Day 261 – Leaving the Valley

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September 17, 2016 – I usually have the entire morning to amuse myself on the day I leave Bella Coola. I tend to come in on a Wednesday and leave on a Saturday, that gives me two and a half solid days of working with the hatchery staff, and at this time of year I tend to have better luck getting a flight out on a Saturday than a Friday, because of all the nutty bear tourists the head home one Fridays.

This year a couple of the guys at the hatchery asked me if I wanted to go for brunch Saturday, which was a pleasant change and it was nice to relax over a couple of cups of coffee and a plate of eggs benny.

The weather had turned nasty yesterday afternoon and the skies had really let loose last night and into this morning. That left a pretty good chance that my plane wouldn’t come into the Valley. The Valley is narrow and makes a dangerous place to fly in and out of when the ceiling is low.

I stopped in at the airport at 8am on the way into town, left my luggage with them, and they asked me a bunch of questions about the hatchery rebuild, the rearing capacity, if jobs were going to be cut, etc. I love small communities. They know you are a stranger in town, but because one of the hatchery staff had left the key to his truck for me to pick up when I arrived on Wednesday, they also knew my name and connected me to the hatchery when I popped my head in, so I was a stranger, but not a tourist. My question was whether or not I was going out on a plane or if we were to be bussed up The Hill to Anahim Lake to fly back to Vancouver. They weren’t sure yet and took my cell phone number so they could call me when they knew.

The sky was fickle and short spots of blue sky and sunshine poked through the clouds, giving me hope I’d be flying out. After saying goodbye to the brunch crew I stopped back in at the airport at 10am to see if there was an update. I walked into the empty building and the fellow behind the counter said “Hello Paige, no update yet but they’ve delayed the plane out of Vancouver by 20-30 minutes in hopes of a window. I’d suggest being back here by around 11:45 and we’ll see where we go from there. If we are bussing you are guaranteed a seat because you have an Encore fare.”

Two things caught me off guard int hat conversation. Number one, he remembered my name. Number two, ‘guaranteed a seat on the bus?’. I had a more expensive fare not because I’d chosen it, but because it was the last seat on the plane. What I did not realize was that the bus only held 20 passengers, and the plane that was in use (SAAB 340) holds 30 passengers. The extra 20 people that don’t fit on the bus are told that they must find their own way out of the Valley and up to Anahim Lake, a roughly two hour drive. There is no Greyhound, there are no taxis, there is no transit up The Hill.

I had an advantage because, in a pinch, I could drive myself out of the Valley using the hatchery vehicle I had. It would be a pain because then someone from the hatchery would have to go and get it, but it was a worst case scenario option. But, seriously? Some poor tourist might be left holding their bag and abandoned to get themselves to another airport in another town to get back to Vancouver? I’m not sure how the airline can get away with that.

But apparently that worry was not mine, so I had an hour or so to kill and took the vehicle for a little drive up the Valley a bit. There is a little old wooden cabin near Belarko that I wanted to photograph so I headed that way, but the clock was ticking and after a half hour I knew I wouldn’t make it that far and back in time to make the flight, if it went, so I turned around and made a few short stops at a few places I enjoy, like this spot on the bank of the Bella Coola River at the Bailey Bridge, a wonderful place to sit and soak up the atmosphere of this fabulous valley.

The lichens in some places are thick and drape themselves off of the conifers. They flutter in the breezes, like willow branches almost. The valley has been dry, like other parts of BC, the past few years. But this year it has been more normal and there has been sufficient rain to keep the rivers cool and the lichens moist.

The weather was warm and sunny when I arrived Wednesday, and the forecast didn’t lie when it indicated a system coming in, bringing cooler temperatures, winds, and lots of rain at the end of the week. While many of the trees are starting to turn and drop their leaves, the odd little plant throws out a last gasp flower before the fall weather really settles in.

With fall’s arrival, there is also an influx of mushroom pickers. Two of the guys in the truck I was riding in the past two days are seasonal pickers and were talking about their secret places, how they pick, how they tap the mushrooms to leave spores behind so there will be mushrooms to pick the following year, and how much money they can make in a few weeks! I was astounded at the money to be made. It’s not easy work, but it certainly is lucrative. And I finally understood the significance of this giant mushroom along the valley highway.

There are three ways into Bella Coola.

There is a vehicle ferry terminal for a special routing from Port Hardy, on northern Vancouver Island, which also now stops at smaller communities on the inlets and islands in between. I’ve boated between Bella Coola and Bella Bella, but never taken the ferry across from Port Hardy. I imagine it would be very scenic.

The second is to fly in. Bella Coola has a small airport and the flight in is always fabulous. The valley is steep and narrow and the descent makes some passengers nervous because of how close the plane drops between the steep rocky cliffs and the tree covered hillsides.

And the third way in is the most exciting. Bella Coola is the only town on the mainland of the BC Coast between Kitimat and Squamish to have road access to the inland side of the Coast Mountains; it’s at the end of Highway 20 from Williams Lake via the Chilcotin. The final stretch of road down into the valley is known as The Hill, and also as Freedom Road. I found a video on YouTube that a couple filmed as they descended, and the dialogue is entertaining. Clearly they’ve not driven on many unpaved roads, and I love when the driver sees a ‘road narrows’ sign and thinks it means a bridge is ahead.

Arriving back at the airport at 11:40, the fellow at the desk greeted me by name again and, with no seats empty in the small waiting area, I leaned against the wall near the door to the runway. About 15 minutes later the fellow walked into the middle of the waiting area and called for everyone’s attention, telling us the weather had closed in again (it was now pouring rain again), and…… I didn’t wait to hear the rest, I’ve heard it before. I picked up my pack and walked out the front door to the covered steps where I knew a tiny old school bus would collect most of us in a few minutes. I wanted that front window seat opposite the driver again. I’m not afraid of heights, and that seat gives the best and most dizzying views over the cliff edge as the bus bumps its way up The Hill (Freedom Road). As we waited for the bus a few people nervously commented on not expecting to get to go up The Hill, I told them to sit on the right side of the bus for the best view, they weren’t disappointed on their way up, I could hear them behind me.

A delightful fellow sat next to me and we entertained each other with conversation the entire way to Anahim. He was once a doctor in the military, then turned anaesthesiologist. Retired for ten years, and for the past 30 years he takes a trip into The Dean for fly fishing every fall. His trip this year had been cut short because he caught a GI bug that sent him out of The Dean and into the ambulatory clinic in Bella Coola, where he was highly impressed with the care he’d received, and he was now on his way into Vancouver for the night before heading home to Medford, Oregon. We talked fish, fishing, hatcheries, environment, skirted politics, societies growing intolerance and aggression, human impacts on nature, and everything in between. Every once in a while he’d say he wanted to tell me a story, usually followed by “Since I have you captive…”. He was funny too, at one point asking me if I worked with anything other than salmon, and when I said no he paused for a moment and then said “You’re kind of a racist, aren’t you, what’s wrong with working with those wonderful trout?” and then burst out laughing. When the bus arrived in Anahim Lake he looked at me and said “I’m glad I ended up on this bus, I had lots of legroom and the best part of it was that I sat here and got to meet you.” I was touched, and I felt the same way. I’m not usually chatty with strangers, but when that happens, it makes me think I should put more effort into it, because sometimes you meet the most interesting people.

We parted ways in Anahim and sat in separate places on the plane, and I’m sorry I lost sight of him when we finally landed in Vancouver, I’d have liked to have wished him well on his final leg home. He was a lovely man and the conversation with him was engaging.

The flight down from Anahim Lake was uneventful and the clouds broke apart a bit as we came into the Lower Mainland area. A few hours later than anticipated, but a good trip with some interesting and unexpected conversation.