Leaving Stewart on the 20th September we headed off on the 5 hr drive back to Prince Rupert. The weather had closed in and with a bit of drizzle around it was only 5degC outside. The trip back was going along comfortably when a moose decided to make things interesting. He had decided to stand on the road for something different. I slowed right down trying not to startle him but the dopey sod decided to run along the road rather than get off it. They are very gangly when they run. It was funny to watch. But without our Uncle Nicky to help clear the road for us and with him being quite a bit bigger than our little Corolla, we could do nothing but follow along slowly waiting for him to find a safe place to get off the road and back into the scrub.

With that excitement out of the way we drove on to a place called Terrace. This is about 150km from Prince Rupert out on the Skeena River. I had spotted the Skeena Valley golf course a few days earlier on the way out to Stewart and was keen to give the little white ball a whack. The fact it was still drizzling and the temperature had climbed to a sweltering 8degC wasn`t going to deter me. Michele took a little more coaxing but the submission to getting a cart for her to drive around in got me the nod. Unfortunately the best thing about the golf that day was the scenery (and it was good scenery). Oh well I guess I could have been at work!!!!! With the golfing thing out of my system for a while we continued on to Prince Rupert where we settled into a b&b for two nights (view Andree's B&B web site).
No Tiger Woods here!!!

The next day (21st) was Michele's birthday and the weather had obliged with a severe storm in the morning. A quiet day resulted wandering around Prince Rupert.

Wednesday the 22nd saw us board a train early in the morning for a two day trip into the Canadian Rockies. The train we were on is called 'The Skeena' and it travels from Prince Rupert to Jasper. It only travels during daylight with a night stopover at Prince George. We had wanted to do the Rocky Mountaineer train from Vancouver to the Rockies but for less than the cheapest ticket on that train we treated ourselves to first class on the Skeena. This gave us a reserved seat in the Panorama car which, as the name suggests, was pretty much all window and very comfortable. There were only 10 of us in a car that seated more than 70!!!! We also had access to the dome top car. The trip itself was fantastic and very relaxing. You start in the Coastal Mountains and travel along the Skeena River valley before heading out across the forests, farms and lakes before climbing into the Rockies to get to Jasper. The climb into the Rockies takes you past Mt.Robson (highest point in Rockies). We were supposed to get in at around 5pm on the Thursday but thanks to a derailment the night before creating a traffic jam we got an extra 3 hrs on the train to enjoy the scenery.
Image 1 of train (our carriage was one with all windows).
Image 2 of train.
Image of Mt.Robson from train.