One Giant Leap Out of Home!

Greetings Steemians friends of this fellowship and beyond!

As some of you might have realized through the last two posts, it has been a very very busy summer for me and incredible turns of events came rushing through pretty much from the moment work ended… Well, three minutes after I had finished work on June 30th.

For the past ten years, I had been living on the mystical archipelago of Haida Gwaii, found halfway between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Whitehorse, Yukon Territories, a sometimes short 7 hours ferry ride south east from Prince Rupert. As a special education assistant and “librarian” in an elementary school, life is packed with ups and downs. Kids keep you on your toes and you simply never know where the winds of change will bring you. In some ways, it is very good training for the summer I am having right now.

_{(Here's a picture from a giant map seen aboard the ferry crossing from Haida Gwaii to Prince Rupert.)}

The original plan was to take a solid three weeks, at least, to pack up all of my belongings, visit friends to say goodbyes and start digesting the departure form this idyllic location I have been living in for a decade by then. As soon as the school year ends, I find myself Skyping with the famous @onceuponatime who’s insisting on introducing me to the upcoming “Friendliest Cryptocurrency City” on Earth, Loutraki, Greece, now!

I couldn’t process anything quite yet other than trying to make it out there as fast as I could and managed to pack the entire house in two and half days plus a few hours… Constrained by the ferry schedule had me leaving four days later, thus turning a smooth 3 three weeks transition, so I thought, into an intense four day of synchronous flow allowing friends, as well as locations, and I to share healthy and heartfelt times before my departure. I still don’t know how it was possible, but it happened!?!

Not only was I leaving Haida Gwaii, but the Pacific Northwest had been my beloved home for over 20 years and, this as well, I was leaving behind. Every moment tasted like a well aged wine, delectable and deep, filled of countless blissful memories and signs of the time that shaped in many ways who I have become over these years. Yet to balance things out, following many Asian traditions, the sweetness of this recipe had to be mixed with sourness, leaving behind friends that had grown as family and lands that had rooted into my heart profoundly.

Jumping on the night crossing was going to bring me over to Prince Rupert around 7 a.m. and, since I didn’t have to be at the Terrace Airport before 1:30 p.m., it gave me plenty of time to take it easy on the way across the first half of the Coastal Mountains, a drive that doesn’t make you envy the Rockies Highway. A few hours sleep and the sunrise was already calling me out of my torpor.

The fresh air, by opposition with the air conditioning of the ferry’s interior brought a brisk awakening only topped by the beauty of the moment facing me: Running along the entire north-south axis span of the West Coast of North America, the Coastal Mountains form a monumental barrier, about 300 kilometres wide. Upon them, the sun has been rising over these ranges for roughly 100 million years. In the foreground, a small amount of islands prepares you to the mountainous regions ahead and is home to a multitude of fish, humpback and killer whales, seals and sea lions, birds of all kinds including the ever present raven and eagle.

A drive that would normal require and hour and a half turned into a two and a half hour drive. The light was great and the views glorious in this morning mist lifting. Just outside of the City of Rainbows, a.k.a. Prince Rupert, there is a sight that marked the location poignantly. Over the years, Diana Creek, a well known trout and salmon stream kept on attracting my gaze every single time I drove by. For some reasons, it seems to have a magical aura and called my name very strongly, again that morning.

As an eagle kept his watch over me, I took multiple shots of the area, as the Terrace bound traffic sped by seemingly totally oblivious to its beauty… The eagle’s vigil never cease to fascinate me. Each other’s presence and watch flowing in a calm demeanour over the mirror like waters. It is strongly believe by many people the world over that the simple act of seeing a bald eagle is a very good omen from the Spirit World and one to have gratitude for.

After such grace, a heartfelt thank you flew their way and I kept on going on my path. another 5 minutes drive and the road comes to the delta of the mighty Skeena River, known as the “River of the Mist” by the local tribe of Tsimshian people. From here the river’s mouth narrows to a fairly consistent a width fairly quickly. the second largest river in British Columbia while being also the second most important river to be of fertile grounds for the well renown sockeye salmon. Stopping one mountain away from Polymer Creek, a few kilometres from this mecca of fishing called China Bar, the sunlight rebounded off the waters and, as the angle were just right, I took a few shots of the river and its banks where 2000 meters snow capped mountains tower over the highway. The tidal effect on the sand bars sometimes creates the most amazing wavy designs that seem to play with the light and waters. Down below, can you see the sun dog looking at us?

Half a kilometres away, the sight of what I have named “The King’s Throne” rises in my rearview mirror, another pitstop was mandatory. In spring, the snow melt often creates the shape of an eagle with its wings extending in full spanned about to land, a magnificent vista that made me give this mountain another name, “The Eagle’s Nest”. I still wonder what name the local tribes called this one as they must have travelled their highway, the river, and witnessed the same inspiring design over the millennia. Anyone interested in rock climbing out there? The faces are a solid 2 km up and an unbelievably gorgeous wilderness.

Mountains after mountains, walls after walls, their respect is commanding. Years ago, a famous Italian climber tried to climb the face of Exchamsiks River at the point where it meets with the Skeena. It was in vain and still unclimbed…

The river also home to salmon and grizzlies, as well as a very healthy pack of wolves. A little self-guided trail allows you to tour the banks of the river for a fairly short distance worth the break between Prince Rupert and Terrace. On the other side of the road, the Skeena flows uninterrupted and silently at the base of granitic giants nourishing it of its melting snows and glaciers. Revolving with the angles of sun rays, such as in the rivers and lakes of any high mountains, the silt, fine sediments carried by the waters, gives the rivers’ ever-changing colours.

Finally arriving in Terrace, I drove to one of my favourite viewing area. Almost offering an eagle eye-view of the city surrounded by peaks reaching as far as 2450 meters, this little pull out on “The Bench”, the highest terrace created as the river receded and the glacier melted. A prime location for real estate, as one could easily imagine…

If you can imagine a road coming from the west at the bottom of the valley created on the right-hand side of the picture, just left of the foliage, between the green mountains and the one with snow on it, you would have a good idea of where I drover out of. On the left-hand side, a highway, weaves its way all the way to city of Kitimat, a.k.a. “the People of the Snow”, 45 minutes south-west of Terrace.

Terrace, a population reaching just over twelve thousands today, as of the last census, is historically renown for its mutiny! According to Wikipedia, “The Terrace Mutiny was the most serious breach of discipline in Canadian military history." (Source, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrace,_British_Columbia) By far the main hub in the region, many people from the neighbouring villages come over for recreation, education and to buy groceries and different necessities, often driving more than an hour to get there.

From here, I was bound to go drop off my truck at “The funny Farm”, where my friend Denis would drive me to the airport from on my way to Loutraki, Greece!

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Stay tuned for the next adventures in the Friendliest Crypto-currency City in the world along with some of our most notorious Steemians @onceuponatime, @kencode, @liondani and @kerkyra!!!

Till then, keep your smile, keep on taking very good care of yourselves and your loved ones, thrive on and namaste :)