Valemount, BC 472 KM

 A beautiful sunset capped last evening at the appropriately named View Hotel in Fort St. James. Before dinner last night we went for a walk along the main drag. Not one but two RCMP vehicles were patrolling and stopping to talk to the young people on the side of the road. Not sure if Friday night is usually rowdy there

Stuart Lake from hotel room

This morning we left at 0830 and retraced our route to Vanderhoof (gave Subway a miss) and on through Prince George. The Yellowhead highway appears to take a tortuous route through residential Prince George – at least that is what the map suggests. So we went on a bypass road around the city. It may have taken longer but we are sure it paid dividends in reduced frustration. Once out of the city it is clear sailing for 200 km of BC bush to McBride. There are no rooms available in McBride because there is a CN mega-crew there. We knew that something was up as we could not pre-book there.

Once again, nice wildflower displays along the roadside. The temperature all day was just perfect. But then anything cooler than 35C would be good after last week’s torture.

Roadside Wildfowers

We met a black bear who apparently just had a bath in the ditch. He left a cute little trail of foot prints across the road behind him. Initially we thought we had scared the pee right out of him and that was the trail. It was only later when we looked at the video on the GoPro that we realized it was wet foot prints.

Wet Black Bear

Wet footprints

We stopped at a rest stop which contained a memorial cairn. In 1974 eight young men - six of them about to graduate from Prince George Senior Secondary School and the other two in Grade 11 - set out Saturday morning for a canoe trip that was to end that evening. They never made it. Their three canoes and a kayak capsized and were swallowed by rapids in the Willow River Canyon before the swollen river emptied into the Fraser. Gone. When the news broke the next day -- Mother's Day -- the city was in shock and disbelief. Some Mother's Day for the eight moms.

We are in Valemount, BC tonight – a popular recreation area. We are staying at an impressive Best Western in a suite-like room. After having a late lunch we decided to share a seafood pasta dinner. It was wonderful but just enough to allow for warmed chocolate cake and ice cream for dessert. Tomorrow we head through the Columbia Icefields.