Hunting the Real Houston (British Columbia, that is)

Today was the first day of our stop in Houston, B.C.  We're travelling west on the Yellowhead Highway, part way between "the Princes" - Prince George to the east and Prince Rupert to the west on the coast.

We wanted a more relaxed first day because we had plans to skype with family later in the day.  We therefore decided to bicycle into town and hike through a cottonwood forest along the Little Bulkley River and its tributary, Buck Creek.

Our friends George and Nan told us the scenery gets very dramatic west of here.  As we pedaled west along the Yellowhead Highway, we got an early hint how true this is.  In the photo below, Kathy looks like she's pedaling off into the distant, snowy Telkwa Range.  We'll be driving out there this Wednesday.

Houston is more a village than a city, a pretty town that is proud of itself and has done a number of things to attract tourism.  The town park is called "Steelhead Park," and it is dressed in its brightest spring colors now:

Steelhead Park is where all the tourists stop as they rush through town toward Alaska.  To get them to stop, it has done what many other towns along the main "North to Alaska" routes have done:  it has come up with some unique "thing" - in this case, "the world's largest fly rod."  Well, of course, how could we resist, loving to fly fish and being on-their-way-to-Alaska tourists?  Kathy heard that spey rods were big, but she didn't realize they were THIS big!

A more sublime attraction in Steelhead Park is the statue for which the park is name:  a beautiful statue of steelhead trout (ocean-migrating trout) swimming in a beautiful stone fountain:

The town had problems with some large predator Grizzly bears that were eating livestock, and so had little choice but to eliminate the bear.  However, loving wildlife as much as they do, they felt they had to memorialize that big guy by stuffing him and giving him a beautiful display right in the front of the town visitor center:

And then, of course, in addition to some historic buildings - a cabin, a one-room schoolhouse and a church - moved to the park, the town also displayed its original fire truck - a right cute one, we allow:

Having learned a little about the town, we headed off on our 4 mile hike into the cottonwoods and along the local streams.  Our trail first led us north along Buck Creek, following its flow as it searched for its confluence with the Little Bulkley River:

Further on, we reached the Little Bulkley River itself:

Just west of Houston, the Little Bulkley River joins the Morice River, which is the outflow of Morice Lake southwest of Houson.  The two rivers joined become what is named the Bulkley River, despite the fact that the Morice is larger than the Little Bulkley. This naming is said to have been the accomplishment of one Mr. A. L. Poudrier, a cartographer for the Government Survey, who, it is rumored, never saw the region.

The Bulkley River joins the Skeena River, the second largest river in British Columbia after the Fraser River, which in turn empties into the Pacific Ocean at Prince Rupert.  The Morice River helps form one of BC’s most productive river systems for salmon and trout. The Morice produces 30% of the Chinook salmon in the entire Skeena system and also plays a major role in providing extensive sockeye salmon and Coho salmon spawning habitat.

The fishing here would be magnificent - IF it were June and the trout season, or IF it were the fall and the steelhead running season or the salmon season.  And us standing here with our B.C. fishing licenses and no way to chase any of those spectacular fish.

Turning back toward town, we came across the Houston Community Garden, which combines a quarter acre garden that is truly communal, with perhaps 20 individual raised beds that are allocated to individual gardeners, presumably for a contribution to the community garden organization.  It was really a very compact and well organized affair --

-- to the point that even the garden tools were well organized, lined up in front of a gaily painted shed wall:

Back in town, we searched out a restaurant that was open on Sunday and found Elements ,which serves a combination of good diner fare and an extensive menu of Chinese dishes.  Kathy had egg foo yong and really liked it, although we won't swear that the Chinese cuisine is any more genuine than most American-Chinese food.  David's chef salad was very fresh and tasty, with a twist of Chinese-style egg-drop scrambled eggs instead of hard-boiled eggs.

Thus nourished, we hopped on our bikes and pedaled back up the hill to Shady Rest RV Park, which is a very pleasant, well maintained and spacious campground.  We actually got home a little earlier than planned and just lounged outside and enjoyed the unseasonably warm and sunny spring weather, planning our adventure for tomorrow!