Aaaaaaaand we're back! July 3-23

Hiya

Sorry for the delay, we've been passing around a pretty bad cold which has been distracting me from the internet. It's currently my third week out here so on with the show!
I'm in Northern BC for 6 weeks of camp. We're in the Peace River region if that helps to narrow it down at all. This time, the additional people in "we" are Yasmine (3 year Outreach Team veteran from Halifax) and Allyson (on loan from the science camp at SFU in Vancouver). Allyson was only on our team for 2 weeks. We were planning on hiding her in a suitcase so we could keep her, but she didn't seem too thrilled with that plan.

Our first stop was a tiny town called McLeod Lake, although we actually stayed about 20 minutes up the road in Mackenzie. We have a rental car for the duration which gives us the freedom to check out more of the area. However, driving around here is a bit more treacherous than in southern Ontario. On one morning in particular we stopped for 5 moose on the road (including 2 calves), and saw 2 hanging out on the side. No matter how many times I'd heard about the dangers of hitting a moose, I wasn't prepared for how big the things are. Next time I'm hoping I'll have my camera handy.

We had a chance to go for a bit of a hike before I got hit in the head with a cold that has kept me indoors most evenings. The area around here is so gorgeous but I've had to be reminded a couple of times that we're not actually in the mountains, these are just foothills. I've been using the "I'm from Ontario" excuse to be disproportionately excited about everything, but especially large scale geography.

Our second stop was Chetwynd. I'm not sure how much the Peace River flooding situation made the news wherever you are, but the major (read: only) road from Mackenzie to Chetwynd had been washed out just before we arrived. Further adding to our worry, the rain hadn't really stopped. No torrential downpours, just constant drizzle that threatened more would come to keep the water levels rising. If the road didn't open the only other option would be to drive around through Prince George, Grand Prairie AB, and Fort St. John; essentially turning a 2 hour drive into a 14 hour expedition. Luckily by Saturday the road open for single direction traffic with a pilot car. We got through just fine.

Chetwynd is apparently the chainsaw carving capital of Canada (which probably by default makes it the chainsaw carving capital of the WORLD). They seem pretty proud of this fact. Also, the town sits right in the shadow of Mount Baldy and Ghost Mountain. Somehow saying I climbed Ghost Mountain seems like a much bigger accomplishment than climbing Baldy, but I did both.

Right now we're in West Moberly which is on Moberly Lake. We're here for two weeks which means we get to relax this weekend. In our case relax means check out the sights because it finally stopped raining!!! We went by the Bennet Dam which is one of the largest hydroelectric dams in Canada, and got stuck in the mud outside of Fort St. John. More adventures to come, and I promise to be more on the ball at letting you know where I am.

Cheers!