September 19-25, 2023
Although we had intended to get up and take a hike in either Hyder or Stewart, it was pouring rain that morning. So, we watched the eagles on the river next to the camper, and then took off and headed south. When we got to internet range at Kitwanga, we looked for some place to take a hike on All Trails, and found a bunch of hikes around “The Hazeltons.” I took a look at iOverlander and saw that there were a number of places to camp in the area, and that the area visitor center had a free dump/fill station for RVs. We headed to the visitor center, where we filled with water, had lunch in the parking lot, and got a lot of good information about where to hike and where to camp. We ended up at a free provincial park, Anderson Flats, which has no amenities, but which is astoundingly beautiful with snow capped mountains on one side and a confluence of rivers on the other. We took the dogs for a short walk in the park, and then took ourselves on a longer walk on the dirt country roads just outside of the park before settling in for the night.
In the morning, we took the dogs for the same walk as the previous day at the Anderson Flats PP before we left, not knowing if they would be allowed on the other walks we planned for the day. They were lucky, because we did two more great hikes, and dogs were welcome on both. After stopping at the visitor center to refill our water since we had taken advantage of sufficient water to shower and do laundry the night before, we went to the Breakover Trail at the edge of New Hazelton, which was a ~2 mile loop along the river through the trees, which was beautiful since the foliage seemed to be near peak. After that, we drove to Ross Lake Provincial Park, about 5 miles outside of New Hazelton, to take another 2+ mile walk around the lake. That was a really pretty walk, with views of the mountains over the lake and the changing foliage. We didn’t get done walking until almost 4 o’clock, so we found a free municipal campground about two and a half hours towards Prince George in the town of Burns Lake. The campsites are right on the lake, downhill from a really nice community center with a skate park, huge playground, boat launch into the lake, dock with a slide into the lake, indoor community recreation center and curling rink…and all were being enthusiastically used at 7:00 on a Wednesday night when we pulled in, although we were joined by only one other camper that night.
In the morning, we decided to do the dreaded change the composting toilet task, and then talked to some workers at the campground for quite a while, so didn’t get out for a hike until almost 11. But, the 6+ mile hike around a small lake in the Burns Lake Provincial Park was beautiful, and worth the time for us and the dogs. We then drove to Prince George where we shopped at Walmart and got oil for the truck for the oil change which scheduled for the next morning.
Oil change day did not go as planned. The plan was to get the oil changed, and then head south. Instead, when they did the oil change, they noticed that we have an exhaust leak under the cab, which could be dangerous since toxic fumes we can’t smell are probably leaking into the cab. So, instead of driving out of Babine Truck & Equipment at 10:30 Friday morning, we spent until mid afternoon with them doing diagnostic work and figuring out what parts we need, when the parts could get there, and when they could do the work. Of course this was all happening on a Friday afternoon, so nothing could be done until Monday, but the final decision was that we don’t need any parts they can’t get, and they can start the work Monday morning at 7:30am, and think they can do it in a day.
While they were getting estimates for the work we took the dogs out for a walk around the industrial park where Babine is located. We were delighted to find three people out walking their dogs on their lunch hour, because they take their dogs to work. While we weren’t too impressed with Prince George because it’s a lumber town and it smells, it can’t be all bad if so many people can bring their dogs to work. The service manager at Babine told us that we can park in front of Bay 4 on Sunday night so that the engine will be cold when they pull it in on Monday morning, and we’re glad we’ll be in a dog friendly neighborhood.
When we left Babine, we went to Cottonwood Park, which had a few recommendations on iOverlander as a place to park for the night. We pulled into the very busy parking lot and decided to take the dogs for a walk while we figured out what we were going to do for the weekend. Although the walk along the river with the dogs was quite nice, we decided we didn’t want to stay in the city with the smell, the train noise, and all the traffic. We found one potential spot about 25 miles northwest of Prince George, but while Tom was driving towards that, I got on FreeRoam and found a free BC Recreation Sites & Trails Campground on Shesta Lake, southwest of Prince George. The last 3 miles or so to the campground are on a gravel forest service road, but it’s very well maintained and easy driving.
We pulled into the campground and found a guy already there, who told us he was waiting for his brother and nephews to have a guys’ night around the bonfire before a moose hunting day tomorrow. They warned us that they might be a little loud around the campfire, but they wouldn’t be up all night since they were planning to head out hunting by 6am. We made sure we wouldn’t be crashing their party if we parked there, and they assured us that as long as their noise doesn’t bother us, we wouldn’t bother them. We figured we could use it as a good excuse to not worry about the volume of our movie, and their noise would be a good bear deterrent, which were told is needed. As it turned out, we didn’t even hear them, and over the course of the next couple of days we had a lot of nice chats with them. They set up their camp for a week, and we were actually a little disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer. But, after two long road walks to keep us out of the woods since we don’t have any blaze orange with us and everybody is out hunting on the provincial land, we said goodbye to Shesta Lake and headed back into Fort George to park in front of Babine so they have a cool engine to work on Monday morning.
In the morning, we took the dogs for the same walk as the previous day at the Anderson Flats PP before we left, not knowing if they would be allowed on the other walks we planned for the day. They were lucky, because we did two more great hikes, and dogs were welcome on both. After stopping at the visitor center to refill our water since we had taken advantage of sufficient water to shower and do laundry the night before, we went to the Breakover Trail at the edge of New Hazelton, which was a ~2 mile loop along the river through the trees, which was beautiful since the foliage seemed to be near peak. After that, we drove to Ross Lake Provincial Park, about 5 miles outside of New Hazelton, to take another 2+ mile walk around the lake. That was a really pretty walk, with views of the mountains over the lake and the changing foliage. We didn’t get done walking until almost 4 o’clock, so we found a free municipal campground about two and a half hours towards Prince George in the town of Burns Lake. The campsites are right on the lake, downhill from a really nice community center with a skate park, huge playground, boat launch into the lake, dock with a slide into the lake, indoor community recreation center and curling rink…and all were being enthusiastically used at 7:00 on a Wednesday night when we pulled in, although we were joined by only one other camper that night.
In the morning, we decided to do the dreaded change the composting toilet task, and then talked to some workers at the campground for quite a while, so didn’t get out for a hike until almost 11. But, the 6+ mile hike around a small lake in the Burns Lake Provincial Park was beautiful, and worth the time for us and the dogs. We then drove to Prince George where we shopped at Walmart and got oil for the truck for the oil change which scheduled for the next morning.
Oil change day did not go as planned. The plan was to get the oil changed, and then head south. Instead, when they did the oil change, they noticed that we have an exhaust leak under the cab, which could be dangerous since toxic fumes we can’t smell are probably leaking into the cab. So, instead of driving out of Babine Truck & Equipment at 10:30 Friday morning, we spent until mid afternoon with them doing diagnostic work and figuring out what parts we need, when the parts could get there, and when they could do the work. Of course this was all happening on a Friday afternoon, so nothing could be done until Monday, but the final decision was that we don’t need any parts they can’t get, and they can start the work Monday morning at 7:30am, and think they can do it in a day.
While they were getting estimates for the work we took the dogs out for a walk around the industrial park where Babine is located. We were delighted to find three people out walking their dogs on their lunch hour, because they take their dogs to work. While we weren’t too impressed with Prince George because it’s a lumber town and it smells, it can’t be all bad if so many people can bring their dogs to work. The service manager at Babine told us that we can park in front of Bay 4 on Sunday night so that the engine will be cold when they pull it in on Monday morning, and we’re glad we’ll be in a dog friendly neighborhood.
When we left Babine, we went to Cottonwood Park, which had a few recommendations on iOverlander as a place to park for the night. We pulled into the very busy parking lot and decided to take the dogs for a walk while we figured out what we were going to do for the weekend. Although the walk along the river with the dogs was quite nice, we decided we didn’t want to stay in the city with the smell, the train noise, and all the traffic. We found one potential spot about 25 miles northwest of Prince George, but while Tom was driving towards that, I got on FreeRoam and found a free BC Recreation Sites & Trails Campground on Shesta Lake, southwest of Prince George. The last 3 miles or so to the campground are on a gravel forest service road, but it’s very well maintained and easy driving.
We pulled into the campground and found a guy already there, who told us he was waiting for his brother and nephews to have a guys’ night around the bonfire before a moose hunting day tomorrow. They warned us that they might be a little loud around the campfire, but they wouldn’t be up all night since they were planning to head out hunting by 6am. We made sure we wouldn’t be crashing their party if we parked there, and they assured us that as long as their noise doesn’t bother us, we wouldn’t bother them. We figured we could use it as a good excuse to not worry about the volume of our movie, and their noise would be a good bear deterrent, which were told is needed. As it turned out, we didn’t even hear them, and over the course of the next couple of days we had a lot of nice chats with them. They set up their camp for a week, and we were actually a little disappointed that we couldn’t stay longer. But, after two long road walks to keep us out of the woods since we don’t have any blaze orange with us and everybody is out hunting on the provincial land, we said goodbye to Shesta Lake and headed back into Fort George to park in front of Babine so they have a cool engine to work on Monday morning.
Anderson Flats was a beautiful place to park for a night.
One of our hikes around New Hazleton ran along a river.
The other New Hazleton hike went around beautiful Ross Lake.
The Burns Lake Municipal Campground was free, and the park was well used by the locals. In the morning it was a short drive to a community dump station and water refill.
We hiked around this small lake in Burns Lake Provincial Park. Have I mentioned that the provincial parks in BC are beautiful?
We spent the weekend camped on the shore of Shesta Lake with a bunch of moose hunters. It was lovely, and cold.
Monday morning, we were parked in front of Babine Diesel, who did a great job of fixing our turbo.