Barkerville and the 58ers

Yes, that’s right, the 58ers! The British Columbia gold rush began 9 years after the start of the California gold rush. Then, in 1862, a miner named Billy Barker struck gold on Williams Creek in Central British Columbia. That triggered a stampede of thousands of miners to the area over the next eight years who converged on Barkerville and the gold fields.

We stayed for a day in the Quesnel area so that we could visit the farmers market on Saturday morning, then travel to Barkerville for the day.
It’s located about 50 miles east of Quesnel, and the town has been restored to its “glory days”. It is much more authentic than Columbia, and it has been restored to a much higher level than Bodie. There are over 125 heritage buildings, including churches, stores, restaurants, a theatre and a number of dwellings. The upper 1/3 of Barkerville was a Chinese settlement, with a laundry, butcher shop, restaurant and many other buildings.
Barkerville burned to the ground in 1868, but was rapidly rebuilt by the merchants and residents, but its glory days were beginning to fade. A second gold rush occurred in the 1930’s, and people still lived in town until 1958 when it became a heritage site. The Anglican Church in town is one of the oldest in British Columbia and continues to hold regular services.


After touring most of the town and attending a lecture on Simon Fraser, an early fur trader and explorer for whom a number of places in British Columbia are named, we decided on lunch at the Lung Duck Tong Chinese Restaurant, and had a delicious meal.

On our way back to the town’s entrance, we were surprised to see a gray fox, just wandering among the buildings. We were told that he is a regular visitor, particularly when the town is not overcrowded with tourists.

On Sunday, we continued our journey north, through Prince George to Dawson Creek. We stopped for lunch at Bijoux Falls Provincial Park, about 115 miles north of Prince George.
It is a beautiful roadside park, with a beautiful waterfall just off the highway, and a large flock of resident Stellar Blue Jays to entertain visitors.

We got to our campground just outside of Dawson Creek around 3 PM, and the ladies went grocery shopping in town. After a fine, RV cooked dinner of hamburgers and all the fixin’s, we settled in for the evening. We stayed the next day and night, and did some more shopping in town. Because Monday was a “camp day”, the girls made a beef stew and cooked it in a crock pot all day. It was delicious!!


Dawson Creek is “Mile 0” of the Alaska Highway. We have come 1728 miles from home, and have about the same distance to go to get to Alaska.

More later.

Across the Border

We left Bothell, WA about 9 AM on Thursday and got to the US/Canada border at Abbotsford, BC about 10:30 AM. All three rigs went through the same Immigration/Customs lane, so it took a while for us to get across the border. We were "tailgunner", so we were last through. Of course, we got into a long discussion with the border agent about the amount of booze that we were allowed to take into Canada. They seem to believe that we'll sell it to Canadians, and circumvent their tax system. Anyway, we had to park and take our list of booze into the Customs building and got into a whole new discussion about the same stuff. Long story short, we've still got our stash of alcohol and it didn't cost us anything. We'll have to be more careful, though, when we exit Alaska back into Canada. We can't count on our "innocent" looks forever.

From the border, we picked up Canada Hwy 1 through the Fraser River canyon and stopped at the "Hells Gate Air Tram" for a tram ride down the canyon wall to a restaurant and, guess what, - a gift shop. >We had lunch at the bottom and walked out on a suspension bridge over the river. The Fraser River is forced between two canyon walls just over 100 feet wide and it is about 175 feet deep at that point. The rapids are massive, and with the snow melt, large trees go shooting down the rapids. Not a spot for rafters, at least not until the water drops a bit.

About 10 miles past Hell's Gate, we stopped at a campground in the village of Boston Bar for the night. It was a rustic but very nice spot with full hookups, cable TV and wi-fi. Real wilderness camping, huh? It rained for a little while, but by dinnertime the rain was gone and we ate at a picnic table and enjoyed a campfire.

The next morning we packed up and got on the road around 8:30 AM, on our way to Quesnel, BC, about 275 miles closer to Alaska. Quesnel is a city of about 10,500, and is a major forestry area, with 2 pulp mills, a plywood plant, and 5 sawmills, planer mills and an MDF plant. Because we have a smaller fuel tank than our traveling companions, we needed to stop for fuel when we reached Quesnel. Canadian and American money are just about the same value, so we don't get an exchange rate bonus. Diesel cost $5.10 per gallon, which is not much different than what we've paid in the US on this trip.


We stopped at 10-Mile Lake Provincial Park north of Quesnel, and found three nice camp sites right next to the lake. We'd planned for a campfire, but a nasty, cold wind came up, forcing us indoors for dinner. We plan to stay here for two nights, so that we can spend Saturday in Barkerville, a gold rush town about an hour from Quesnel.

Two Nights in Bothell, WA

We made it through the Portland & Seattle traffic and arrived in Bothell about 1:30 PM on Tuesday. It rained some on the way, but it wasn't bad. We're staying at Lake Pleasant RV Park, a large park built around a small but beautiful man-made lake. We have an unimpeded view of the lake from our motorhome, and we can watch the ducks paddling around. There are a few recently hatched ducklings following their mothers everywhere, but the moms won't let us get close enough to take a picture.



We fixed a potluck dinner on Tuesday, with shrimp & pasta, two salads, garlic bread, and cookies for dessert. Yum! Wednesday morning we had breakfast at the Maltby Cafe, about 6 miles from our campground. It's in the basement of an old service station and garage, and it's a breakfast & lunch place. They've got lots of "Best Of" plaques on the wall, and the food is just great! A place to come back to, for sure.


Debbie & Diane loaded up their laundry and headed out to a laundromat. They were back in time for a little relaxing before heading out to Everett, WA and the home of Diane's god-daughter, Nancy, and her family. We'll be cooking our potluck dinner at their house, since there'll be about 12 or so for dinner, it's threatening to rain some more, and none of our rigs can hold 12 for dinner!

Fabulous Iris Gardens in Oregon

Our first real day of the trip took us from Lodi, CA to Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, OR, about half way between Grants Pass and Roseburg on I-5. We stopped for breakfast in Dunnigan, where we hooked up with the third couple going to Alaska, LaVan & Louise. The heat wave continued with 90 degree temperatures, so we had the generator and the roof air conditioners on for the whole day. Burned a few gallons more diesel, but at least we were comfortable; the other benefit was that once we stopped for the day, the coach didn't need to be cooled down. Other friends from our RV Club, Bob & Peggy, who actually live in Canyonville, came by for a visit, and also joined us for dinner at the casino.

On Monday morning we traveled about 150 miles on I-5 to Salem, OR, where we visited Schreiner's Iris Gardens, which has been in business since 1925. They are the largest iris grower in the nation, with over 200 acres in flower production. The gardens are in full bloom from around Mothers' Day through June. Almost all of the 300 varieties in bloom are displayed in their show area, where they can be ordered for delivery in September and October when they have been dug up and divided. Of course, we ordered some, and expect them about the time we get back from this trip.



From the Iris Gardens, we traveled a few miles up I-5, then west about 7 miles to Champoeg (sounds like Shampooee) State Heritage Park, first settled by grain farmers about 1830. About 1861, the adjacent Willamette River flooded, destroying the entire town of Champoeg. The park has a campground with electric and water hookups, so we settled in for the afternoon and night. Tomorrow we head out for Bothell, WA, just north of Seattle and the Lake Pleasant RV Park where we'll spend a couple of nights, get caught up on our laundry, and prepare for the trip through British Columbia and the Yukon Territory before reaching Alaska.

Off to Alaska

Well, here we are again, this time, off to Alaska. We left home on Tuesday, May 13th, and traveled to Lodi, CA, for a Holiday Rambler Rally. We're in Lodi until Sunday, May 18th, when we turn our noses north on I 5, heading toward Seattle and the Canadian border. We're traveling with Bob & Diane, good friends from our RV Club. We should be in Seattle on Tuesday, May 20th, where we'll meet up with LaVan & Louise, more good friends from the club. From that point, the three couples in their motorhomes will travel together to and through Alaska. We've met Dave & Suvina, friends of Bob & Diane, who live in Seattle, and will be traveling with us until they get home.

Getting ready to leave home was a real frenzy! We took the motorhome in for service on April 14th. The plan was to do engine and generator oil and filter changes, check and replace engine belts and replace the air cleaner. Whoops! They found a radiator leak which required replacing the radiator, and of course, the new radiator had to be shipped from Indiana and would take two weeks. All that accomplished, we brought the motorhome back home about 10 days before we were leaving on the trip. That would have been adequate time to get everything else done, except a contractor started painting our house that very day! We had a day or so to work on the motorhome before we had to move it to a neighbor's house to avoid it turning out the same color as the house. We finally moved it back home, had new tires installed all-around, and started loading for the trip. Once the house painting was finished, we also had to put all of the outdoor lights, watering systems and plants, and other attached goodies back. We really needed one more day to get things done before leaving on the trip, but we squeezed it all in and headed for Lodi.

We are really fortunate that we learned of friends in Santa Rosa, Ron & Ali, who needed a place to live while their home is being remodeled. They moved in to our house the day we left, and will be there until at least the end of July. Good for them, and good for us. We're a lot more comfortable knowing that the house will be occupied.

Meanwhile, the HR Rally is great fun, although the weather has been HOT!!! We're camped at the Lodi Grape Festival Grounds, some 72 or 73 of us. Fortunately, we have electrical and water hookups, so we can run our air conditioners. Daytime temps have been around 100 degrees, and the nights cool down to the low 70's. Sunday, which is get-away day, is supposed to be a bit cooler, and by Sunday night, we plan to be in Oregon, probably at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, between Grants Pass and Roseburg. Hopefully the triple digit temperatures will be behind us by then.

There are motorhomes and trailers (all Holiday Ramblers) from California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, South Dakota, Florida and Alaska. It's a great big event with games,food and entertainment, but the major activity is socializing. Debbie's in charge of craft classes and a "gently used items" silent auction. Tom helps lead a morning walk each day and he also moderated a round table discussion on motorhome problems and solutions. A similar session was held for "towables", that is, trailers and fifth-wheels, moderated by a fifth-wheel owner.

While in Lodi, we had the chance to have dinner with our good friends, Nancy & Joel, who used to live in Santa Rosa. Debbie and Nancy worked together for several years before they moved away.

It's time for "Social Hour" now, so we'll close this post. More as we move along. We'll start to add pictures of the trip and a travel map shortly, but for now, the pictures and map are from our trip last fall to the southwest. If you want to check out that trip, you can select those earlier postings.