Trip to the Prince George Area

We've been wanting to visit the Ancient Forest for years but every time we were driving by it was pouring rain. So what better time to visit than during a hotspell?

We drove to Purden Lake Provincial Park about 60 km east of Prince George and set up our trailer.

Then we continued 60 km more east to the Ancient Forest.  The parking lot is situated right next to a construction camp which is odd for a Provincial park.  Fire camp?  Road works?

But the trail heads into the woods and right away you are in an interior rainforest full of giant cedars. 

It was the perfect place to be on a hot afternoon:  cool and shady.

The devil's club had all been defoliated by a caterpillar (Leo thinks maybe hemlock looper).  We had never seen anything like this before. I blame global warming.

There's a 2.5 km boardwalk that loops around the forest sending you past some really big trees up to 2000 years old.  It was pretty busy on a Monday afternoon.

The next day we drove an hour and 40 minutes east to Eskers Provincial Park.

We did a 12.5 km loop around the park, up and down eskers with views down to the many small lakes

It was a good hike for a hot day as it was mostly shaded. Still we were pretty hot by the end of our walk. We didn't see anyone on the trail till the very end of the hike.

We had a close call at the end of the hike when we heard very large crashing about in the bush right below us.  We yelled and it took off down the hill so we never did see if it was a bear or not.

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When we got back to Purden Lake we went for a swim. This was the warmest swim we've had all summer.

Back at the campsite we had to put our down jackets on to stay warm!

Camping at Mahood Lake

It's been three years since we camped at Mahood Lake.  It was busy!  We could only get a 2 day reservation for a campsite so we drove down a day early and found another site for the first night.  Haha! Thwarted the reservation system which charges a fee of $5 a night on top of the campsite fee.  As if a three day reservation is three times more work than a one day.  And then our first campsite that we couldn't get a 3-day reservation for was empty  for the next 2 days. That's it for my annual rant about the BC Parks reservation system.

First Campsite

Our friends Mark and Patty were also camping and their sister-in-law Marie and her sweet St. Bernard/lab dog Pepper dropped in on their way home to Port Coquitlam.

Patti and Marie at the campfire

Of course we had to check out the famous Wells Gray waterfalls.

Obligatory waterfall shot

Yup, Canim Falls still flowing.  The fun part of this falls is you can walk right up to the edge.

Dead body at the falls? No, just Mark peering over the edge.

Mark and Leo and I later hiked to Deception Falls.  Saw some ghost pipes.

The view of Deception Falls is screened by trees.

Closer look:

We wondered what the white flowers were growing beneath the falls.

Pearly everlasting.

But most importantly:

Huckleberries!  We brought back some branches for Patti and Marie.

We also went for a short dip in the lake.  Brrrr!  And we played several competitive bocce games.

Ghost Lake to Barkerville

The next morning we packed up camp and drove to Barkerville.   We stopped several times to try and photograph the mountains.

We crossed the Cariboo River

And stopped for a photo of this spruce grouse on the side of the road.

Bird of the Day

We had lunch at Whiskey Flats rec site along Antler Creek.  

To quote the Goldrush Circle Tour brochure:

Whiskey Flats was the site of a large early-century dredge operation near Wells and Barkerville. When standing on the shore, you can see the remains of the Kafue Dredge boat, a floating bucket dredge owned by the Kafue Copper Development Company, a Service Corporation of London England, which operated in the 1920’s close to Barkerville. Today there is a  small three-unit rec site that is a perfect base for those wishing to explore the back roads of Barkerville and Yanks Peak. Be sure to always call or stop in at the Likely Tourist Information located within the Cedar Point Park and Campground to check the road conditions before you depart on your trip.

We did not read the brochure so didn't look for the dredge.  We also didn't check the Road conditions but the Road was in really good shape, perhaps because there is active logging in the Antler Creek area.

The rec site was burnt during last year's fire that threatened Barkerville so it's likely not as attractive as it once was.

We're not sure if the concrete outhouse survived the fire or if it replaced a wooden one.

A few more kilometers and we arrived at Barkerville's Lowhee campground.

We drove into Wells and had a Slammer at the Frog and Bog gift store, recommended by Mark.  It's basically a coffee float, espresso with a scoop of ice cream,

Then we walked around Wells past this wedge-shaped building.

It started to rain so we took the Frog and Bog's advice and checked out the Wells museum.  Lots of photos from Wells' heyday and a cool core sample showing a layer of quartz with flecks of gold.

Later we walked to the Barkerville cemetery.  The highlight of the hike was

the bumper blueberry crop!  We ate our fill.

The next morning Mark headed home and Leo and I headed into Barkerville.  We caught the Barkerville tour

and checked out the main street.

Barkerville from the balcony of the Tong House in Chinatown.

We had lunch in the Wake Up Jake Cafe.

Waiting for lunch.

It was good but not particularly authentic (I had a Mediterranean wrap).

Then we walked up to the Richfield courthouse, just missing the court session.  We also checked out the Catholic and Chinese cemetery nearby.

Road to Richfield

We stayed another night and drove home the next morning.
 

Back Road to Barkerville

Since we bought our tent Leo and I have wanted to do more backcountry exploring on gravel roads we don't want to take our trailer on.  We decided to drive to Barkerville via the backroad route that goes through Likely and up along the Cariboo River.  

Our friend Mark came along too. We stopped at the Likely Hotel and had a nice lunch with our friend Birgit.  After lunch we drove down to the Bullion Pit takeout on the  Quesnel River so Leo and Mark could reminisce about their whitewater paddling days.

"Remember that time you swam through the eyebrow . . ."

It's a beautiful spot on a beautiful river.

Giant eddy

Then we drove up the Keithley Creek road,  crossed the Cariboo River Bridge (more reminiscing) and turned off on the 8400 Road, planning to stop at the Lady Creek rec site. But Leo and I drove right by and when we finally reunited with Mark he said there was a big group of ATVers staying there so we kept on driving past the Cameron Ridge trailhead.  There used to be a lodge and cafe out here in the middle of nowhere but it's closed now.  Leo worked here when it used to be a logging camp back in the early 70s.  Then we drove up up over a pass with some great views of jagged mountains.  I never knew the Cariboo mountains could be so dramatic.

Eventually we turned off toward Ghost Lake and stopped at the Matthew River Bridge.  

It's quite spectacular with a waterfall on either side.

Looking downstream:

Some very attractive vegetation in among the rocks:

Heuchera

We camped at the Ghost Lake rec site in Cariboo Mountains Provincial park. Ghost Lake is stunning, situated under rocky mountaintops 

But most of it is around the corner

And flowing out into a waterfall.

Outlet of Ghost Lake

Ghost Lake waterfall

The campground is right next to the falls. We figure it once had a view of both the falls and the lake but the trees have grown up and the campground is now a view less parking lot.

However the outhouse is a real gem!

With a great view of the lake and mountains we couldn't see from the campsite.

We didn't see any cariboo though.

Big Bar Lake

 

Finally made it down to Big Bar Lake Provincial Park for our annual camping trip.  More importantly it was a shakedown trip for our newly purchased pop up tent which we hope to use next year on a trip up the Dempster highway, which is too rough for our trailer,  

We also brought along our big screen tent that we bought last summer for our Yukon trip  (not yet erected over the picnic table in this photo).  They both got a good test as it rained all through our first night camping.

The new tent passed muster; it didn't leak despite the measly little fly.  Importantly to Leo, it pops up in 90 seconds.  It's also large and heavy but you can't win them all.

We didn't travel very far, we walked twice a day on the Parks lovely trail around a Marsh, through the forest and up to the top of an esker.

After the rain the lichen really popped against the damp tree trunk

Our friend Glen rode his bike around the trail with his too granddogs:

Closeup of  Pepper andGlenn's mountain bike that he coverted to an ebike 

Here are Leo and Glen washing the dishes.

And here we all are gathered around the fire.