A local recommended the Nass forest service road shortcut to Prince Rupert, instead of retracing our steps on the Cassiar. We were happy to take his advice. The Nass is a good dirt road with the Dragon Lake campground available. It was crowded with French mushroom hunters who were having a disappointing season because of the drought. Mushroom hunting is apparently such a lucrative business, it  draws people from all over the world. Years ago, in Washington state we found many mushroom buyers along the roads buying from hordes of Asians scouting for the delicacies.

At the turnoff from the Nass road onto Hwy 113 one finds the remains of a huge volcanic eruption from around 1700. It’s now known as the Nisga’a Memorial Lava Bed Provincial Park which covers 107.5 square miles. The park is sacred ground protected by the local indigenous population which co-manages the area. Approximately 2000 people were buried in their villages as lava flowed down the Nass River valley. In places the lava is 40 feet thick.

Hwy. 113 ends in Terrace, BC, 50 miles south, but along the way are many stops with parking areas and short trails to waterfalls, the river and more lava features.

We turn right at Terrace on the TransCanada Hwy. 16. We had a far-off-road camp in mind for the evening. The best laid plans and all that. As this container train (one of seemingly hundreds daily) rumbled by, a back tire began rumbling also.

BAH! A flat tire. We didn’t want to venture off-road with no spare, so picked a private campground at the Port Edward turnoff. Being after 5 on Saturday, no tire repair shops were open.  Just our luck! It was Canada Day holiday weekend and nothing would open until Tuesday. Canada Day is celebrated in all the provinces in August except Quebec which has its own holiday in June. ( Mais oui, bien sur) It is known as BC Day here, and by other names in the other provinces.

The tourist draw in Port Edward is the old cannery. Salmon canning was such a lucrative business in the mid 19^th century it justified building roads and railroads to remote port cities. The North Pacific cannery began its long run in 1888 when the crown granted 183 acres for it. For 80 years it processed salmon and other fish but closed in 1968. The site was kept open as a fishing fleet maintenance facility until 1981. As the site was scheduled for demolition, local historians gathered to save it. It is now an historic site with tours daily.

With a couple of enforced exploration days around Prince Rupert, we first scored a campsite in the nearby Prudhomme Provincial Park saving us from private, overcrowded RV parks. What luck! These parks are usually booked solid. Toured the town next.

In the 1990’s Prince Rupert’s population peaked at 18,000, but fishing stocks dwindled and the population fell to about 4,000. With the newly opened pulp mill and a new cruise ship dock, their fortunes are improving quickly. Incorporated in 1910, fishing for salmon and halibut, and logging were the main income sources. Now tourism tops the list. It’s a big container ship port with trains leaving frequently like the one pictured earlier.

It’s the major stop for ferries on the inland passage from Vancouver Is. to Skagway, Alaska. Both Alaska Marine Highway ferries and BC ferries stop here. This portion of the Alaska panhandle and the British Columbia archipelago are what is known as a temperate rainforest. Prince Rupert has a moderating temperature effect from the ocean. It has cool summers, mild winters and gets around 100” of rain and 100 days of sun annually. Stewart (where we were last chapter) is the only city in Canada with fewer days of sunshine. We obviously lucked out.

Finding hiking trails around Prince Rupert isn’t difficult. The first one we tried was to Butze Rapids. The unusual thing about these rapids is that the tidal flow reverses the rapids as the tide goes in and out. The trail winds through forests and bogs to arrive at the overlook.

The host at Prudhomme PP campground told us about a nearby salmon ladder that only the locals know about.  It was tricky to find, but a First Nations family picnicking along the way sent us in the right direction. There was a dam with head gates that the locals were leaping off. We found the salmon ladder, but no salmon were climbing it while we watched.

Next day we wandered along a river trail exemplifying the temperate rainforest. The forest isn’t old growth, but new trees grow so fast it feels primeval.

On Tuesday night in Prince Rupert, after getting our flat tire fixed, we stayed at an RV park close to the ferry terminal because we had to get up at 4:30 AM to board the ferry to Vancouver Island (VI) at 6:00…an 18 hour ride. We were nervous about getting in at midnight, but not far from the Port Hardy, VI terminal was a parking area filled with other campers from the ferry.

Alas, because we dawdled in Prince Rupert, we had to zoom through Vancouver Is. in record time to stay on schedule. We stopped at Telegraph Cove on the advice of a ferry worker. It is a very popular spot for locals and tourists alike. Once it was a small fishing port and milling town, but now it’s an eco-tourism hot spot. Whale watching tours to see Orcas, kayaking, RV parks, a safe marina, and a new residential subdivision keep the town bustling. 

The mill is still active. From what we could tell, there is no old growth forest left on Vancouver Island. Every hill and mountain are being or have been logged.

We scoured the island for a suitable campsite, but official campgrounds were full. As the afternoon waned we stumbled on an unofficial spot right on Stella Lake…a lovely spot with dragonflies and special plants and neighbors going out in their red canoe with Fido on board.

Our last night on the island we had to camp near the ferry-to-the-mainland terminal. We were surrounded by bushes heavy with lush blackberries. A fitting end to our time in British Columbia.

Good-bye Canada, we’ll be back.