Smithers, British Columbia

Woke up in Prince George with a lot of driving to do – about 360 kilometers, or about 225 miles. But first things first – breakfast at Tim Horton’s, because Canada!

I started looking into the ferries, and was at first alarmed by the schedule – I would want to be on the ferry out of Prince Rupert on the 4th, after I get there on the 3rd. No problem… But when I call to reserve it, ends up that they can book themselves quite full. I could end up stuck on Prince Rupert for a couple extra days till the 7th.

But I lucked out and managed to book my trip, albeit using the poor internet at Timmy’s. I was very glad to manage to book everything okay. This is part of why I wanted to leave on this trip earlier; things get busy in June. But I think of it this way: The morning after I get to Prince Rupert, there’s a ferry that just barely had room for me. It was meant to be! Works out perfectly.

The plan is:

• Leave Prince Rupert for Ketchikan on the 4th, get there in the afternoon. Stay the night in Ketchikan.
• Leave Ketchikan for Juneau on the 5th, and this is a long ferry. I don’t get there till the morning of the 6th.
• Spend the 6th and 7th in Juneau, then leave on the morning of the 8th for Skagway.
• Leave Skagway heading north to … well, Canada and then Alaska again.

I’m super glad to be actually getting to Alaska for the first time. These are the southern islands on the Alaska panhandle. After that, I’ll go through Yukon (Canada) back into Alaska by Fairbanks, then through Denali to Anchorage. So anyway, my panicked ferry-booking went well.

Sirius XM stopped working. They told me I’d need to have a Canadian subscription. I guess they are geostationary satellites, but this was a bit of an unwelcome surprise. But the silver lining: Glad I didn’t wait for my radio touchscreen to be fixed! Not sure why it worked this many miles into British Columbia, but so it goes.

Beautiful drive with on and off rain. You know when it’s sunny but raining anyway? It was like that the whole way through. Found some nice small towns like Houston (should have made a left at Albuquerque.) Eventually found my way to the Riverside Municipal Campground in Smothers – it was very nice. Nestled between a large, fast-moving river (maybe 150 yards across?) and the mountain, Smithers is a small town but in a very beautiful location.

Cooked some tomato soup for dinner with my little stove, and then found a spider in my tent. That’s the first non-flying thing that’s found its way into my tent; I think it was because I was parked close to a tree the night before for shelter from the rain. Spiders are not allowed in my tent. It was dealt with.