Skip to main content

July 25 Fort St James

Look who we got to see this morning.. Mount Robson with no clouds!!!
Oh yes! Another waterfall and another hike. Our last jaunt in Mount Robson Provincial Park
Rearguard Falls
The Fraser leading out to the Pacific Ocean
Rearguard falls marks the end of the 800 mile migration of the Salmon from the Pacific Ocean.
They say only the strongest Chinook make it this far

The sun just settled into the mountains for the night and the kids have just snuggled into their sleeping bags. Cory brought his pillow that blows up and is kind of like an air mattress pillow. Each night it rotates around to the unlucky fellow to rest their head on.  Isaak lucked out tonight, but he wrapped it in his jacket.  I brought my own pillow and refuse to give it up. The kids have mostly opted to use our backpacking pillows which is nice because they roll up so small. We made a long trek today. We drove 5.5 hours. We left the tall mountain peaks of the rockies behind and embraced the prairies and smaller mountains of northern BC. We explored the grocery store in Prince George. It was lovely to shop there and not cringe at the prices. Gas also dropped about 40 cents a liter.  They had samples and gave the kids cookies. They were in heaven. They weren't as excited about our stop before that as we embarked on another hike. We were meet with a wall of fierce opposition. Isaak and Chloe both kicked in their heals, threatened to wait at the bottom of the trail, said their legs hurt, their eyes were too tired, there knees too worked out from the hike yesterday....until we saw the first massive cedar tree. They were entranced as they walked into an Ancient Rain Forest. The only known rain-forest in the world to be over 800 km from the ocean then we had to drag them away from the boardwalks that were graciously placed by the community.

We learned that the Cedar trees grow in circles usually 3-5 trees at a time. I loved to look at four or five of the trees growing together. It was impossible to even capture an entire tree with the camera, even with a wide angle, because they were so tall. I loved the idea of them growing in circles because I imagined my family standing in a circle holding each-others hands and thinking of the strength and support that we can give to each other when the winds blow or the trail is to hard to get through alone. Some of the trees were over 2000 years old and nearly all the oldest trees grew in clusters of three to four. Maybe insinuating that we aren't meant to achieve greatness alone, but we all need to depend on each other. We need a helping hand and support.
This gives you an idea of the sheer size of these trees
photographer and skinny on the Big Tree
The infamous Big Tree
Growing in a cluster
I loved these boardwalks. Chloe jumped all over these. It wasn't like hiking at all
Another viewing today off the side of the road. I didn't dare get out because I didn't want to meet Mama Bear

The sunset was my silver lining today and the end of our low slump. I could feel that we had moved past the difficulties of the last couple days and embraced the adventure that lies ahead. We were like the Cedar trees leaning on each other for support. Cory and I dug our feet in the sand as the kids dug in the rocks on the beach of Stuart Lake looking for Agat stones. They found 3-5 per person. Chloe declared they are good luck. We gathered them into a baggy and hope they bring us just that.

South-West View of Stuart Lake right by our campground at Paarens Beach Provincial Park



Agate stone inspections



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

From me to him

Dear Isaak, Happy Birthday my little guy! It feels like just yesterday that you were literally pulled out to come into this world. Yes literally with forceps around your little head because you accidentally faced the wrong direction or maybe you faced the direction you wanted to. You didn’t seem like you were quite ready to come out because you were just wailing--almost like you were saying, “You know--I was perfectly comfortable in there.” I’ve learned this year that you surely know what you want and you will not stop until you get it. For example when we tried to spend the weekend away from home and you didn't like sleeping in your playpen! You woke up every 1/2 hour to let us know you weren't comfortable. You finally fell asleep around 3am when we put you on the bouncer. Cory slept with his arm around you on the floor so you didn't roll off. You weren’t going to come easy, eh?? I remember pushing and pushing and pushing and thinking this isn’t going how I thought that i...

For the LOVE!!

What a day we had. What a day we had. I get tired again just thinking about it. Cory's car is getting the muffler put back on. I'm a little sad about it because Isaak and I could hear his car coming from over a block away when he was on his way home, but it's also a little embarrassing how loud it is. I'm sure it defied all noise ordinances. In any case, Isaak and I have been getting up a little early to take Cory to work, which is kind of fun because we get to see him more, but before dinner it's not kind of fun. It's kind of stinky because it's a hustle to get everything all put together. Yesterday I had to make dinner at about 3pm so I could get everything in. So back to yesterday. Isaak and I had just rolled our bushy little tails out of bed and both of us were still in pajamas. I was wearing my chacos and one of Cory's jackets and Isaak wanted to bring all of his blankets. Thankfully for some weird reason I threw his tennis shoes into the diaper bag...

Mommified

It's official I've been Mommified. I've seen it happening to others for years and now I've become part of the madness. Don't worry I'm not talking about being Mummified for all my entrails are safely where they should be, but I'm talking more about slime and snot. Yes slime. I was getting ready for bed and I looked down at my Pajama shirt and realized that I had been gooed. I had junk all over the bottom half of my shirt. I had no idea what it was and the most alarming part of this.....I simply shrugged my shoulders and thought well it's dry at least it won't get on my sheets. I slept in a slimy shirt. Example number two--Isaak had a runny nose last week. I had to run into Nordstroms for a second and didn't want to carry Isaak and the diaper bag, so I just took Isaak. As we were strolling into the store I noticed that he had some runny nose goodness. I quickly wiped his snot with my shirt sleeve on the inside. EWWWWW!! I just did what??? Gross Of...