16th May - Dease Lake

After a day walking the ski slopes near Smithers it's good to be back out on the road. I had planned to do a nice circular walk to a crater lake but a mixture of very faint paths, the sense of direction of a goldfish & a scrappy photocopied map had me walking straight up the ski slope. Steep but wide which was good for bear ambushes I figured. Unfortunately,I could not stop climbing & by the time I reached the ski lift, I was walking in groin deep snow. It was only the inner marmot in me & a compass that got me back down.

On the road again & I had a day of firsts. The west side of BC is spectacular - 2000M plus snow capped peaks surround you. The lakes are thawing but still frozen. The rivers are swollen with melt water. And I was running out of gas. I have a 210 mile tank. I limped into Stewart on vapours with 201 on the clock. Earlier, distracted by my flashing fuel warning light, I looked up & there was a black bear looking at me from the side of the road. Like a gun fight, we looked at each other though squinted eyes & moved on. At Stewart, I decided to go to Alaska.

Hyder dates back to 1910 when the original gold miners set up camp. Was interrogated by Canadian customs on the way back across the border ("do you have any weapons to kill bears with ?). Back on the road & my first glacier.

NB I'm writing this at 9PM - roughly 3 hours before it gets dark around here.