My brother, along with a couple of other friends, got to talking and decided they would take a road trip to the Northwest Territories. With nothing holding me back after I lost everything to the fire. I said that I would join them. It was an adventure to get out and see Northern Canada. The trip north was awesome, the scenery was beautiful, but it was cold; it was still late winter, and the land was frozen.
The second night found us staying in a fancy hotel in Edmonton, out on the white mud highway. Around 9 pm that night, I felt like having a sauna, but the sauna door was locked. I asked at the front desk if we could use the sauna. The desk clerk gave me a key to unlock the door, telling us to lock up when we finished. We all went in. After maybe half an hour, an elderly gentleman, about 70, came in and joined us, thinking it was an open sauna for all. My brother and the others decided to leave at that point. As a joke, my brother locked the outer door. There was just me and this old guy left.
This other gentleman decided to also leave and headed into the change room. About 10 minutes later, the old man came flying back into the sauna from the changing room, screaming that we were locked in. I told him it was not a big deal; someone would let us out, just knock on the door. The other gent, however, was claustrophobic and went into a rampaging panic, screaming to high heaven that he was going to die. By the time someone heard his pounding on the door and his screaming, he was not in good shape. I thought he might up and die of a heart attack.
When we got out, he followed me to our room, where my brother was. He was pretty feisty for an old guy and attempted to fight my brother. My brother defended himself. The police were called, and we got kicked out. The police told us not to come back to Edmonton. We found a cheap motel on the outskirts of the city and spent the night. The next day, we continued our way to the Northwest Territories.
After we crossed the border from Alberta into the Northwest Territories, we stopped at the Alexandra Falls trailhead on the Hay River and hiked in to see these falls. The falls drop about 33 meters straight down into a deep, straight-walled canyon that runs as far as we can see. Now in the summer months, these falls are pretty impressive, but the best time to see them is during the cold winters. What we saw was a river locked in ice with the falls shooting out of a frozen cone that stuck out over the falls by at least 15 meters; the river was coming out the end like water from a hose. It went out and down in a big arc and shot into what looked like a very large ice volcano, disappearing back under the ice to continue its run to Great Slave Lake. It was an awesome sight.
After seeing the falls, we headed down the road and into the town of Hay River, a small town right on the shores of the Great Slave Lake, not much to see when we got there. One thing that stood out to us was when I attempted to purchase some beer, I had to sign an affidavit stating I was not First Nations, and I was buying for First Nations members. We got our beer, but thought this was pretty strange. We then headed towards Yellowknife, but the ice road was starting to deteriorate and was shut down. Like stepping back in time, it made me uncomfortable. The ferry that runs during the warmer months has not been able to operate yet because of the ice. This happens in spring and fall; there can be weeks with no access to Yellowknife. So we turned around and headed back south. After we got back into Alberta, we headed towards the Peace River area and back to BC. Then we headed south.
The trip back to the coast was a great adventure; we stopped at many places, including McKenzie, which at the time was a new town. It was built to house the employees of the mills that had sprung up after the W.C.Bennet Dam was constructed. I had family there that I was able to visit. Then we stopped in Prince George and Quesnel, where we took a side trip out to Barkerville. Billy Barker’s discovery of gold ignited the Barkerville gold rush. Many thousands of hopeful prospectors headed to the area. Barkerville quickly became an active gold rush town. Its population reached 10,000. It’s a rustic tourist ghost town these days, and it was pretty cool.
After leaving Quesnel, we headed to Williams Lake. For some reason, this town just appealed to me. The whole feel of this town was western. This could be because cowboys have always fascinated me, and Williams Lake is a true cowboy town. I had been an avid reader of Louie L’Amour books since I could read, and like most kids, the life of the cowboy had always been my dream from a very early age.
We booked a room in the Chilcotin Hotel and spent the next few days exploring the area and all it had to offer. We went out west as far as Sheep Creek Hill. Explored some caves located there and found cave art within one cave. We then went east to both the little towns of Likely and Horsefly. Both of these towns are very small but have such rich histories. Our last night in town was spent at a pretty wild dance hall/drinking establishment. It was called Squaw Hall. It had a stage where the bands played; this stage was fully protected by wire fencing. All through the night, people would throw beer bottles toward the wire screen that would fall down in a pile of broken glass at its base. A few would break on the wire, sending showers of broken glass at the band. Fights seemed to be quite common.
As we headed out of town, we stopped at the rodeo grounds. It was not open, but I got to walk around. It would be cool to actually be here for a rodeo. I told my brother that one day, I was going to come back to this area for a longer visit. Then we headed back to the island.
Once I was back on the island, my priority was finding a place to live. I rented a small cabin across from the Ideal Cafe; it was a one-bedroom unit with the kitchen and living room combined, and you cooked on an oil stove that also heated the cabin. It wasn’t much, but it was only 75 bucks a month. It was set amongst some big trees and was pretty private. Now to find a job.