I wish I could say I slept on the ferry. Marieka slept well, but I tossed and turned and was generally not able to sleep because of the amount of pulsing noise.
Instead, I walked around a few times, got up early, and watched as we arrived in Prince Rupert.
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At the ferry dock in Prince Rupert
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Sunrise over Prince Rupert
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We waited to disembark, then walked our bikes up to the ferry/train station to eat some breakfast and wait for Via Rail staff to arrive so we could get our bikes tagged. Well, there was no charge for checking our bikes on the train (an unexpected treat), and, after loading our bikes on the baggage car, we boarded and staked out seats on both the passenger and observation trains. Thankfully, the observation car was an upgraded model (padded seats!), so we were able to spend a bunch of time there in comfort.
I had been worried about whether there would be a train there, and whether we would be able to ride all the way to Prince George, with the news about the forest fires affecting a number of communities that the track ran through. Things had improved a little bit, but the train still travelled through a couple of evacuation alert areas. Passing through rain off and on helped us to feel more confident.
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North Pacific Cannery
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Skeena River
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Old pilings in the Skeena River
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Eagle, Mountains, Skeena River
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Rainy Coast Mountains, Skeena River, and train
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Train bridge
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More rain in Smithers
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Tunnel from the observation car
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Things were going really well overall. We only had a couple of waits on the journey and were actually early pulling into some of the stations. I began to hope we might actually get into Prince George early.
Optimism turned into realism as the train stopped at least twice more between Vanderhoof and Prince George, and we finally pulled in a mere half hour late. At least we had prepared and had a packed dinner on the train.
We slept in our bed at home for the first time in 3 weeks, and it was nice. Now, we've got the weekend to settle back in before we head back to work on Monday.
Oh, Chris, thanks so much for your travel log - rainy pics remind me of the Island now in the fall! It's the first time I'm actually in your travel sites journal in the 3+ months being "unplugged" in Regina, and I look forward to reading it all with David soon - too bad I don't know technology and read your last entry the first! ha! Now to learn to scroll more again. love, Karen, "life-long learner but a hard sell doing it!"
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