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Strangely, I awoke early the next morning. Must have been the coffee at
the cafe the prior evening-screwed up the clock in my head. Jim & Peggy's
tent was nearby-the two from Alabama that I had met the night before. Peggy
was also awake, and it seemed like the two of us were the first ones up
in the whole campground. She stirred the fire back up and began to fix breakfast
for herself and her husband Jim, who was still asleep in the tent. We talked
a while and she was interested in the fact that I was a computer programmer,
because that was what her son wanted to do (he was also 25). She suggested
that I go take a look at the shower, and pointed toward a strange contraption
on the other side of the campground.
I put on an extra jacket and left the warmth of the fire to investigate.
Upon nearing the thing, I saw that the shower was composed of a small sheet
metal shack with two large 50-gallon drums suspended above. one of them
had a pipe that ran to a homemade wood-burning stove and an additional pipe
ran from the stove down to a pump at a nearby lake. Entering the shower
I found a shower head nozzle underneath the junction of a pipe from each
of the 50-gallon drums, and deduced that one drum was for hot water and
the other was for cold. I suppose it's pretty simple when you think about
it, but it certainly looked impressive. Later I learned the thing had been
around since 1963, and still working. I explored the campground a little
more and found some canoes down by the lakeside.
About that time I started heading back to my tent and Jim was coming out
of Jim & Peggy's tent. Still no sight of Jake. I struck down my tent
and packed up everything in the truck before starting to think about breakfast.
Every other morning I usually had a bowl of cereal, but it was already cold
this morning, and there was a fire just acheing to cook something, so I
got out some bread, Canadian bacon, and Swiss cheese and made three breakfast
things on the grill over the fire. Peggy offered me some grits, and Jim
offered some hash browns, and I gave them one of my breakfast things, which
Peggy refused, but Jim took. Jim busied himself with strapping a huge set
of caribou antlers to the top of their van, and was wondering aloud what
type of trouble they would have getting through customs at the Canadian
border. Apparently Jake had given the antlers to them as a gift. Jim's strategy
would be to play a dumb Alabama hick that didn't know what was legal or
not, and go from there.
I finished breakfast and started the truck to let it warm up. Just as I
was about to leave, Jake showed up, and invited me to stay a little longer
and throw a canoe on the water, but I already had my mind prepared for driving,
and felt the need to make some distance down the road. I gathered Jim, Peggy,
Jake, and the dogs for a picture, and Jake suggested that we get the new
picnic table in the picture - Mighty Moe's first capital investment in the
last 23 years. I said goodbye and headed down the Cassiar Highway.
I drove for hours and then stopped for gas, groceries, and ice. I continued
on a while and came upon an overturned logging truck on the side of the
road. Two other trucks were stopping on the road opposite the wreck. I slowed
and stopped in an out of the way place, then got out and ran back down to
see if the driver was all right. As I arrived at the scene, I couldn't see
the driver, and I learned from the other two truckers that the accident
had happened yesterday. The driver had claimed that he moved over for a
tourist, but these two said it doubtfully. "If the tourists don't get'em,
the moose will", one of them said.
I went back to the truck and continued on my way. The road got worse again,
and soon I found myself traveling though gritty mud, dodging far to the
right whenever cars passed to avoid the rocks and mud spewing from beneath
their tires. Several times rocks hit my windshield, leaving small pits in
the glass, but never any cracks. Most of the cars on the road had metal
grills on the front to protect the radiator from such hazards.
It was a day for interesting road signs. I passed a sign reading, "ROAD
SERVES AS EMERGENCY AIRSTRIP", and was just pondering what I would
do if I saw an airplane coming in my lane, when all of a sudden, a Ford
F250 pickup came around the curve and lost control right in front of me,
coming my direction! There were two people inside - a woman driving and
a male passenger. It skidded sideways on the road and I hit the brakes,
waiting a split second before deciding which way to swerve. Luckily, I didn't
have to dodge because it continued sliding to my right and off the road
into a bush. They seemed unharmed, and it was a soft landing, so I continued
on. Another interesting sign appeared saying "ALL SEASON AVALANCHE
AREA - DO NOT STOP!". Next I saw a sign with a picture of an artillery
shell with a long message. I couldn't read it all before I passed it, but
it started out "CAUTION! PROJECTILES MAY BE..." I drove further
and stopped by a glacier to take a couple of photographs.
Later on a saw what at first looked like a dog, but turned out to be
a black bear on the side of the road. I stopped to get him on the video
camera. He was quite unafraid, and after chewing on some berries, started
to approach the truck. With a driver's side window that already has seventeen
cracks in it (it started the trip with just one, but seems to get worse
every time I shut the door), I didn't think it stood any chance of holding
up against a bear. I put the truck in gear and left Mr. Bear. Soon I saw
another sign: "DANGER! - BLAST AREA". I thought about it and decided
someone could probably put up a yellow caution sign that read "MINEFIELD"
and people would probably just slow down a little bit and continue on through.
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Copyright © 1995 by Patrick
Malone