More on BC

July 28, 2007

Left Smithers and got to Burns Lake. We left the RV at a college parking lot and took a trip out to what we were told were agate and opal beds. Sounds like a great place to dig for rocks. We followed the directions and it was a lot of logging trails. Made a few wrong turns, but finally made it to where you park to hike to the beds.

We started the hike and it was really muddy and full of mosquitoes. Doug only had shorts on and we did not have our mosquito nets. The hike is a total of about 2 ½ miles so we decided to stay overnight and go back tomorrow when we were equipped.

On the way out we had seen a municipal park so we picked up the RV and went there. Nice little park on Burns Lake. As Doug was turning to get into a spot he didn’t see a railroad tie and hit it with the steps!!! The steps are now non functioning!!!!

We were setting up and a drunk came over panhandling. We started to wonder if we should move when another RV pulled in, so we decided it was OK to stay. They told us the Cassair Hwy. was closed again and this time for quite a while. When they came over they saw a Class A RV with a tow car on it’s side. We had heard about others that have done that.

By the time we went to bed, there were a total of 5 RV’s here so we felt more comfortable. Around 11:30 we were awakened by a car doing wheelies in the parking lot. There were a group of kids having a little party. They hung around for an hour or so and then left. We were up a good part of the night as it had rattled us a bit.

July 30, 2007

The day is lovely, but we had decided not to go to the opal beds. Doug has a bad feeling about it, I think it is more the 2 ½ mile hike, but it is better if we don’t go. There is another town on the way that talks about good rock hunting, so will stop there.

Doug is working on the step to hold it in place while we travel. I don’t think we will have the use of it again until we get home.

Will try to get to Prince George today. Have gone through Prince George and headed toward Quesnel, will stop there for the night.

We have gone through some lovely farm land with mountains in the distance. Many of the mountains look like they have been burned, but it is actually from the pine bark beetle. An article we read said that it has been cataclysmic to BC and the only way to fight it is to cut down the forests. They have cleared thousands of acres and have many thousands to go. The article stated that the only thing to stop it is a couple of extremely cold winters. The winters the last few years have not been cold enough to kill the larva.

Rain on and off all day, they can actually be happy they are having so much rain, because these dead trees would cause quite a fire.


July 31, 2007

We stayed at Quesnel, it was very cold again when we got up, but it was sunny. We were very disappointed to find out that we could not go on a sawmill tour. They advertise them, but the gal at the information center said they have not been having them and she did not know why.

Someone told us we should take a ride out to Barkerville about 50 miles. Since we had already paid for the night at the campground we drove out. It was a restored little mining town. We didn’t get there until around 3pm and they closed at five so we decided not to go through as it would take us a lot longer than two hours.

On the way home we decided to do some rock hunting along the road. They have a lot of agate and quartz here. We saw a good selection on the other side of a ditch. Doug said we could make it easy - ha!!! I started down and it was so loose I started to fall, he took my hand, but as I went down I twisted my knee!!!

I didn’t let it stop me from getting some really nice rocks, but it sure did hurt. By the time we got home I could hardly walk on it. I took some pain killers before bed so hopefully I will have a good nights sleep and it will be better in the morning.