Well as most of you may know, my girlfriend Taren and I are spending the summer up in Prince Rupert working with Palmerville Adventures (www.palmerville.bc.ca) selling and giving Grizzly bear tours up in the Khutzymateen inlet. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself, lets start at the beginning.
We left Nanaimo May 20th and headed up to Port Hardy to hope on the ferry up to Prince Rupert. The five hour bus ride was pretty scenic and takes you to the northeast corner of Vancouver Island. After arriving in Port Hardy we settled into our hostel and headed out for a pub dinner, followed it up with a game of ping pong and headed to bed early.
We woke up the next morning at 4:30 (gasp!) with the assistance of the hostel owner who was pleasant enough to bang on our door a few times to make sure we were up in time to catch the ferry. Finally at 7:30 with blurry eyes we set sail for Prince Rupert.
The ferry ride to Prince Rupert is 15 hours give or take a few minutes and it is safe to say it was the most incredible ferry I have ever been on. Meandering up the coast on the ferry involved cruising mostly in areas protected from the open ocean, however ther are stretches where you are subject to the Pacific in all its glory. The first two hours of the cruise were in open ocean and we didn’t need the Captains announcement to figure out it was going to be rough. The swells crashing up against the boat were around 3m (10ft) and our boat developed a nice enough lean that you had to walk around the boat against the wall with one hand holding you up. After we settled into the inside passage we used our time eating three ferry meals, braving the elements and going outside for pictures and sleeping (Taren managed to do enough of that for the both of us). I spotted a whale with my keen eyes and the eagles surrounded us as we sailed through. Its hard to describe the enormity of the landscape but the waterfalls along the route literally ran from the top of mountains until they crashed into the ocean. Also along the way we passed numerous abandoned fishing villages including Butedale, a spooky old town located right next to a thundering river. Also, we passed by a few fishing villages that are alive and well like Bella Bella.
With the sun setting in the background we finally reached solid ground. It was nearly eleven at night by the time we got our bags into the taxi and headed to our new home for the summer, #4 Trailer in Hays Vale. Although we are living in a “trailer park” it doesn’t feel like your typical trailer park (and yes, I would know) and we have a nice lawn for badminton/croquet to one side, and the forest and a nice backyard complete with its own camp fire area. The place is owned by Greg’s mom and it looks like we will be sharing it with Corey, his nephew. Greg will be spending most of his time up at the floating lodge, but all that will be covered in the next installment. But that’s all for now………..
