Nelson

As a great finale to our tour of the province, we came to Nelson. The town is unlike any other, the atmosphere is very relaxed, but something is in the air. We arrived just in time for the oneday street festival, with artisans lining the main street and dancing gypsies. Having decided that Nelson is not our type of town, we went out to a hitching spot, heading south. Had a bath is the nearby creek and were feeling good. Then a white Subaru pulled over. The couple, Meg and Ryan, were friendly and we had a good chat. They dropped us off at their turn-off to Ymir (pronounced why-murr). After about 20 minutes, we see the same car stopped, and Megan waives us over. We are invited to stay at their place and have a beer or two, if we want. We sure do!!!
Our new friends have two great friendly bull terriers, and we all go for a walk with the dogs to the near-by river. When they heard that we were not impressed by Nelson, they could not believe, and they changed our opinion about it in the next few days that we stayed with them.
The next day Meg and Ryan took us to a few trails around town, one that climbs the hill, overlooking Nelson, and the other to the old growth forest, where we saw a lot of ancient trees, and the one in particular was HUGE, it took a while to walk around it.
Megan and Ryan are amazing people, really intelligent and with a great sense of humour. We found that we had a lot of similiar views on life. Thank you once again, guys, we are really happy that we met you!
The whole time we were in the area, taking out a camera and taking pictures just did not seem like the thing to do, so we apologize for the lack of photo material, we'll try to represent in the future, we promise!
The road seems to be taking us east now, but how far or for how long is not clear.

Clearwater

A quick update from a complimentary internet station at a gas bar in Clearwater.
After a long time spent thinking and pondering the decision was made not to go further north than Hyder - not an easy call, but a note is made to make a full-scale dedicated journey to the North at a later point.
On the positive side, we had the longest hitching day/distance covered in the last 24 hours: Stewart - Clearwater: 1186 km, in 5 rides.

View Larger Map'>http://
View Larger Map
The last and the longest ride was with a bearded frenchman with whom we conversed in french half the time, he took us from Houston all the way through the night and dropped us at Clearwater at 6 in the morning.
In comparison, it took us three days to get to Stewart from Smithers.
We are tired, hungry and buzzed out from the hideous amounts of the nastiest roadside coffee we had to consume to stay awake.
All in all, feeling great, as we embark on a search of a family to whom we have a letter from Wayne at Round Lake. Longing for breakfast, showers, laundry, you know, the usual stuff.

Peace!

Stewart

Fuck yeah! is what we say!

Our way to Stewart was a long and tiresome one - we waited for a day and a half on the side of the road near Kitwanga! The longest wait ever. This is how a junction of highways 16 and 37 looks at 11 pm on a Saturday. But an 18-wheeler pulled over, and it was a beautiful and comfortable ride. Stewart met us with drizzle and clouds were hanging low. We went into a campground and asked if we could do some work for the night`s stay. The groundskeeper was so blown away by the offer that he let us stay there for free! As there was still time left in the day, we went on a trail that goes around town, and we saw some beautiful landscapes and big spruce trees. (this one is 8`DBH (diameter at breast height)).
The next day we hitched to Hyder, AK, to see the world renowned Fish creek, where brown bears come to catch salmon in August. Apparently, our timing was triply perfect: first, we came in the prime season for bear watching without even realizing it; second, a big grizzly showed up within minutes of our arrival to the site and third, the weather was kind and we were able to see the tremendous Salmon glacier, where we went after.This is how many beautiful wildlife photographs are made at Fish creek:The gentleman in an orange hat and his wife (out of the picture:) were our first ride in an RV.
We are heading out of Stewart now, and it is still to be decided wheather we go north or south from here!

We go on

The time has come to bid farewell to the Hamelins and their beautiful land and head north, towards Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska. We heard those lands are beautiful. There are a lot of grizzly bears feeding on salmon right now up there and we hope to catch a glimpse of the action, from a respectful distance, of course.
The last few days at the homestead were filled with excitement, fun and good food. The flash-light tag was a lot of fun!
Yesterday on the main street of Smithers we bumped into an acquaintance of ours from five years ago - Amel Maria!
We're back on the road!

Smithers

For a week and a half now, we're staying at a resort - yes, you've read correctly - a resort! The place is great - a family run lake-side homestead with 5 cabins for rent. There are canoes, sail-boats and a swimming dock! The peak on the horizon is Hudson Bay Mountain.We're staying in a cabin of our own - an 8 by 8 kid's play shed, with a three foot door and four small windows. The hut is just big enough for our tent, and we're very happy in our little cabane. It sits in the middle of a poplar bush.
We have meals with the family - Wayne and Nina, and their children: Emma, Laura, Robert and Mark. They are an awesome bunch to hang out with!
In return, we are helping Wayne with a greenhouse he's building an impressive structure, destined to provide the family with basket fulls of tomatoes in the near future. Anastasia did some work in the garden, transplanting little beet and carrot plants and she also made this beautiful wind chime to bring some new energy to the garden.
Last weekend, we went to Smithers to meet Jannine - Anastasia's friend from her tree-planting days.
We went up to the local glacier - a pleasant day hike.
Good times all around!