Winding Down (Wednesday, September 02, 2009) Happy Anniversary to us! Today, we celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary by departing Stewart, BC, and Hyder, AK, at 7 AM, headed south for our next to last day of the caravan. The scenery changed dramatically as we turned from Highway 37A to Highway 37, with fewer snow covered peaks, excellent roads, and more houses and people. We drove by two different First Nation villages with totem pole displays, took moving photographs of both, but didn’t stop at either. In fact, at one, we almost didn’t get the motorhome and Saturn turned around. We drove along the Bulkley River and thought of our friend, Rod Hardinger, who fished for steelhead here several years ago. Arriving in Smithers too early to park the RV, we filled-up with gasoline, parked the RV, and had an anniversary lunch. Smithers is a fly fishing town, has the world’s longest fly rod, and even has a statue of a fly fisher. Regrettably, we had too little time to fish, and there were not many steelhead in the river; maybe next time. After setting up the RV in Riverside Golf and RV Park, Kay drove back into town to see the sites.

Kay’s Take The downtown area of Smithers was charming. The theme of most of the main street shops was Swiss and there was even an applehorndoff statue at the beginning of the street. I browsed through several shops and almost all of the workers spoke with a heavy Swiss accent. Not sure how many folks from Europe settled here, but I suspect quite a few. It was a beautiful setting – the river and the mountains. I did find a bakery and they made the most delicious muffins I think we’ve had on the trip. We drove by New Hazelton instead of going to their heritage site and canyon site because we were becoming wary that some of these places weren’t prepared for ‘bigger rigs with toads’. Were we right! Some friends of ours in the caravan drove into there to see the attractions. They had a huge diesel pusher rig – 42 ft. with an SUV tow. They had to unhook their tow car three times in order for the coach to backup and get out of a ‘tight’ spot. The third time, our friend was so frustrated he misjudged and backed into his own car. Those of us who tow can’t back up unless we unhook our tow cars. When folks park too close to us in front or block us in in front, our only option is to unhitch our tow in order to back up and move forward. Yes, it is a pain, and we’re very careful not to get ourselves ‘locked’ in when we go places or pull off the road.

Our Recommendations for Smithers, BC Smithers is a Swiss-type village, and celebrates their Swiss heritage. The community is big on fly fishing, with the Bulkley River so close, and a walking tour of the business district is worth the effort. A guided fly fishing trip on the Bulkley will be on our next trip’s itinerary.

Campground We stayed at Riverside Golf and RV Park, and had 30 amp electric and water. Wi-fi was good. The parking spaces were tight, and most of us were parked with just a few feet separating the RVs, and for some reason, we were parked so that everyone had to hook-up on the passenger side, yet we all could have pulled in from the opposite direction and hooked up on the correct side! Our campgrounds have varied from great to marginal. The caravan wagon master has done an incredible job of arranging RV sites and activities for the whole of the caravan, and with 18 RVs, it’s hard to please everyone. Some, especially the big rigs, like all the luxuries in an RV site so as to take advantage of all the luxuries in their RVs, while others, like us, prefer more rudimentary features found in provincial or state parks. Also, when one tries to arrange for 18 sites, few RV parks can support that many RVs at one time. Les did a miraculous job of finding us places to park without driving lots of miles between stops, and our hat’s off to him.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 16,268.9
Beginning Time: 7:00 AM Pacific DST
Ending Mileage: 16,479.6
Ending Time: 1:30 PM Pacific DST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 210.7
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 7,087.5