HaveKidsWillTravel

Next morning we were still shrouded in thick mist, and were poking about outside when a couple of women appeared out of the fog – out for their morning hike with two big dogs and a large handgun in a shoulder holster – “for protection” (apparently the bears can be “bothersome” at times). But it turned out there was a good forestry campground about a mile back down the road, so we headed back down the mountain and scoped it out on our way back to town. Point Nemo it’s called, and in between the layers of rising fog, it looked spectacular – perched high on the mountain looking across the channel to snowcapped mountains on the far side, with a bald eagle nesting high in a tree right in front of us.

We headed back into town to find it deserted for memorial day public holiday – but were able to get a real American breakfast in a great little old-style diner – the ‘Diamond C’ – and take in the main tourist sites of town (petroglyph beach, chief Shakes island) before heading back up to our eyrie.

It’s a small campground on a precipitous mountainside in swampy muskeg – made habitable by dumping 15 feet of sawdust, compacting and levelling it across the site. Spongy but satisfying.

As we pulled up, an 8 year old girl leapt out of the bushes with a homemade bow and arrow around her shoulders and brandishing a wooden sword. 3 jaws dropped. It turns out we were sharing the campground with the Andersons – a local family with 7 kids, with the youngest 5 engaged in campground combat. Our 3 could not believe their luck, and with the sunshine, the eagles, the view across the channel and the kids now happily entertained, neither could we.

After whittling their own cedar bows and arrows, the children spent the rest of the afternoon and long into the evening locked in a historical recreation of the war of independence – the minutemen (under 10s) vs the redcoats (their two older brothers) – 5 whole hours without any tears, recriminations, or anyone losing an eye – culminating in them building a slide down the side of our sawdust mountain and getting unbelievably filthy – covered in decomposing red cedar from head to toe…

But we’re booked on the early morning ferry to Petersburg tomorrow – just a shame to have to leave when the children are all fighting so nicely…

Today we had to hang around the big town of Prince George – time to pick up groceries, get an oil change for Winnie, and find a way of hooking up the iPod so we don’t have to listen to any more Country & Western on the radio. Guy at the Dodge dealership tried to charge $250 for an oil change, which I politely declined and booked into Canadian Tire instead. Guy at Canadian Tire goes ‘uh, actually, I don’t think we have any oil in stock for this vehicle – I’ll try the Dodge Dealership’ – sure enough, they have just the thing – 10 litres of it – at $27/litre… (fortunately, we managed in the end to find a reasonable substitute)

Rather than drag the kids around the shops and auto mechanics, we took it in turns with them running around the park. The sun was shining, the trees are in bloom, and in a true taste of spring in central BC, even their water park was open. The kids just took off in a trail of discarded clothing towards it, frolicked and carried on with all the other kids playing into the fountains and eventually dragged me from my comfortable snooze in the sunshine on the bench into the midst of it all, where I proceeded to scream like a 6 year old girl – they must run glacial meltwater in the damn thing! Digby had by this time just about turned blue, so I wrapped my fleece around him to thaw out in the sunshine, but Gus and Evie seem impervious to the cold – which might just come in handywhere we’re headed…

Now there’s a big difference between private RV parks (which are all you have in the cities) and campgrounds in state parks – the RV parks have plenty of facilities – power, water, WiFi, swimming pools, hot showers, laundry, but all you have in the way of personal space is a concrete pad and a square of grass in what is basically a big RV parking lot – filled with retired couples in matching shell suits who can talk for a long time about their gas mileage. State park campgrounds vary, but tend to have limited facilities – a long walk to a rustic toilet block with luke-warm showers, but are often in spectacular settings – with your own firepit, picnic bench, and you’re more likely to see marauding raccoons than nosy neighbours.

So we settled in and hardly moved the next day. The mossy pine forest was still damp from the past few days of rain, and there was a cold, cold wind coming down from the snowcapped mountains around us – the kids rode their bikes around the campsite and the lake, while we sat around with our guidebooks planning the next stage of the journey and poking at the campfire.

With some kind of plan figured out, we stopped at Whistler the next morning for Fiona to find an internet cafe to try and book ferry tickets while I kept the kids occupied on a cultural tour – showing them what life will be like for them someday as a penniless backpackers working on the ski fields. Digby was a bit disappointed there was no snow in the ski village, but the road North to Lillooet just seemed to keep going up and up, so we stopped for lunch close to the pass – where there are still feet of snow. Digby was ecstatic, and instigated some serious snowball fights on the walk to the lake where Evie sank through the ice into knee-deep freezing lake water. Angus won the snowball fight with a direct hit to the back of my head that slipped all down the back of my shirt. Till next time.

We made it to ‘Historic Hat Creek Ranch’ and shared the communal campfire with a bunch of German travellers. For the first time in days, we had some warm sunshine, so spent the afternoon riding, and wrestling on the grass. Angus discovered the ancient art of Frisbee while Digby scared off the only other toddler with his over-enthusiastic friendmaking. We had a lovely big grassy campsite, so Angus and I set up the new tent for the first time as a bit of a test run and actually got a pretty good night sleep (although I think Fiona and Evie got a better one, getting the whole beds inside to themselves!)

Next morning we toured the historical village, did the obligatory stagecoach ride and headed up into central BC. Down out of the mountains, the landscape through this part of the country is beautiful this time of year – spring blossoms and new growth the aspen contrasting with the dark green of the pines, scattered lakes, rivers in full flood, broad green rolling hills and distant snowy peaks.

If only it didn’t just seem to go on forever…