Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

Click links to jump to specific days: Start | Nerdy | The Largest... | Ornaments

May 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

June 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 __ __ __ __ __

Prince George

What a lovely day - especially after all the rain yesterday. Now we could go and enjoy our time in and around Prince George. We started off with porridge for breakfast in our hotelroom - on the balcony of course. Must make the most of this here luxury while we have it with our dear HUGE mugs, which Alexis once brought back to us from Disney World. Thank you!

Then we set off up onto a huge demonstration forest behind University of Northern BC. The project is called Forests for the World and dates back to the 1980s, when they planted much of the forests. It was also created to celebrate theh 70th anniversary of Prince George and for its participation in Expo 86. There are 15 km of hiking trails - of which we only did three with quite a bit of climbing again.

The area had quite a few informational plaques that were fun although could maybe do with a clean or reprint after what seems like 20+ years of deterioration. Still - we learnt how Prince George was shaped back when everything was about fur trade and Simon Fraser, then that they started with forestry to help extend the BC Train into the north. This then gave them a head-start into lumber production and lots of pulp for paper. So then we understand the sweet smell in the air everywhere here... pulp mills! Works well that they call it "Fur to Fir".

The forests themselves shows sign that they need trimming and clearning up both for fire prevention and sight lines. The view we had from the top was quite different from the one shown on their information boards!

One of our goals was to walk the Shane Lake Trail to get to, yes you got it, Shane lake! It was beautiful this early in the morning, but we were unable to spot any beavers. There were a few doggies running around and swimming in the lake, so that was fun.

On the way to our next target, we passed at least one of the producers of forest products in Prince George: Brink. It was funny because we have spotted so many of their trucks on the road over from Jasper that it has become a bit of a joke: "Hey look, another lumber truck!". Now we got to see them in their natural/original habitat - by the trainyard in Prince George.

We were distracted by the forest products, but we made it to Cottonwood Island Park where we wanted to see the Fraser and Nechako rivers meet. Ne walk along the Nechako river was a nice addition to our morning walk. It is also part of the 30-km long Centennial Connector Trail Loop created in 2015. Information posters suggested we could spot white sturgeons, bald eagles, golden eagles, osprey, and kingfishers. However, they must all have gone away to a conference or something - leaving only squirrels and a black-backed woodpecker to greet tourists. We don't mind. It was a fun walk.

Information signs also taught us about the abundant Black Cottonwood trees in this park. They are named from the white hairs on their seeds, helping them fly through the air. They are also called Western Balxam Poplar and can grow to 50 metres high and 2 metres in diameter - the largest poplar in the Americas. Their bark is very hard making trouble even for chainsaws, but also making for a good material to carve fun images into. It was a fun project to try to collect/photograph as many as possible.

In amongst all the cottonwood trees and soft hiking trails Rob spotted his favourite - yet another birch. Yes, there are many aspen trees here, but birch are the best he says. I quite agree. The local beaver seemed to be quite open to gnaw down any tree he could find, although there wasn't as much beaver-evidence as in many other places we have been. This is not a busy-beaver, but more like a lazy-beaver.

Finally, we made it down to the end of the park where the Fraser River meets the Nachako River. Another achievement, another "check" on the to-do-list. But no eagles, no kingfishers, but lots of doggies.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by Connaught Hill Park. Beautiful gardens even at this early time of year. Picnic areas and view over Prince George. It was now time to return back to the desk so that Rob could attend the board meeting for our condo back in Ottawa. After doing some testing, our dearest Snusmumrikken had faster internet than the hotel - Snus to the Rescue!

After making and enjoying sandwiches for lunch, we headed out to another hiking destination in Prince George called Moore's Meadow Nature Park. As many of our hikes, this one was also in a special geological area. Like so much else here, it has been shaped by glaciers. This park is what they call a "glacial kettle" where a large ice block was buried before it melted, then left a big depression when it finally melted. At the bottom of the 38 metre deep kettle there is a wide meadow that floods during summer, the sides are dense with different trees on the east and west facing sides.

A new species spotted today: thaching ants. They are named this because they build a roof on top of their ant-hills, looks like a thatched roof. We didn't see it, but the ants were very busy and tried running up our shoes/legs if we stood still too long. They are not the friendliest of ants and excrete formic acid - so we kept moving. The information sign said there could be 40,000 ants in the colony. Eek!

It had been another long day of hiking and a bit of work - so we fancied a Tim Hortons take-away. One of our favourites is a bowl of chilli, a buttered bun, a cup of tea/coffee, and a Canadian maple donut (filled with custard). Today they had run out of our favourite donut, so Hild settled for a Maple Dip - same thing without the custard. Yummy!

May/June 2022

Back | Top of page | Forward