Day 2: Prince George to Prince Rupert

Yet another morning of waking up at 5 AM.

I woke up and got out of town as fast as I could. Prince George just depressed the hell out of me.

The drive out of town was alright, nothing spectacular, but I did notice that there were now fewer cars around. It was a pretty quiet drive.

The best part of the drive, in my opinion, was between Smithers and Prince Rupert. Smithers is one of the most beautiful places in BC. It is unbelievably beautiful and it could kick Whistler’s ass with one mountain tied behind it’s back. There were parts of the drive where I nearly drove off the road it was so damn breathtaking.

Prince Rupert was the start of the smallest yet most depressing part of my entire trip. In Prince Rupert I no longer had use of my cell phone. This might not seem big, but it ended up being a massive blow by day 5.

I get into town, try to call my parents to let them know I am alive and it’s damn near impossible. They have call blocking features on their phones that makes it impossible to call collect. I had to spend a small fortune in loose change to talk to my (step)dad for 30 seconds to let him know I was alive.

I stayed a campground about 30 seconds away from the ferry terminal and was charged a disgusting amount of money to do so. I met a lovely couple on the same ferry as me, heading over to cycle the Charlottes after getting married on their first day there. They were the first of many, many, many people from Alberta I would see along the way.

In Prince George I realized that every single step I took further North was the furthest North I had ever been. It was cool. It was the beginning of everything being NEW to me. I had spent a tonne of summers in the Cariboo Interior, but I’d never been further North than Quesnel, well Barkerville I guess, but Quesnel was where we went mostly. The Cariboo Interior has the skies of my childhood. It was great to see them again.

Prince Rupert was the first place I really noticed that the sun goes down much later in the North than it did where I’d come from. Prince Rupert was also the last night I’d see the sun for a very long time. If I had known I might have stayed up until it had completely set, but as it was, I was exhausted, so exhausted that sleeping on a wooden platform was a non-issue.