Friday, got off to a late start this morning -- had a bunch
of things to do.
Rev. 09/02/01
Alaska & beyond - continued 8/31 - 9/02
Dease Lake to Kitwanga to Prince Rupert to Kitimat
Friday, got off to a late start this morning -- had a bunch
of things to do.
Driving south from Dease Lake, the road crosses the Stikine River quit a ways inland from where I viewed it yesterday. This is one of the newer bridges, many on the Cassiar Highway are still one lane.
The drive south was pretty uneventful. I looked for the logging road that branches west to the Nass River, but didn't find the correct road until it was too late in the afternoon. Have to go back and try it again.
Further south I spotted a black bear with a cub -- stopped
and quickly turned around -- drove back -- they were still there -- with
the RT window open, I distinctly heard mama bear say "Woof" and baby
bear scooted. But then, like a little kid, he had to stop, stand up,
and take a peek at what his mother told him "woof" for.
Again, saw something black ahead -- whipped out the camera -- when I got
to it, a big black dog.
Saturday,
9/01, went down to the Indian Village of Kitwanga. I remembered, from
forty years ago, there were a number of totem poles there. After a
little searching, I found them. Some have fallen and are moldering
away. These are of particular interest -- they are usually the oldest,
and some have great detail carved into them.
From Kitwanga, I backtracked to try to find the Indian village of Kitwankool. Finally found it on a side road to the west -- it had been renamed Gitanyow, by the Indians. This was its original name, meaning "place of many people." After a lot of people were killed in raids, it was renamed, by them, Kitwankool, meaning "place of reduced numbers."
The village is quite a bit is larger than it was the first
time I was here. And, as I remembered, it has a great stand of totem
poles, many more than other villages I have visited..
Also, there are some different kinds of ones here that I've never seen before.
Across the road from the field of poles, there is a house with a short pole, about seven feet tall, in the front yard. And a second house, on the other side, has a short pole. I wonder the meaning.
In the front line of large poles, there is one stone totem of
a bear. It appears to be carved of granite, and is honoring a chief.
It is the first stone totem I've seen.
The carving on all of these poles is very detailed.
One difference, forty years ago, many of the poles were brightly painted. The lack of color now, may be due to the old paint weathering away, or it may be a preference in style -- which, I don't know.
There are many poles that are obviously new. And many are mounted with metal braces, to keep them from rotting off at the ground line and falling.
They also have a covered shed for carving new poles and protecting
the remains of old, fallen ones.
Yes, it is all I remembered it to be. It you want to see totem poles, this is the place to go.
Then, went back to the main road and headed north again, to find the elusive Forest Service road that leads west to the Nass River.
Found it. It is a typical FS road, used for logging. Several miles into it I started seeing large strange tracks down the middle. Finally, around a bend, I met my "monster." But boy, how was I going to get around him?
Finally, I guess he noticed me behind him. He edged over, which is quite a process in itself, and stopped so I could pass.
I've never run into something this huge on a dirt road before. I assume it is used to lift logs where they are actively logging. There were other "tracked" vehicles parked, further down the road. I guess it was moving day for them.
This was my day for bears!
Several miles more, a mother bear, with two tiny cubs. scampered across the road in front of me. Unlike the bear with the yearling cub yesterday, this one didn't stick around to have her picture taken -- she just vanished into the brush on the side of the road. And I wasn't fast enough with the camera.
A
mile or so more I saw a much larger bear, a big boar, walking on the road
in front of me. This guy really didn't seem to be that afraid of the
RT, just kept walking down the road. Finally, when I sped up, he went
into the brush on the side -- soon as I passed, in the rear view mirror,
I saw him come back out and continue down the road. This was one big
critter, wouldn't want to run into him in the woods.
As the road turns south, following the Nass River, it comes
to Lava Lake Prov. Park.
I stopped at the visitor center. It has a nice display of artifacts, drums and masks, from the area.
Pam, the guide, told me the story of what happened here.
Several hundred years ago, a volcanic eruption occurred in the mountains to the east. All of the lava appears to be a'a and apparently moved quite fast. It inundated two indian village, killing about two thousand people, about half the population at that time.
The lava continued flowing, into the Nass River bed, forcing the whole river to form a new channel, about two mile west, before the flow finally stopped. It also blocked a river, forming Lava Lake, and completely changed the river systems in the area.
One
big difference between the lava here and the lava at home, is the growth
on it -- it is covered with lichen and moss -- from all the moisture in the
air here.
There are a number of interesting Indian stories about this event.
One, was that the eruption, and loss of life, was retribution for the actions of a number of young Indian boys. They were harassing the salmon, the tribe's primary source of food, and ignored the elders of their tribe when told to stop. Apparently the whole village was upset and concerned about this, shortly afterward the eruption occurred.
Another, a third village, on the west side of the Nass River, would have been inundated by the river as it found new channels to the west, if the lava flow had not stopped. But some supernatural creature came and stopped the lava just in time.
The storm, that had been dogging me all day, finally hit hard
when I got down to Terrace, on the main highway. It was early afternoon,
so decided to drive west to Prince Rupert -- maybe get through the storm.
And, like a storm at home, all the waterfalls appear on the mountain sides -- beautiful.
The
road follows the Canadian National Rail Road very closely down the Skeena
River, sometimes directly side by side. I got used to seeing the yellow
information signs on the railroad, like "W" for whistle. A unique sign
shows a cannon -- around the bend is the mount for a 90mm cannon used to
bring avalanches down during the winter.
Driving through the storm didn't really work, the storm just got worse the further west I went. But finally it did subside right at Prince Rupert. Have to take a good look at that country on the way back.
The talk, all around town, was about the storm. The ferries, from Alaska,
from Seattle, from the Queen Charlottes, all have been delayed over
a day because of it.
On the way back I took a detour to where the original salmon canneries were, along the Skeena River. Not much left, most have been torn down or burned.
It was raining, and I gave a local guy a lift back to the main highway. He was a fisherman and was taking care of his boat. We talked about the storm, and about the Queen Charlotte Islands. He said they were great, but his advice was to go in July, and take the ferry over -- better weather, more to see and do. Fare for my RT would be about $84C -- that's about the same as in Alaska, only up there it is in US $'s.
The drive back to Terrace was uneventful.
South
of Terrace, about forty miles, is the town of Kitimat. It is home of
Canada's Alcan Aluminum smelter. Look at the hazards of driving to
work there -- caribou and grizzles on the road.
About fifty years ago, I was on the Electrical Engineering
faculty at the University of Idaho. Electrical power generation and
transmission was my passion then, sort of like computers are now. I
attended a presentation of the Kemano-Nachako-Kitimat project, then being
designed and constructed in northern British Columbia.
The magnitude and audacity of the total project was mind boggling. Alcan needed immense amounts of electrical energy to smelt bauxite ore, from South America, Chile I believe, into pure aluminum. The BC Government promised to work with them to provide that power.
The project entailed building a high-head (that means lots and
lots of water pressure) hydro-power generator plant down at Kemano. Kemano
is almost at sea level, and is about fifty miles south of Kitimat, toward
the end of Gardner Canal.
Next, drill a tunnel through the coastal mountains, and constructing high pressure pipes, or penstocks, down to the Kemano site. To supply the water, they planned on damming the Nachako River, a river up in the Hazelton Mountains. Then reverse it's flow and run the water through the tunnel, down the penstocks to turn the generators. This would generate the needed electrical power.
The last step was to build a fifty mile high voltage transmission line across the coastal mountains, through the rain forest, from Kemano to Kitimat. This would get the needed electrical power at Kitimat for Alcoa.
Think about it -- at that time there were no roads, no towns, nothing, in this entire area. Everything had to be planned for and created from scratch.
Huge project -- but its here, and it works. With Alcan as it's base, there are now a number of other industries located here.