July 20, 2013 Hazleton, Houston, BC

Saturday, July  20

Went to Old Hazelton and saw a replica of a steamboat and read some history, but the museum and much of town was closed, so we moved on. 

Just outide Hazelton we got a quarter-size windshield ding, so plan on stopping in Smithers to get that fixed.

Went through Houston - big on fishing here, I'd say!

  Next stop was  Moricetown Canyon and Falls where some natives were dipnetting and hooking salmon.   Also snuck a peak at their smoke house.

Salmon smokehouse

Stopped at Kathlyn Lake and hiked to Twin Falls which was a nice uphill walk.

In Smithers, Greg dropped me at their library to use wi-fi while Greg got gas,  got the windshield repaired and found some wine.  Productive stop, nice town.

We are traveling mostly in valleys right now and beginning to see a lot of hay fields, some baled, some cut or ready to be.  Making hay while the sun shines, I guess. Instead of the signs showing deer or moose, we are seeing signs with a tractor or logging truck. 

Had to take a picture of the “Welcome to Houston” sign, and stopped at the visitor’s center for a couple of postcards. Steelhead capital of the world - big on fishing in this area!

 Onward to Burns Lake, where the cute, helpful girl at the visitor’s center directed us to a grocery store and to their Free municipal campground in a nice park by Burns Lake. Shopped Wholesale Foods and had tortellini and salad for dinner.

Temperatures were near 80 degrees and there were quite a few people swimming in the lake and enjoying picnics and playground  just a short distance from the campground. Some interesting folks were camping there too including Dave, a graduate student from University of Arizona who is traveling to Alaska, taking time lapse photos of the moon (on big 8x10 camera) and tying the movement of the moon into another fixed feature.  This is for his degree in fine arts, but it could be astronomy as he has to calculate positions, angles, etc.   He said he would send us a copy of that night’s photo if it works out.

There were also several local hitchbikers, a motorcyclist from Missouri, a mother/daughter from Switzerland, a bicyclist and another foreign couple. There was free firewood and Greg split wood for a couple of folks, but we ended up not having a fire since it was very windy.  Nice night!