acquaintances, and colleagues in Prince George, BC.

It has been a busy five years to be sure! And I was always on my toes – alert for any opportunity to earn “points” toward my “BC Citizenship application.” As I have mentioned before, when I moved here, Mike gaily informed me that I would not truly be a British Columbian until I had passed the exam after five whole years of living here. (If you have not previously read my blog about the move and introduction of the BC Citizenship, please feel free to sidebar, here) And I quote: “Mike tests me regularly. I frequently 'lose points,' but then I get them back in sneaky-smart I'm-gonna-be-a-BC-girl ways ha ha - so fingers crossed for the five-year test.”

We’ve driven to the Yukon, the Shuswap, the Okanagan, the Kooteneys, the Bowron Lakes chain, and the Island. Have touched the geographical centre of British Columbia, as well as BC’s Pacific coast in four places – Stewart, Prince Rupert, Bella Coola, and Tofino. Multiple trips to Vancouver of course, via the Fraser Canyon or the Duffy Lake road – both equally entertaining! Also hit up a place called Sasquatch – no joke.

I know where the Fraser River begins. Have camped boondocking. Touched ancient petroglyphs. Skinny-dipped in the midnight sun.

I have my gold miner’s license and know how and where to pan for gold. We hold annual passes for Barkerville, and we’ve explored Likely, Quesnel Forks, and the historical mines of the area.

We’ve adventured countless lakes, rivers, water falls, trails, back roads, dams, hot springs, hoodoos, gondolas, suspension bridges, and even a rodeo ground after dark. We’ve seen glaciers, bears, moose, deer, elk, caribou, bison, eagles, and the most incredible night skies – stars stars stars and of course the aurora borealis.

I’ve met Mike Hall, Claudia Bunce, Caden Fanshaw – and Mr. PG! I’ve written a blog for the City of Prince George, and I’ve gotten myself on three local radio stations as well as the CKPG Today television broadcast. And Mike and I were featured in and on the cover of our neighbourhood magazine. 😁

I’ve gotten my photo taken with a Conservation Officer.  And most recently, I have registered a business in BC, to renew my entrepreneurial vigor and be in BC Business. (More on that later)

 

And drumroll please…..  

I got my BC Citizenship!!!

 

On the 5^th anniversary of beginning our adventure together, Mike threw me a crazy impromptu surprise party with a bunch of our beloved family and friends! I was so shocked, walking in to the party with so many special faces (and a secret surprise guest I’m not allowed to reveal but whose photo you can find elsewhere in this blog), a huge cake, a BC flag, and all the love I could possibly imagine flowing around the table.

In classic Mike fashion though I had to work for it LOL – there was indeed an exam! I had to answer five questions about British Columbia, standing in front of everyone, still so shocked but also thrilled.

I aced all the questions except for a brief phone-a-friend moment for the year that BC joined Confederation – my Ontario showed when all I could think of was 1867 – BC became a Canadian province in 1871. Whoops – I knew that from all the great presentations at Barkerville! I did make up a few points by over-answering a couple of the other questions, and my smarty-pants friends even challenged me with the suggestion of a couple of real stumper questions – thanks guys!

My ever-flowing tears really burst forth when Mike announced I had officially passed the citizenship test and was now declared a British Columbian, and all my loved ones around the table waved little BC flags! 

Mike left no stone unturned in this process, and I am grateful for his thoughtfulness and caring, and his love of fun and shenanigans. We laughed and cried and partied on, so freakin’ wonderful I can’t even put it into words. ❤️ Thank you Mike!! ❤️ And everyone, for making that crazy surprise happen, for being there for me that evening and in the last five years, and for the promise of more love and laughter in the years to come.

So, as a real live BC Citizen, I’d love to share with you some photos of our last five years. Thank you Mike, for being who you are, and for sharing with me. I love and cherish you so much and appreciate every moment we spend together. -- AND I’m extra super glad I passed my citizenship as I truly don’t know what would have happened if I didn’t!! I’m glad you’re keeping me, but I’ll still always work extra hard for the points. 

To close this blog, I’ll leave you with the tidbit that I will soon be officially launching our new business: Allan Events Co.  Mike and I are partnering on this venture, which will encompass business event planning, but also our writing and speaking engagements. Very excited to return to entrepreneurship and support the business community and medical education sphere in Prince George and the province!

Allan Events Co.: corporate event organizers planning, coordinating, and executing business-related conferences, summits, networking events, meetings, education events, and CME accredited programs. Whether it’s an industry summit or a grassroots networking event, we create space for ideas to flourish and people to thrive.

Our work is also deeply rooted in the oncology patient support space, where we’ve helped lead advocacy initiatives, global education campaigns, and professional development events for healthcare providers.

In-person, virtual, or hybrid - we’ve delivered impactful events in every format—from networking events, training sessions, and roundtable meetings to CME-accredited conferences and symposiums. Event idea? Let’s make it happen!

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!  😉

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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