Day 9: Prince George

Yesterday morning at 8:30 am we left the great city of Vancouver to begin our long day of driving to Prince George,BC. Our gps told us it was going to be a 10.5 hour drive, but we seemed to make relatively good time (with stops) and arrived to the Travelodge hotel around 6:30pm. Within the first 2 hours of our drive we made a stop high in the mountains at a famous point in British Columbia called Hell's Gate. The name was coined long ago by an explorer named Simon Fraser, who canoed down the entire Fraser River until this specific point now called Fraser Canyon, because the water was so violent at the narrowest part of the river, he stated that "“We had to travel where no human being should venture for surely we have encountered the gates of hell”. – Simon Fraser, 1808.  We climbed into this tram at the top and hanging by nothing but a cable, we started down towards the other bank on the opposite side of the river... 500 hundred feet below. It was scary and thrilling and I've never seen such violent rapids before. There was much history to this place and it is deemed haunted by many for the stories that have emerged since the early stages of building around this river. I'll attach a link so you can view pictures and read more of it if you'd like. There was also a separate bridge you could walk out on over the river, and I timidly walked out for a few minutes before scurrying back to solid ground. I wasn't wanting to be a part of a freak accident and have this bridge collapse on me or something! :P After our thrilling visit to Hell's Gate we claimed back into the car to again start our long haul. We made a stop in a small town for lunch, at a place over 100years old. It was very cool. We winded up and down and around the mountain range (Mackenzie Mtns I believe) and traveled through 7 tunnels under the mountain, one being the longest tunnel in north America! A few hours later we noticed a vast difference in scenery- it went from green trees and cool weather to hot, dry, and brown. I read in our handy Milepost Magazine (it's been our only way to plan our route through Canada and to know the facts on every point along the way) that they consider this area (the name I cannot remember) the "Arizona of British Columbia" because of the weather conditions! It was crazy. Layne was a trooper and drove the whole way here. We have been watching Duck Dynasty on my iPad and it has allowed the time to pass much more smoothly on these long days. The town of Prince George is much larger than any town we passed through, with a population of 80,000 or so. We ate dinner next door to our hotel and it was a super cool place- it was like a huge sports bar lodge/upscale restaurant. We both ordered salads to TRY and salvage what litttle bit of healthy diets we still have! After dinner we walked to the grocery store "Save On Us" and bought some lunch meat and snacks for the road so we don't have to keep eating out. A jar of jelly here was over $4!! Milk and OJ are over $5 as well...and a bag of chips were almost $5. Straight up highway robbery here it seems! Hopefully it won't be this bad everywhere. Gas prices have been a crazy/annoying/weird thing as well. They price gas in liters and the sign reads like this: regular unleaded is 130.9! So it is averaging about $4.50 a gallon... Bllaahhh! Well, It's time for our next leg to begin. 288 miles to The Shepherds Inn, in the outskirts of Ft St John on the map. A short day considering yesterday's journey. Total hours: 10 (including almost 1 1/2 hours of stops) Total miles driven: 489 Overall Miles: over 3,200 (Pics will be up soon. I can't instantly upload them since my phone doesn't work here in Canada.) Much love, Jen