Hitting the Pavement: Prince Rupert, BC

We arrived in Prince Rupert two hours behind schedule at 7:30 in the morning. The fog was so thick that the ship had to blow the fog horn five times as we were coming into port.

Once we got off the ship and into town we got ourselves oriented at the visitor’s centre. They recommended Butze Rapids just out of town as well as a number of other activities.

We made sure to get to the rapids at low tide. The 4.5 km walking trail was also a popular jogging route and even though the weather was pretty drizzly, the trail was pretty busy. This part of Northern BC is part of the Great Bear Rainforest, one of the last coastal rainforests left on the planet. 220 days of rain keep the forest dense and very lush. It reminded me a lot of the forests on the West Coast of New Zealand where I briefly worked in 2013.

Butze Rapids

A tree gremlin

Rainforest Hike

Back in town, we picked up some supplies at the mall and went out for lunch at the most delicious Vietnamese restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. It was called Lee & Anne’s family restaurant on 3^rd. It was so good we also went back for dinner the next day. Our first time around I had a beef pho noodle bowl and Bill had this amazingly spiced pork chop on rice. The second time around I got a chicken stir-fry on noodles and Bill had Pork Vermicelli.

After lunch we visited Wheelhouse Brewery to sample their craft brew. “It was alight” says Bill. I took a nap in the car while Bill checked out a board game store.

Still full from our lunch, we set up camp and had an early night. Our site was right next to a lake.

Camping beside the lake

The next morning we woke up to the first sunny day we had seen in over a week. We took our time packing up, and took the opportunity to finally dry out our tent and air mattress. The constant rain and dampness has put our air mattress in danger of moulding.

Just south of Prince Rupert is the little town of Prince Edward. Their main claim to fame is the North Pacific Cannery, now a museum protected by the historical society. It was one of many on the Skeena River built in the late 1800’s. Many donations have gone into preserving and rebuilding decaying parts of the historical site, the neighbouring canneries from the same era have all but decomposed and slipped off their stilts into the river, leaving little trace of their existence.

North Pacific Cannery

Taking a tour of the old cannery

We caught one of the hourly tours around the museum. It detailed the lives of the foreign and native workers who lived and worked on site, the process in which the salmon was caught and canned and the grocery store and machine shops that sustained the remote operation.