When Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

View of Deen's Inlet from Blue Jay Lake, BC

When we reached Prince George, the smoke from the many wildfires in British Columbia was so thick, we could hardly see a football-field length in front of us. Weather reports rated the air as toxic. 

Smoke from BC wildfires near Prince George

Needing to catch our breath from all the driving, we decided to slow down for a day or two.  We also hoped the air would be clearer on the other side of Heckman Pass. So off to Bella Coola, we went. Thankfully, the air was, indeed, much clearer. 

Bella Coola is a small, Nuxalk First Nation town along the western coast of Canada, with just over 2,000 in population. Besides its beautiful scenery, Bella Coola is known for the “Hill” or Freedom Road. It is a steep, gravel road that connects the coastal town to the mainland. The Hill drops from Heckman Pass at about 5,000 feet to sea level in just over nine miles.  Parts of the road are only wide enough for a single vehicle. With hairpin turns and switchbacks, there are no guard rails. The crazy part about the road is the grade… in some places it can be as high as 18 percent.  Good brakes are absolutely essential!

Legend has it that the townspeople got tired of waiting for the government to build the road, so they took it upon themselves. With experts saying it was an impossible endeavor, they set a bulldozer on top and one at the bottom, each working until they met. In 1953, the road was opened. 

While David was in the Visitor Center, an elderly First Nation lady in a walker came by the truck, admiring Sam. She stopped to talk. Her name was Cindy. 

Cindy began to tell me her story. When I couldn’t understand her pronunciation, she explained that when she was young, a drunk beat her so badly and her jaw was so broken that her brother had to pull most of her teeth with pliers. She didn’t trust the dentist, so she drank until she couldn’t feel the pain.  Evidently she passed out during the first extraction. She only had seven teeth remaining. These encounters and stories people tell me touch me so deeply. I wish I could have spent hours learning more about her and how her life has turned out. Cindy left me to enjoy the music festival.  

At the visitor center, David learned the ferry was due to land in the afternoon.  Coupled with the small music festival scheduled for the weekend, accommodations were scarce and crowded. We found a place to camp the first night just out of town. The next morning we decided to leave the hustle and bustle and take the Clayton Falls Forest Service Road to Blue Jay Lake, about 14 miles south of Bella Coola, along Deen’s Inlet (off Whisky Bay). We had attempted the road during our last trip to Bella Coola in 2011, but we had a late start and turned around about midway. 

Road to Blue Jay Lake

The road to the lake was extremely rocky and rough, with deep ruts and many washouts. It took us three hours to go just over fourteen miles and gain 4,900 feet in elevation. The lake and view of Deen’s Inlet, however, made the trip worthwhile. 

David and Sam at Blue Jay Lake

We spent the afternoon letting Sam swim, taking walks, and soaking in the fresh, brisk air. 

Another early morning wake-up call by Sam put us on the road by seven. Onward we go, hoping to slow down once we get past the fires and on the Cassiar Highway.

Welcome to Our 2023 Trip

Meet Sam, our newest addition to the family.

Welcome to our travels!  It’s been five years since we visited Alaska. In 2019, we journeyed to Australia. Then the pandemic hit, and the Canadian border was closed. We are excited to be on our way north once again. 

We’re also breaking in our new traveling companion, Sam. Six years after losing our beloved Roxanne, we decided to open our hearts to another Golden. Samantha is not quite two years old and still a handful. Goldens are slow to mature, and Sam seems to be stretching the limits, but she’s ours. Hope springs eternal that she will soon settle from crazy dog to obedient. Hopefully this trip will be a positive for all. 

Summer came early to Texas. We broke 100 degrees in early June.  Normally those temperatures are not seen until July. As a result, we have been pushing hard to reach cooler climes. It has already been a journey. It has taken six days for us to reach the Canadian border.

We steered through the Fish Creek wild horses and Steen Mountain wild horse areas. But wild horses are elusive and take time to find. We decided to just mark their territories and move on, saving them for a later date. At least we did find five wild burros during our search. 

Wild burro near Fish Creek, Nevada

We have also felt like we were traveling through the plagues of Eqypt.  We drove through a Blood-red Mormon cricket invasion in Nevada. The road was so thick with the insects crawling over one another that you could actually hear their carcasses hit the undercarriage of the truck.  Our tire treads were full of their squished bodies… pretty disgusting. Some parts of the road were so thick with crickets that some drivers have reported hydroplaning on them. To give you an idea of how bad the invasion is, Nevada’s DOT has actually used snow plows to clear them from the road. (See a news report link at the bottom of the post.)

Blood-red Mormon Cricket

Then we ran into a grasshopper invasion in southern Oregon. We would run through waves of grasshoppers jumping, flying, and hopping across the road.  Sadly, many are still stuck in the truck's grill.

 

On we traveled. By the third morning, I was looking for my sweatshirt to ward off the chill… always a good sign. 

Sam is still adjusting to our travel schedule. And the time change!  She begins to whimper about five a.m., which is seven at home.  Hopefully she’ll get the idea soon. It’s comical to watch her in the truck as we drive long days. Like a toddler, she flops from one position to the next, with heavy sighs and lots of drama. We try to hike with her in the evenings or camp near water so she can swim. She seems to be getting the hang of it. 

I’ve been concerned about crossing into Canada after their long border closure. I am happy to report, however, that it was as easy as in the past… a few pertinent questions, and we were on our merry way. It’s so good to be back in this beautiful land. 

We invite you, once again, to join us on our adventure. Life is good, we are blessed, and can’t wait to see what happens next! 

NOTE:  To learn more about the cricket invasion, here's a link to one of the news feeds:   https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/nevada/articles/2023-06-20/blood-red-crickets-invade-nevada-town-residents-fight-back-with-brooms-leaf-blowers-snow-plows