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Heading Home to Prince George


Prince Rupert is located on an island. Shortly after leaving the island, the road, Highway 16 - the Yellowhead Highway - skirts a particularly beautiful spot overlooking a lake sprinkled with small clusters of spruce covered islands.

On this morning a mist hung like a curtain over the islands. The surface of the water was perfectly still creating an exceptional mirror image of each of the islands.

Even though I had left Alaska I was not above stopping again for exceptional scenery. This was a sight I just had to capture on my Sony Power Shot SD 800 IS digital camera. The resulting photo has been serving as the background image of my desktop ever since my return from Alaska.

Later in the day along the Yellowhead Highway, I caught sight of a passing Lyndon Transport truck . Lyndon is the biggest transporter in Alaska and the sight of its truck reconnected me with Alaska. I couldn't help but smile as a warm feeling came over me as I reflected on the wonderful moments of discovery that I had experienced on this great trip to Alaska / Yukon.

A huge part of North America, which until now had been unfamiliar to me, was now well preserved in my memory and even better in my blog.

Blogging trumps memory and that is why I blog.

Where have my trips to Turkey, Israel, Egypt, Chile and the trips to every western and some eastern European countries gone? Since these trips took place long before blogging was even invented, there is only a distant memory that remains.

While this sounds plausible, even more compelling is the need to store the many photographs taken during trips in a convenient place which will be accessible at some future point in time (barring the demise of Travelpod) . This need was brought about by my newly discovered interest in digital photography which is a great joy and toy especially for travelers.

Looking at beautiful scenery is greatly enhanced by capturing it on a digital camera. Writing about it makes it three times as good.

The drive from Prince Rupert to Terrace along the Skeena River is one of the great drives in British Columbia and there are many great drives in this beautiful province. For the most part, the Skeena River valley is wide and the river at this time of year is very much braided like the rivers I saw in Alaska.

Fatigue must have been setting in because, despite what I said earlier, I did not stop to take photos.

The beautiful scenery east continues through to the towns of New Hazelton and Smithers (a mini Banff-like town), which is located about half way between Prince Rupert and Prince George .

Just east of Terrace I passed a stretch of the Yellowknife Highway which in retrospect appeared unusual insofar as the sides of the road were seeded with new grass and the road was lined with cement abutments.

It struck me that this must been the part of the Yellowhead which in May 2007 had been covered by a massive landslide. Two people lost their lives when their pickup truck was buried.

I made a quick U-turn and went back to examine this tragic spot which was marked by a make shift cross.

The most surprising aspect of the landslide was that it happened in an area having a relatively gentle slope towards the highway. There are many other parts of the highway where the roadside slopes are steeper and more threatening.

Sixty kilometers beyond the sight of the landslide I returned to Kitwanga Junction. This is where the Yellowhead Highway (Highway 16) and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway (Highway 37) meet . Five weeks ago I turned north on Highway 37 to launch a 5,000 km circle tour. The circle was now complete.

I mentioned earlier that I was too tired to take photos.

That was the theme of this final leg of my Alaska/Yukon trip - fatigue.

I had not slept well during the last three nights on the Alaska Ferries.

That seemed to catch up with me during my 700 km drive from Prince Rupert to Prince George.

Incredibly, I stopped four times during this drive for a nap and each time I slept for more than an hour - that's four hours of sleep during this drive.

The last time was near New Hazelton where I made a U-turn into a rest stop to take a nap.

Upon awakening I launched into my drive back home by driving straight ahead.

There was only one problem . About 15 minutes into the drive, I became aware of the fact that I was facing into the setting sun.

Sensing the urgent need for another U-turn if I wanted to arrive in Prince George, I sheepishly tucked in my tail between my legs, so to speak, and proceeded to drive in the right direction - east!

What an ignominious end to a 5,000 km trip that I had navigated almost flawlessly!


Coming Soon:

Alaska/Yukon - The Epilogue