I'm On a Boat (Part 2)

Leaving Kitwanga, I saw two of the Seven Sisters, a group of snow-capped, prominent mountains. The other 5 were too cloudy.

The road followed the Skeena River towards the ocean. It was a big, wide, swift, tourquoise-colored river. We don't have rivers of that scale back East. I saw several people fishing in it, but not any bears. There wasn't much else on the road between Kitwanga and Terrace. It rained for the first time since I can remember, which felt nice. A cyclist passed me and said, "You look like you come from the summer." Another passed me and said, "No rain?" I guess it is normal to wear rain jackets when it is raining, rather than a t-shirt and gym shorts.

In Terrace I ate an Italian panini and charged my phone at a cafe. The Municipal Campground was on an island in the middle of the Skeena River, which was awesome. I went to bed early because I was planning 140km to Prince Rupert, and couldn't split it up because I had a ferry ticket for 7am the following day!

I left Terrace at 10:30am. There wasn't going to be any services until Prince Rupert, which I wasn't that happy about because it meant no ice cream!

The section of road followed the Skeena River very closely -- most of the time within a few meters of its shore. It was one of the most beautiful and remote-feeling days of the trip. I was able to seem through a valley into the coastal mountains at one point. This would be a place worth returning to.

As I got closer to Prince Rupert, the terrain began to feel more like a rainforest. Very green and very wet. Arriving in Prince Rupert was afanfarous. I rode down a steep hill to get to the ocean, but there was still a steep cliff, and the water looked like the water in a dirty shipping port, so I didn't swim. I got some beers and string cheese and went to the Municipal Campground. I had to wake up in time to make it to a ferry at 6:00am! (The ferry leaves at 7:30 but they require you get there at 6, because they don't know how to load a ferry efficiently even though they do it every other day.)

I'm on the ferry as I am writing this. It is a 16-hour ride through the Inside Passage, which weaves its way through the islands of western BC. I slept on the floor near the 6th deck aft stairwell from 7am-11am. Everything looks like a rainforest, and there are lots of whales. It's supposed to get to Port Hardy, on the tip of Vancover Island, at 11pm, at which point I will find a place to sleep on the ground.