October of 2022 was a heck of a month. It was the second straight month where air quality in Seattle was a total wildcard. Nearby wildfires and wind patterns occasionally catapulted us to the tippy top of the rankings for the city with the worst air quality worldwide. Thankfully, our times as world champions were brief.
In between that, I had a lot of fun during this month: hosting some house guests from out of town, paying a final snowy visit to Mt. Rainier, and driving to Montana and back again to celebrate (and photograph) friends’ engagement.
Naturally, all of this informed my participation in weekly photography challenges.
During my stint in New York City, I had more frequent trips to the west coast than ever before. I was working as part of a “distributed team,” most of whom were on the west coast, so it was absolutely cheaper to make the east coast people fly over repeatedly whenever there was a reason to try to get people face-to-face. As ever, I had interest in “work-adjacent personal travel.”
In past visits to Seattle, I had tacked on stops at Olympic National Park and Vancouver (post forthcoming). This time, I thought I’d visit the Canadian city of Victoria, famous for its gardens and its beautiful architecture.
Of course, October might not have been the best choice of time to do it.
An illustration of why October might not be the best time to do it. (In the form of a selfie.)open_in_fullinfo
The terms and conditions for a BC Ferries ticket are crystal clear:
“Arrive at the terminal 90 to 120 minutes prior to scheduled departure”
Still, I wasn’t that concerned about hitting the 120 minute mark when the time came to leave Terrace. It was a cool 1.5 hour drive from there to the ferry terminal, which seemed like a completely OK amount of driving to do before a 10:30 AM ferry. I just had to get to the Prince Rupert Ferry Terminal on Kainen Island, and from there, take a ~7 hour ferry to Skidegate Landing, Graham Island, Haida Gwaii.
Do the math and you’ll find that I merely had to check out between six and seven. Which I did. And I hit the dusty trail. And realized I probably forgot my book. And turned around. And collected my book. And left again. And waisted some of that precious buffer time.
And, then, I was back on my way along the Yellowhead Highway, through beautiful peaks of the Costal Mountains, along the Skeena River, and past many lovely lakes.
The moment I crossed the Galloway Rapids Bridge onto Kainen Island, I left mainland North American behind. I would spend the next 10 days visiting Haida Gwaii, and several days after that on other islands. Other than a detour to a historic cannery, I was about to spend roughtly ~17 days island hopping. (For some definition of island hopping.)
I figured that petrol would be pricier on Haida Gwaii – it had to take the same ferry I did – so, I gassed up in Prince Rupert, and drove directly to the ferry terminal. The line of cars stretched far beyond the gates.
I didn’t want to leave Maui. After all, I had been on some long flights to get there, and I would only be returning back to my parents’ house in Pennsylvania. Extending my stay was an easy decision, once I realized I could adjust my return flight without too much expense.
I unhesitatingly re-share this image, plucked from Week 22 of this year's 52 Frames, to juxtapose the beauty of the surrounding mountains with the beauty of the town of Terrace.
This isn’t a particularly exciting post, because, as the title suggests, I was sluggish and immobile for most of my time in Terrace. A combination of my desire to do some work, my need to take care of some chores, and some tiredness resulting from the previous two days’ lengthy drives did not leave me up for much exploring.
What I will report is that the landscape surrounding the city is beautiful. The city itself has all of the right amenities and is a good place to stop as one makes ones journey to any other nearby place. I mean, there’s a Wal-Mart, and a Canadian Tire and so forth.
Read onwards to hear about a tiny chapel and a laundromat.
See, I’m about to write yet another post about a long drive on a forest service road in British Columbia. Another post about taking a highway to a dead end terminus past some gorgeous costal mountain views.
And heck, another post where I fail to visit a volcano.
So, if you’re still with me, I promise to mix things up.
I also fail to visit a fish ladder, a museum, and a sacred hot springs.
Two out of four missed opportunities were because it was a Wednesday and not a Monday. (And probably also because it wasn’t quite season yet in early June.)
The absolutely beautiful & absolutely closed Nisg̱a’a Visitor Center -- hang on! I forgot to mention that I fail to visit this one too!open_in_fullinfo
Along the way I eat some pretty good fish and chips, and get to see some spectacular and sacred lava flows. For I am visiting the lands of the Nisg̱a’a on the wrong day of the week.
I awoke earlier than I planned, to a pitter patter of raindrops hitting the outside of my tent.
Sleepless and under-caffienated, I loaded local weather radar on my phone. The rain wouldn’t stop for hours. The nearest town was surrounded by a large, green blob.
After much deliberation, I pulled myself out of my orange sleeping bag, and made myself coffee in the steady, but not too heavy, rain. I packed up my tent and left the campground.
The Babine Mountains were even more shrouded in clouds and rain than they were the day before. It was a tad dreary. It would have been nice to see them more clearly. But, there were plenty of other mountains for me to see that day.
The day’s journey would take me all the way to Alaska and back.
(…and by Alaska, I mean one of the southernmost, most easily accessed parts of the U.S. state. The section that is popular with tourists who want to say they drove to Alaska, without having to actually drive to Anchorage or something.)
