August 17

Mom: “Today is a great day. I took a swim in the lake. There was a couple next to Gene and Lynn named Peter and Ingica from Holland. He said he would swim across to a little island with me. Then we went for a drive and didn’t get back until late. The next morning Peter and Ingica left but I was still thinking of taking a swim. Peter this one was for you. The old lady did it. I was asking about the temperature of the water when my neighbor overheard me and said if you want to swim out to the island I’ll go with you. Her name was Linda. So Linda and I took the swim to the island. The water was very cold but it was also invigorating. Dad made me wear the life jacket just in case I should get an old lady cramp. It felt good to know that I could still do the swim. Linda is from Anchorage and they are headed to Washington state.” The first thing this morning Mom fulfilled a promise she made herself when we arrived at this campground by finding a willing companion and swimming at least a couple hundred yards each way to a small island in the lake at the campground and back. The water was not exactly warm but she did it and had a lot of fun meeting the commitment as well as making another of many friends along the way on this trip. We then drove by recent scenery standards a rather plain one hundred miles to the Cranberry Junction at the small village of Gitwangak located at the intersection with the Yellowhead Highway. This intersection is the official end of the Cassiar Highway. There we visited an old bell tower and church and a row of old but genuine totem poles. Three cute little First Nation (the term use by Canada for native peoples we would call Indians) girls were selling candy in a little stand and we had them tell us some of the stories represented by the figures on the totem poles. We learned that the story reads from the top to the bottom. We then followed the Skeena River about forty miles toward Prince Rupert to the Kleanza Creek Provincial Park campground. Don’t get me wrong about the scenery which was still very nice. It just changed to heavily wooded hills rather than the high rugged mountains, water falls and glaciers of recent days. We then drove the few remaining miles with Gene and Lynn into the city of Terrace, a city of about eleven thousand, for some grocery shopping and to check on phone messages for the first time in several days that we could find service. On the way out from the campground we saw an owl at the side of the road.