1000 Americans: The Himmelrights, Vanderhoof

Shannon & Travis Himmelright are travellers themselves and took us in for the night. Shannon’s sister Kyle was visiting, but also their parents were there (only mother Wendy is in the picture, father Les had already left the house). Unfortunately not just to visit, but as a necessity, as their house had just burned down.

In Canada, many places are outside a fire protection district and the old house, in which the entire family had grown up, burned down to the ground after the old trusty woodstove suddenly was not so trusty anymore…

(Ivana is getting mesmerized by the newest member of the optimistic and wonderful Himmelrights family!)

1000 Americans: Jo & Paul Comparelli, Houston, BC

Jo and Paul have been cycling together basically since she was born. Paul actively gathers cyclists and other travellers from the road to offer them shelter and a warm bed as well as a great meal, if you are in need of a warm shower, ask for Paul! He has been taking his family on trips for 30 years, but loves his motorcycle as well.

Abover they are holding the Kettle Valley Railway memento, one of the great trips together..

1000 Americans: Oepie Hartman, Dutch Canadian

Oepie was born in the Netherlands and had worked in the dark dusty mines of Southern Limburg. He had a hard time getting used to Canada, but now he feels it is his home, even though half the town he lives in is either Dutch or has Dutch parents. But he was very happy, he could show off his Dutch ‘uniform’ for my picture.

He has a great diner and service station, just outside Smithers, stop by and say Hi!

1000 Americans: Rita Hofsink, Smithers, BC

Rita and Willie Hofsink live outside of busy Smithers, in a great house in the fields, overlooking a great mountain. As many people in this area, they have a Dutch background. The entire family loves to hunt, but they teach their children, not to shoot more than they can eat…

1000 Americans: Roger Johnson, Kitwanga: Good Morning, Canada!

For the First Peoples, the land is the source of Life- a Gift from the Creator. “Mother Earth” is the center of their universe, the core of their culture , the origin of their identity as a people, the provider of their material needs.

“The land cannot be given or taken away, we belong to the Land; our birth does not sever the cord of life which comes from the Land, our spirituality, our culture, and our social life depend on it”.

Respect for all life – animals, insects, plans, mountains, rivers, skies & seas are inseparably interconnected. First peoples do not consider the land merely an economic resource. Their land depends on lives, and in relationship to the environment around them. They know that the land is to be shared. If you misuse the land, you are killing yourself. Remember the earth will survive long after you’re gone.

Traditional people think the land is there for everyone to use, the way our hand is there, the grass, the trees and animals are our flesh. nature is our religion, thank the Creator for what he has given us all.”

Roger A. Johnson, 30 august 1991.

‘Nii t’am lax ooks by’, is Roger’s original Gitxsan name, meaning ‘care for the people’ as well as describing ‘a frog on a lily pad’. His generation was influenced by residential schools, church and government, making them loose their mother tongue and culture. Roger still speaks the old language and works as a interpreter in discussions and court cases between government, mining companies and the First Nation elders.

Nowadays the Gitxsan youth is depressed and suicide rate is very high.

“We can’t cry over spilt milk! We must maintain our culture and our language. We need a huge cultural center to teach our culture and language to young and old.”

While we were talking with Roger, a car drove up. A very conservatively woman stepped out and gave Roger a booklet and drove off again. The others in her car did not come out. The cover of the booklet depicted a nice drawing of a traditional Indian sky burial. But the rest of it basically said that that was nice in the old days, but against the bible and all First Nations should switch to ‘modern’ Christian values and culture…

“I remember my Grandparents often saying to me, ‘You are my cane, You are my sunshine, You are my flower”.

Roger gave me a Gitxsan First nation flag, which has been on my bike since. Then he waved us goodbye from the stairs leading up to his frontdoor. ‘Do not forget to wake up every morning, and shout to the world: Good Morning Canada!’.

(Sources: our meeting with Roger; Partly quoted from the local article ‘Wisdom of the Elders’ by Zanna Ove; Speech of Roger A Johnson transcribed by Julian Burge)

Day 63-65: 12-14 Sep 08. Glaciers & bears in Stewart, BC & Hyder, Alaska

After I had asked the noisy neighbour to shut off their generator (which was outside their big RV!), we had a peaceful night, without any bears. Even the wind had stopped and in the morning we had a great view over the Meziadin Lake.

The way to Stewart is only about 65 km and with the sun in our face, it was a pleasant ride. The scenery is very impressive, with huge glaciers hanging on to steep walls. The road itself climbed steep for a while, but leveled out in front of the famous Bear Glacier.

Not only well-known for being one of the most accessible glaciers (the road passes right in front of the lake), but also as a backdrop in the movie Insomnia (with Al Pacino & Robin Williams). Though even in the short period since, it has retreated visibly and for the first time the glacier is no longer touching the lake directly.

The strong headwind was pretty cold and soon we continued our way: downhill! Through beautiful scenery, we freewheeled all the way back to sealevel, the first time since we started at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, a few months before.. Read more

1000 Americans: Nedda & George, Stewart, Alaska

George makes specialized wooden boxes for the mining companies and geologists, to carry and conserve the core samples. He made a small business and one day hopes to use his wood skills for making furniture as well.

Nedda works in the local supermarket and had lived in nearby Hyder for a long time.

When they got married, there had been a lot of activity in town for the movie “Insomnia” with Al Pacino, Hillary Swank and Robin Williams and they showed us photos and signatures of the stars in their wedding album. Thanks, Nedda & George, for taking so good care of us and your joy in life!

1000 Americans: Amor & Al in Stewart, BC

Amor was born and raised in South Africa, but lives in Prince Rupert with his family, working as a physician. He loves to go fishing with his father in law Al.

(Read about our encounters on the trip report.)

Day 53-62: 2-11 Sep 2008: The Cassiar Highway: a wonderful wilderness with hills, gravel, jade, wildlife… and people

Of course we took the road less travelled 🙂 Highway 37, The Stewart Cassiar Highway, or simply The Cassiar Highway. All names for this infamous road, almost 1000km long, known for the lack of services, bad weather, bears and gravel patches. The latter issue had been solved we had been promised, but the other?

2nd September: Nugget City – French Creek, 58km

The adventure started sunny, but dark clouds appeared, especially on Ivana’s face when she noticed the first set of hills. “is this going to be like that for the rest of the road?” she asked. I truly did not know, but suspected that this was just the beginning…

Fortunately some nice people made our day by donating a full bag of cut-up watermelon, just what the doctor ordered as the sun had come out. Unfortunately the wind had come to and after a week of tailwind, we were not happy to have it in our face again, slowing us down.

Ivana spotted a black bear, right beside the road, I must have raced right past him on the downhill. At least that made her a bit happier and when we also found a nice deserted rest area called French Creek where we -after hanging our foodbags in the trees- could relax near a good campfire.

Read more

1000 Americans: Guy & Megan, California

It was great to see how Guy and Megan used a small van for their trip. No need for a huge RV, all they needed was inside this totally rebuilt van.

Even their two bikes were on the back of the van, and -unlike the ones on most larger RV’s- they were used as they were both avid sporters, true Californians!

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