After a half-day break in Prince George, a dinner of yummy Indian food and a comfy night in a motel we were ready to head for Smithers. We pedalled through wide passages of lower woods and grassland, passed various lakes and were constantly looking out for animals along Yellowhead Hwy again. Despite the signs warning from moose crossing, we haven't been so lucky to spot one, but we topped up our counter with another bear sighting (it was so busy eating berries, it didn't even notice us!) and we also saw a coyote and deer. What we didn't expect though was the strong head wind! From Vanderhoof to Lake Burns our dear friend The Wind - whom we knew already all too well from the Pacific Coast - hit in with all its strengths and we had to mobilize ours as well. This leg felt like pedalling 200 km... Luckily, the next day the wind was still present, but in a decent manner. On a hot Sunday afternoon we arrived in Smithers at the house of our HelpX hosts Tamara and Mark. We were staying with the family for 10 days. HelpX is a volunteering program where hosts needing a hand with various tasks sign up on the platform and volunteers can get in contact with them. The family has a 1 acre farm with chickens, sheep, pigs, bees, and several large gardens and greenhouses. We helped weeding, looking after the animals and cleaning beehives. However, it was not all about work! We were welcomed very warmly by Tamara and Mark and their three children Darah, Caitlyn and Hayden into their home and we spent a great time with them! We happened to join the family in their last week of school before summer break. So one afternoon Tamara took the kids and us on a short hike to the impressive Twin Falls (there were five falls at the time though :-)) and we got all soaked by the mist of the biggest fall while climbing up to it. As it was a hot summer day, this was a lot of fun and didn't hinder anyone to go to nearby Lake Kathlyn afterwards, where the children paddled out to get some water lilies. We were also in Smithers on Canada Day, July 1st. The museum in town offered a historic walk along the main street in which we participated. It was very interesting and humorously held by a local historian who told plenty of amusing stories. Apparently, Smithers has an active Swiss society (we didn't know that!) and the town's emblem is a man playing the “Alpenhorn”; in fact the entire town has to follow an alpine theme in its appearance. After the culture crawl, Mark took us to the nearby wildlife shelter together with the kids, as it had its door open to the public on the national day. The main attractions were the 20 (!) black bears cubs - and no, we did not use them to boost up our bear counter :-) - and a famous tiny fawn that had even made it to the local newspapers. Its mother was hit dead by a car and a farmer from Alberta, who happened to see the accident, freed the fawn by a caesarian cut out of the dead deer's belly and had brought it to the wildlife shelter. At the same time, the midsummer musical festival started and the entire family was involved. We joined the festivities for one evening and had a great time. If you want to get a sneak peak about the kind of music that was played at this folk music festival, listen into the songs by the duo Jennis. After these great days in Smithers, we will soon continue our journey to Prince Rupert, where we will meet Fabienne's parents on their Canada vacation for one day and afterwards take the ferry to Skagway, Alaska.
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Blog Archive
September 2016
CountersKilometers pedalled
Hours on the bike
Meters cycled uphill
Flat tires
Burgers eaten
Bears sighted
Day by day statisticsFor those interested in our day by day activities and statistics, please download the following document.
World Clock
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