RV ALASKA - "Bad Day at Black Rock"

When I was young, whenever our family ran into a difficult situation, I remember my dad saying, “It’s a bad day at Black Rock.”  It wasn’t until well after he had passed that I wondered where that expression came from and did a little research.  As it turns out, “Bad Day at Black Rock” was a 1955 film that was nominated for three Academy Awards – Best Actor in a Leading Role (Spencer Tracy), Best Directing (John Sturges) and Best Writing (Millard Kaufman).  “Bad Day at Black Rock” has remained in my repertoire of often used expressions even though my dad passed almost 40 years ago.  As we headed into our final days in Canada, I had no idea it was, indeed, about to become a Bad Day at Black Rock.

As planned, after we left Tyhee Lake Provincial Park, we continued east to Prince George on the Yellowhead Highway, then south on Route 97.  We weren’t long out of Prince George when we parked ourselves at the MamaYeh RV Park just south of town for a brief one night layover.  The next day, we continued south to Cache Creek, and picked up Highway 1 south (the Trans-Canada Highway) – which would take us just about all the way to the United States border at Sumas, Washington.

We had reservations in Anacortes, Washington, beginning Monday, August 26^th, and were looking forward to visiting with Valerie (a childhood friend of mine) and her husband Charles who live just south of Anacortes on Whidbey Island.  Prior to that, we planned to spend Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at Skihist Provincial Park in Lytton, British Columbia, and cross back into the States on Monday morning.

While I had thoroughly researched the Cassiar Highway, I was unfamiliar with the roads we were now traveling.  In western Canada, there aren’t many route options.  Having committed to the Cassiar Highway and to re-entering the United States at Sumas in order to visit our friends, we needed to follow the Trans-Canada Highway south.  Any deviation would cost us hundreds of miles and more time than we had allotted to that segment of the trip.  We had no other options.

As we traveled from Tyhee Lake to Prince George, we watched the magnificent scenery of western Canada transition to spectacular fields of rolling farmland.  The mountains, now distant, took a back seat to well-tended farms, barns and cattle herds.  It really was beautiful country to travel through.  After our departure from the MamaYeh RV Park just south of Prince George on the morning of August 23^rd, we eventually picked up the Trans-Canada Highway (Route 1) and entered the Thompson River Canyon. I didn’t know it yet, but what had started off as a beautiful, sunny day was about to become a Bad Day at Black Rock.    

Date(s) – August 22nd – August 23rd

Total Miles Traveled to Date – 15,254

Wildlife Sightings to Date – We saw a total of 2 eagles over the course of those two days.  I’m pretty sure it’s safe to say that our major wildlife sighting days were over. 

So, our current tally of wildlife sightings is: 1 fox; 4 feral horses; 3 loons; 2 ptarmigans; 5 ospreys; 101 dalmatians eagles (including 2 fledglings); 4 seagull chicks; 16 swans (including 2 fuzzy cygnets); 9 sea lions; 27 seals; 17 sea otters; 4 cow moose; 1 bull moose; 5 grizzly bears (including a sow with 2 cubs and the back end of one grizzly retreating into the brush); 8 black bears; 1 coyote; 1 snowshoe hare; 3 rabbits (including one very fast bunny that just managed to cross the road safely); several small herds of bison with at least 2 dozen young calves; 9 deer (2 of them bucks with their racks covered in velvet); 9 mountain goats (including 3 tiny and adorable kids); 23 bighorn sheep; 62 elk (including 7 calves that hadn’t yet lost their spots and a number of bull elk with full racks covered in velvet); several small herds of pronghorn antelope (including 2 mamas with 3 newborn fawns between them); 3 great blue herons; dozens of American white pelicans; at least a half dozen families of adult geese with goslings; and several dozen ducks (with lots of little ducklings).

Highlight(s) of the Day – In our 45+ years of camping, we’ve never had this happen before!  Shortly after we had settled into our long, pull-through (so thankful we didn’t have to unhitch for our brief one night layover) campsite at MamaYeh RV Park, the owner came by to see us – just to introduce himself and thank us for visiting his campground.  He had his young grandson with him, and he encouraged the boy to say hello and thank us, as well.  He told us he had recently purchased the RV park and had improvements planned.  He asked if we needed anything and wished us a good night when we said we didn’t.  A big round of applause for someone who is trying hard to meet – and meet the needs of – all of his customers.  I could name a few places that would benefit from his lessons.  Actually, more than a few.

Lowlight(s) of the Day – Where to begin?!  The Trans-Canada Highway was spectacular – as long as you don’t mind twisty-turny roads with drop-offs of hundreds of feet and guardrails (on the rare occasions where they highway folks chose to use them) that were about four inches high and made of popsicle sticks.  Okay, they weren’t really made of popsicle sticks, but they might as well have been.  Y’all know I have a fear of heights, right?  Well, the spectacularly magnificent canyon through which the Thomspon River runs is not for the faint of heart or those with an ingrained fear of heights and outside turns with huge drop-offs and no guardrails.  That’s me.  I had no idea what I was in for.  Actually, Alan had no idea what he was in for until I had the worst panic attack I’ve ever had on a road like that.  I really did try to hold it together, but I failed miserably.  If it had just been a short stretch of road, I could have easily handled it.  But this was 20 or 30 miles of curves accompanied by steep drop offs.  Definitely not my cup of tea.  Alan deserves a medal; he's my hero.  He was driving as smoothly and as carefully as he could, all the while trying to distract me and keep me from looking over the edge.  If heights don’t bother you, you would enjoy the journey through the Thomspon River Canyon immensely.  It’s simply gorgeous.  If any of you do go, please send me some photos because we don’t have any.   It’s kind of hard to take pics when your eyes are closed and your fingernails are digging into the console and door of the truck.  If Alan wants to drive that road again, he can go by himself.  I won’t survive another trip.

So, the next lowlight – warning signs for falling rocks.  We had been seeing the graphic signs for falling rocks during much of this trip.  We were traveling close to step, rocky mountainsides, and caution was definitely advised.  Alan and I had translated the graphics of tumbling rocks to “Rocks falling on our heads,” but we were taking the warnings quite seriously and keeping our eyes open.  All you had to do was look at the size and quantity of the rocks collecting along the edges of the roads we were traveling and you’d know the warnings had merit.  Now, in the Thompson River Canyon, we were seeing warning signs for falling rocks, but with an added note: Be especially careful during rainstorms.  Yikes!  Not only had it already started to rain, but a lot of rain was predicted over the next few days.  Now, not only did I have my fear of heights to deal with, but there was a very real danger present if we continued to drive the Trans-Canada Highway.  Alan didn’t disagree.  By the time we arrived at Skihist Provincial Park where we planned to spend the weekend, my nerves were completely shot, and we didn’t really know what to do.  We decided to drive through the campground to see if it might make a good place to hole up and just wait for the weather to break, sticking to our plan of crossing back into the States on Monday morning.  But Skihist was located on the edge of the canyon.  As Alan switch-backed his way to the campsites, I started to get a little panicky again.  I told him that I didn’t think I could camp for three nights on the walls of the canyon that had just transformed me into a basket case.  The best sites were, of course, up high, overlooking the canyon.  Other sites were on more level ground, but they all looked tinder-dry.  Wildfires had been such a serious threat this year because so much of Canada was in a drought.  I couldn’t imagine having to negotiate a wildfire in that canyon.  Yes, my imagination was running wild.  No, I couldn’t just turn it off.  If we did stay at Skihist, I had no doubt it would have been the worst three nights of the trip.  Discretion being the better part of valor, we decided to make a run for the border, trying to beat the worst of the weather.

Late in the day, we pulled into the small community of Hope, British Columbia, for a gas fill up.  It was still another hour to the border, and an additional hour and a half to reach Anacortes.  Poor Alan had already put in a full day of driving and we still had a number of miles to go.  Until that night, almost every Canadian we had met had been friendly and welcoming.  As we were finishing pumping our gas, a woman in a small sedan tried to back up to the pump next to us.  It was pretty obvious that if she did work her way back to the pump successfully (doubtful), we would effectively be blocked from exiting.  When I (very politely) asked her if she would please move just to let us out, she got nasty and told me it was my problem and to figure it out.  Wow!  Okay then!  Somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed!  What I didn’t know was that she had backed into the concrete post by the gas pumps when she was trying to back in next to the pumps.  Alan saw it happen, and it probably explains why she was so pissy with me.  Luckily, two other drivers moved so that we could exit the small station, and our faith in our neighbors to the north was restored.  Still, that incident would be our final memory of our time in Canada, which is really such a shame.  When we finally managed to get out of the gas station, we still had a problem.  We were making a run for the border, but we had nowhere to go.  As we continued south out of Hope, I was researching as fast and furiously as I could.  The night got darker and the rain continued.  It was not our finest hour.  

Special Message(s) – Gina, we couldn’t help but think of your “singing Christmas carols in the back of the minivan in Italy” story as I panicked my way down through Thompson Canyon.  Remembering that story gave us a laugh and helped relieve some of the tension.  Thank you for being there with us, even though you didn’t know you were!

Bernie, the brake on my side of the truck is definitely not working.  Again.

Campground(s) – At the time of our visit to the MamaYeh RV Park in Prince George, British Columbia, the owner was, indeed, in the midst of improvements.  The sites had full hookups, but you had to be self-contained to stay there.  There were no restrooms or showers available.  Despite the restrictions, we’d stay at MamaYeh’s again in a heartbeat.  It’s definitely not a destination campground.  But a friendly and conscientious owner, l-o-n-g, private pull-through sites with full hookups for a reasonable price ($52.50 per night including tax and in Canadian dollars) and a convenient location just outside of the large city of Prince George were all big plusses in our books.  We wish the new owner good luck and much success in all of his endeavors!

Laugh(s) of the Day – Did you ever have one of those days when you just had to have another cup of coffee?  Regular readers know we’re big fans of McCafé coffee from McDonald’s.  The only problem is, McDonald’s restaurants are few and far between in western Canada.  So, what to do when you’re on the road and you really need that extra cup of coffee?  You pull into a rest area, drop your tailgate, get out your Mr. Coffee, crank up your generator and enjoy a fresh hot cup of coffee in ten minutes.  Just like that!  Here’s photographic proof that yes, indeed, we really are that addicted to our cup o’ joe . . . 

Note the Cranberry Oatmeal cookies from Safeway warming up on top of the coffee maker - delicious!

Pics(s) of the Day

A different kind of scenery from what we had been seeing, but impressive nonetheless

Site #1 - a long pull-through at MamaYeh RV Park in Prince George

More gorgeous farmland - before the rain clouds moved in

The Trans-Canada Highway in British Columbia - taken before it got worse and I could no longer look

The Thompson River running through the canyon

A dismal photo to end a dismal day

Up Next – I had no idea what was up next.  Alan was still driving in the dark, through the rain, and the U.S. border didn’t feel like it was getting any closer.  I was still trying to find someplace that would take us in on a Friday night and give us a place to call home through the weekend.  This was definitely NOT the ending we had expected for our final day in Canada.