The night after cutting my road out, the wind got maniacal again.  The thin trees thrashed like cornstalks.  The photo cannot show the drama of it.

I was invited to a solstice dinner at Stuie in the Bella Coola Valley but the forecast was for potential heavy snow on 19th so I asked if the dinner could be brought forward to the night of the 18th.  Once again I drained plumbing etc – I would be away only one night but the temp was supposed to reach -24C.  I set off early but soon arrived at another fallen tree.

That’s when I realized I had forgotten to check the gas in the chainsaw and of course I ran out.  With difficulty I turned the van and drove home again – just as well as I needed to cut out 2 more trees.  So it took 45 minutes just to get to the end of my driveway.

But after that, the road was excellent.  Cool, well-sanded, great traction.

 

 

I ran out of sunshine not far past Nimpo Lake.  Soon I reached the top of The Bella Coola Hill.  This is how Highways translates the road.

 

 

Gleams of sun shone through the clouds.

The Hill, too, was well-sanded and dry.  It was better than in summer for there were no washboards.

 

At the bottom, there was no snow at all.

This cabin is next door to my friends’ place.  It has been spiffied up but was one of the original lodge buildings at Stuie.  Sir Edmund Hilary stayed in it once, so it is known as the Hilary Cabin.

I continued to Hagensborg to get a bunch of veggies.  The mountains were gorgeous.  But the sun never reaches the valley bottom at this time of year.  People can only look at the sun, and dream of spring.

Here is Mt Nusatsum.  The chief at the top is lying on his back.  His head is on the right, his headdress hidden by clouds.

We had a great dinner and I left early the following morning.  Already the sky hung heavily with the promised snow.  But apart from a few flakes nothing fell until after I returned home, and the roads again were excellent.  It was minus 12C.  It was cold inside my house, but the bowls of water I had drawn before I left (in case things froze) had no ice on them.

With me, from Stuie, I brought Ruby.

Her previous owner – only a month older than myself – has gone into hospital and will not return home.  He lived alone and had 2 dogs and a cat.  The dogs have found other homes and somehow I was volunteered to take the cat.  Poor little thing is not too happy at the moment.  More about her in a future post.

 

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