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I woke up at 3am to a large animal sniffing around my tent. Well, it seemed large as I was lying on the ground. I thought it was a bear at first. I leaned up to get a better view through my tent screen and saw that it was moving pretty quick to be a bear, and it was light in color. Ok, it's not a bear, it's a wolf. Nervously, I got out my pocketknife and opened it up just in case. The animal went away and then I heard barking up the creek. Wolves don't bark, do they? Must be a dog. There were two of them. Friendly dogs. I went outside for a pee and petted one of them. I went back to sleep as they hung around our tents. When I got up, I realized they got into my trailer bag and ate my bread and cheese. There wasn't much, so I wasn't too upset, but I had to clean up the torn apart zip lock bags scattered about. Luckily, they didn't touch my oatmeal and I had a nice breakfast before riding towards Kitwanga. A few miles down the road, we stopped at Gitanyow, a small native village that displays some awesome looking totem poles, some as old as 200 years. I took a look through the village museum and took some photos, then we cycled the rest of the way to Kitwanga. We looked for a library for some internet, but had no luck. So we got some snacks at the grocery store then headed another 2 miles or so to the junction of the Cassiar Highway and the Yellowhead Highway. We were finished with the Cassiar! Not bad, I say. Thomas and I said goodbye and he headed East with tailwinds and I headed West with headwinds and started on my way to Prince Rupert. I followed the Skeena River, which was a nice bright green on this sunny day. I took my first break after about 20 miles and fixed a peanut butter, granola, and nutella sandwich on the roadside. Lots more traffic on the Yellowhead. Large semi-trailer trucks rush past me carrying woodchips from a sawmill. Despite the headwinds, hot sun, and occasional ups and downs, the ride was going nice and smoothly. I continued on until I arrived at a bridge crossing the Skeena River. I thought maybe this would get me to Usk, a small town on the other side of the Skeena, so I crossed the thin bridge only to learn it was a private logging bridge. There was a gravel road on the other side that headed South along the river, and another one uphill to the North was oviously a work road. I though about taking the South road to see if I could get to Usk, but I stopped after about 20 ft when I saw a huge pile of bear poo right in the middle of the road. I turned around towards the highway since I wasn't even sure if that gravel road would take me there. I tried to ask some travelers about this alternative route at a nearby rest area but they didn't know **** about ****. They thought it would take me to Alaska! After a few more miles, I could see the ferry crossing the Skeena to Usk. I pedaled through South Usk on the highway side then caught the ferry over to the North side. A guy in a pickup who crossed with me told me there was nothing to do over here. I had an hour and a half to kill before the next ferry crossing. I rode down to the end of the main road and then turned around. I saw some old abandoned houses I wanted to photograph so I propped up the bike and walked in to get a closer look. Just then I start to notice salmonberry bushes all around me. I started to pick a few. Yum, nice and sweet. So after some photos, I started to collect berries all they way back to the ferry. I still had about an hour left so I ate a snack. The ferry operator came out during his break and we talked about bears, wild mushroom picking, and the history of Usk. Apparently it goes way back to before there was a road on the other side of the river. There were towns along the railway, which is on the North side of the Skeena River. After the highway was built, people began to move across the river and towns on the North side began to disappear. Usk is one of the only ones left with only about 30 residents living on the North side. On my way back across the river, I spoke a little with a German tourist. He was born in Cologne, near where Thomas is from and he told me something to say to Thomas in the area dialect, Cul-Sh-Yung. I stopped in to the Kleanza Creek Provincial Campgrounds a couple kilometers down the road. Half of me wanted to just camp since it was late, the other half wanted to just cook and run and find a spot on the side of the road. As I ate my food, it began to get dark, so I decided to fork out 12 bucks to stay the night. Thomas would be disappointed. I think I'll be washing up in the creek when I do my dishes, then I'll be off to bed. Terrace is only 10 or so miles away and I'll spend a little time there tomorrow morning, maybe at the library for some email. (73 miles)

Peace

Dave

Dwagenheim

Pic: I'm sure this was the one who ate my bread and cheese.

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Pic: Totem Poles at Gitanyow

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Pic: One of my favorite Totem Poles

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Pic: ...which was a replica of this much older one in storage.

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Pic: Old building in Gitanyow

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Pic: 7 Sisters Mountains near Kitwanga

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Pic: The Skeena River

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Pic: Old abandoned house in Usk

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Pic: Another old abandoned house in Usk