Historic Barkerville, the gold rush town of the 1860's!

In August, my family (T & J) and I travelled to Barkerville, BC, to rediscover and savour the flavour of history!

Barkerville is a National Historic Park (http://www.barkerville.ca/newindex/index03.html) named after Billy Barker, a local miner who found the motherlode and sparked a gold rush to the mountainous Cariboo region of British Columbia.

Barkerville is a living museum, with period architecture, artifacts, exhibits, restaurants, inns, shops and actors to help visitors get lost in gold rush life in the 1860s. A few of the buildings are original structures that survived the fire that razed the town after a drunken miner tried to gain a waitress' affections and ran afoul of the inn's stove!

I found the design features of several frontier-era buildings of particular interest to the outdoorsman/survivalist who might endeavor to construct living space with simple hand tools.

We even managed a period-costume photo for the family!

If you have a love for history and love interactive exhibits, I recommend a trip to Barkerville!

British Columbia's North Coast

My gorgeous girl, T, and I travelled to Prince Rupert, to discover British Columbia's north coast region...and to have a little time together! What we found was nothing short of amazing! Rugged terrain, lush temperate rainforests, rain, mists, fog and the deeply heart-fulfilling peace that comes with time spent communing with God's creation.

A two-day drive across the Peace Country of Alberta, through the northern Rocky Mountains, over the rolling interior plateaus and through the Coast (Cascade) Mountains was a voyage of delight and discovery all in itself!

Gently rolling forest & farmland of Alberta's Peace Country near our home.

Pine Pass and Azouetta Lake. The Pine Pass is the northernmost roaded pass through the Rocky Mountains.

Many waterfalls along the Skeena river valley west of Prince George.

Railway tunnel in the Coast mountains.

The Skeena River valley near where it flows into the Pacific Ocean.

Where the Skeena meets the sea.

Prince Rupert is called the "City of Rainbows"...and small wonder, given the mixed assortment of weather we experienced every day! Fog and rain in the morning. Midmorning sunshine. Light misty breezes in the afternoon. Patches of blue sky and forbiddingly dark stormclouds...All in a single day!

Prince Rupert - famous for sport fishing - is affectionately known by the locals as "The little drinking town with a fishing problem." Fishing is the primary economic engine here, with a large container port (soon to expand again) and a growing eco-tourism industry. Many fishing charter ships are available for day or extended hire

The recreational and eco-tourist potential of the area is still relatively unknown, but there is so much to explore and discover! I could spend a couple of weeks kayaking about and not discover half of the sights around here.

Arts and culture are growing in Prince Rupert. The Museum of Northern British Columbia (http://www.tourismprincerupert.com/museumofnorthernbc) is a world class facility, exhibiting historical and cultural artifacts from both pre and post-contact between Aboriginals and European settlers. Local parks, monuments, and a small shopping district lie adjacent to the cruise ship dock and the marina for the fishing fleet.

Citizen's Park adjacent to the museum.

Cow Bay Cafe. The best seafood in the town! Very small, very eclectic and always requiring reservations.

The seafood chowder is outstanding!

Two cruise ships visited Prince Rupert during our stay. This ship came from Seattle on it's way to Alaska's glacier & fiord cruise.

It should go without saying that the seafood was spectacular!

Discovering a new environment is always a balancing act. You must allow time to experience every environmental niche to have truly experienced the area...

Exploring wild places:

the not-so-wild places...

...and experimenting with various shelter systems!

Springtime on the Little Smoky River

At the request of T., my beautiful bride (wanting to be introduced to camping and outdoor survival) my family took to the woods in the Little Smoky River valley. It was a gorgeous day! Lots green leaves, brilliant sunshine, a good breeze and not too many bugs...

We got a fire going with a Swedish metal match and tinder, then T. decided to cook up some corn, bannock, and sausages for lunch...supplemented with the finest spruce needle tea I could brew!

A note on the tinder. This spring freshet, the river was in full flood, and carried all manner of debris onto the benches above the gravel bars. We found perfect nests of grass, bark and other dried unidentifiable materials pressed about 4 feet up willow & alder clusters. Perfect tinder!

Lunch was delicious! The bannock was Karen Hood's recipe, with the addition of real bacon bits for extra protein. The corn turned out perfectly, with a good selection of flavours on each cob!

...I call this stuff CAJUN CORN. ...Yes, I tried out the corn charcoal to see how well it would take a spark. It does!

We rounded out the afternoon with cord making, whittling & chopping with various knives (to test their usability and have more fun...) and hiking around with J. (our son) to test gear loadouts and discuss optimal bivouac sites for the local geography. I also found many local survival food and use plants: Dandelion, Diamond willow, Alder, Birch, Aspen, Cottonwood, Spruce, Cattail, Wild Rose and Horsetail among them.

I've been really impressed with the construction strength, fit and layout of this British (Arktis 1601) battlevest. It holds all my personal survival kit and is easily supplemented with snivel kit in the Alice medium ruck I also carried. The axe is an Estwing camper's axe with the handle cut down to 18 inches, allowing it to be carried on the Alice ruck.

A great day...we wish you were here!

Great Outdoor Survival Videos!

Ron and Karen Hood, who own www.survival.com have produced (to date) 24 DVDs that take a humorous and captivating take on outdoor survival. Our family has thoroughly enjoyed these productions and found them highly entertaining and instructive!

Can you get a more shameless plug than that?

If you want to learn outdoor survival, go to Hoods Woods website (www.survival.com).

The buds are about to burst!

About ruddy time eh?

Spring has arrived late and progressed slowly this year. Just two days after the previous adventure, we got hit by two FEET of snow in a freak three-day blizzard! Very uncool... Feeling desperately behind the rest of my Hoodlum friends in experiencing Spring's splendor, I can't wait to get out the day the buds burst!

...Hopefully that'll be tomorrow...

April in the Boreal Forest

My son, Joe, and I went exploring the Boreal Forests near our home in northern Alberta. Practicing spark-based firecraft was the order of the day. Melting snow and soggy conditions made this a challenge, but innovation and perseverence saved the day! (boreal firecraft secret: pitch pockets on balsam fir have sap that will burn when a spark hits it!)