Little People of Quesnel

Hi Blog! Tuesday, May 10, 2016, was our first full day camped next to Dragon Lake in Quesnel, BC Canada. After Eddie and George woke up, we decided to ride our bikes into town to gather more information about the area. The first part of our bike journey was along the beautiful lakeside. These horses are enjoying their lakefront paddock.

We soon left Dragon Lake behind and began our long coast downhill into town. Quesnel sits on a point created by the confluence of the Fraser and Quesnel Rivers. We knew there were bike trails in the area, but we didn't know where to access them. We ended up riding our bikes alongside Highway 97 along with the big rigs and logging trucks. We were not looking forward to the ride home. Hopefully, the Visitor's Center would have some bike trail maps and we could avoid the highway altogether.

Welcome to Quesnel - The Goldpan City. The name Quesnel is derived from Jules Maurice Quesnel, who accompanied Simon Fraser on his journey to the Pacific Ocean down what is now the Fraser River. Quesnel is located along the gold mining trail known as the Cariboo Wagon Road and was the commercial centre of the Cariboo Gold Rush, which is why the town calls itself The Goldpan City. Quesnel claims to be the home of the world's largest gold pan, although this is disputed by Nome, Alaska. Unfortunately, we won't be going to Nome in this trip, so we can't verify that fact. But this blog would not be complete without a photo of the gold pan.

Just after crossing the Quesnel River, we came upon the Visitor's Center and Museum. We picked up lots of information on local attractions like the Quesnel Little People, Barkerville, Pinnacles Provincial Park, 10 Mile Lake -- but, most importantly, we found the biking map. It turns out that, if we had just crossed over the highway, we would have seen the start of the Dragon Mountain Trail System. We now had a way to get back up over the hill to our campsite without biking on the highway!

After stuffing our backpacks with brochures, we went next door to the Quesnel Museum and Archives. The museum is well curated. We enjoyed learning about the early history of the area. We watched several short video interviews with local Chinese and First Nations Elders recalling stories of growing up in Quesnel.

Again, as with nearly every town and city we've visited in B.C., we were surprised at the extent of the historic Chinese population in this area.  However, as we reflected on it, we realized that this should be expected, since many Chinese immigrants, after having been encouraged to immigrate to provide cheap labor on the railways, had to find new work when the railway boom ended, and the gold rushes of the era -- California, Alaska, Yukon, B.C. -- offered a chance to make a living.  The museum reports, in fact, that at the height of its population, Quesnel's population was 60% Chinese!  That is a breathtaking fact; but it saddens us, since very little cultural record (other than offhanded references in local museums) is left in most communities in California, Idaho, , Montana, Oregon, Washington, B.C. or Alaska to give any hint that the Chinese comprised more than a very small minority for a very short period of time.  In general, our history glosses over their contributions to their communities and forgets entirely the families that made their lives in these places in the old wilderness.

This is an example of the types of displays just packed with artifacts from a bygone era.

With Historical Walking Tour brochure in hand, we headed off to the historic downtown area. Along the way, we stopped to say hello to a few of the Little People of Quesnel. The Quesnel Downtown Association wanted to repaint all the fire hydrants and someone suggested they be painted to represent local historical figures. Sponsors got to choose their figure or were offered who from local history could represent their business. There are currently 18 figures. The first one we met was the Paper Boy which represents the Cariboo Observer newspaper started in Quesnel in 1908.

Dave thought the Hairdresser outside the day spa had a lot going for her. She represents May Eagleson who became the first female "barber" in Quesnel when the local barber left to serve his country during the war.

After a quick stop to mail some postcards, it was off to lunch at a local Japanese Restaurant. Our bento boxes were full of yummy goodies. Having sated our appetites, it was time to finish our exploration of Quesnel. We took off on the Riverfront Trail which would take us up alongside the Fraser River -- past the pedestrian bridge that extends the trail across the Fraser to West Quesnel -- and continued on to the Fraser's confluence with the Quesnel River. We hen followed the Quesnel River up to the Highway 97 bridge. Here is Kathy stopping to admire all the purple flowers.

As we travel north through B.C., it is like going back in time. Spring keeps getting younger and younger up here. If we go much further north, we are going to run into winter.

As we continued our bike tour, we came upon the Hudson's Bay Company store. This building is believed to be Canada's oldest surviving original Hudson's Bay Post on its original site.

After passing the Hudson's Bay Post, the trail enters Ceal Tingley Park. There are a number of historical artifacts in the park. This gigantic steam shovel caught our eye.

As we biked through a wooded section of the park, we came upon two foxes. They were very curious and stopped to stare at us, but when Dave went to take a photo, they bolted into the bushes. However, we were able to capture some beautiful butterflies that obligingly posed for the photo.

The Quesnel River begins at the outflow of Quesnel Lake, at the town of Likely, and flows for about 60 miles northwest to its confluence with the Fraser. It provided a pretty backdrop to our ride.

Before long it was time to leave the Quesnel River behind. We crossed back over the Highway 97 bridge and located the Dragon Mountain trail. There was one short section of road biking and then it was back into the woods. The trail up was wide and paved, providing switchbacks to help gain elevation. At the summit of Dragon Mountain was the mountain bike trailhead. According to Ride the Cariboo - Dragon Mountain is a hidden gem - steep, rocky, big stunts and fast. We were not sure our comfort trail bikes are up for this type of challenge, so we continued on our way back to camp. As we approached Dragon Lake, a local resident came out to say hello.

After arriving at camp, we quickly put our bikes away and drove off to visit the Barkerville National Historic Site. More on that in the next blog.

Until then, stay thirsty my friends.