After months of having just this one destination in mind I'm frankly over-whelmed by the issues that flood my mind. The postcard version might say "Greetings from Kitimat, B.C." and have a photo of  whitish bear cubs but this story is even bigger than Kitimat being "ground zero in a race to fuel Asia."
It's about ancient people, the Haisla, who are now, as they always have been, living within a natural world filled with power, creatures and the great connection between the two. On the other side of this white community marina and the Douglas channel, which becomes the Kitimat estuary just inland of this photo, is what the dominant culture has done. It developed hydro-power, built the roads, built the planned community, brought in Alcan which was purchased by British/Australian Rio Tinto (the multi-billion $ miners of just about everything which flourishes where "government is lax, corruption high and business practices poor" in the developing world.) It's home to Shell owned Methanex which sued California under free trade rules when California tried to phase out MTBE, one of their methanol-linked products that's extensively polluted groundwater. It's got it's LNG facility and it's concrete plant and who knows what else... temporary housing for thousands.
 We got here yesterday afternoon after a swim in Lakelse Lake and last night on our gravel bar along the Kitimat River were shaken by a brilliant lightning storm. In the photo below Michael is on what he called whale rock and beyond him is the estuary... home to 112 bird species in the spring and countless other creatures. We even saw a seal watching us in the river yesterday... It's with newcomers' eyes of wonder and concern we see everything. I can't interview everyone here but take it from the one lifetime resident I spoke with that the local Canadians worry about jobs and are reluctant about the Northern Gateway Pipeline but feel they must have the employment it offers.
 This shot is from Hospital Beach, which is closed, as is the road, quite inexplicably... the Chamber of Commerce said it was for the Rio Tinto Modernization project but that is back beyond the old aluminum plant... Driving to this spot we both felt rather ill with this smoke which constantly flows from this plant. There is a long history of lung cancer in aluminum smelter workers (per a 14 year study of Alcan workers) but there is also a virtual chorus line of polluting industry, intermixed with environmentally sensitive feeder creeks and a fish hatchery on this stretch. I imagine that the Alberta pipeline would find it's way to port from this side of the channel, nestled among the other industry... although this is the westward side of the estuary/channel and the pipeline would be coming from Alberta in the east.
 The Kitimat River Bridge. Huge chum, coho, chinook (?) we saw last night at the hands of fishermen are a fraction of what feeds the forests and the creatures. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and the threat it poses out along hundreds of miles of channel are a very real risk but the spills in the Kalamazoo River and elsewhere show what may happen in the remote mountains along the course between Alberta and this beautiful sensitive and rugged region. "Jobs" is a real issue but so is the balance with the remaining intact ocean, fresh water, complete cycling multi-species dance of life cycle. I appreciate all the people who are caught up in this multi-billion dollar project but must weigh in finally and forever with this planet that sustains us all... this dirty bitumen oil production is about profits for the few and these few use the needs and fears of working people for their political aims. It just makes me want to lecture, pontificate, cry, scream, dig into the earth and put thinking into reverse. I can't but say, stand with the First Nations people. Fight the Pipelines.

 On our way eastward from Prince Rupert on the Yellowhead Hwy we didn't get far out of town before being pulled to hike down to Butze Rapids... a rapids both at slack and ebb tides, going east or west depending on the time of day. Here it is slowed just before high tide. The Sitka spruce and deep green of the country are as verdant as you would find in any rainforest except on this trail there were warnings that wolves may kill your dog so be careful.
 We made it as far as Exchamsiks River Boat Launch, where the Exchamsiks flows into the mighty Skeena (a good mile wide in places and running fast a glacier gray color and sadly with a body in it as one swimmer was lost yesterday upriver from where we were.) It's fed by high snow melt that flows in thin white ribbons from these great coastal mountain peaks.
 While Michael processed veggie oil amidst the fisherpeople I rode my bike to the Exchamsiks Provincial Park which just has a short loop of interpretive trail--- the camp grounds were removed because the human activity threatened the old growth Sitka Spruce grove... I was wandering off trail for views up to the sheer cliff above the river (looking for mountain goats,) when I saw this little memorial without an interpretive sign. I imagine it was for a pet or a love that died... but this brought me back to Hiroshima Day and I sent my love to all those killed then and ever after in all wars. It had been my intention to be at the Pipeline Action Camp by this date but we just can't rush anymore. We gave short shrift to the Olympic Peninsula and to Vancouver Island. The staggering beauty here can not be denied or over-shot.
However, from our campsite on the confluence of the Zymacord and Sheena Rivers, we had to admit to being pretty wussed-out by the mosquitoes which find their way in each time the door opens as well as possibly through some vents. We are both pretty recovered, here in Terrace for errands, but realize this is something we will be faced with and the moski quite a challenge.

 We took the Northern Expedition Ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert yesterday. It was an uncharacteristically sunny day-- really almost hot out of the wind except for fog in the Queen Charlotte Strait. It was a seven deck ferry with 200 international passengers and was quite comfortable. The treat of our lifetimes.
 Most of the channels were quite wide but apparently in 2009 one of these ferries ran aground. Below is the Douglas Channel that tankers would take to and from Kitimat if the bitumen/oil-shale/tar sands Endridge crude is allowed to be shipped to China. Just from the little bit of dense fog we experienced I'd say it could be easy to run aground with the number of turns necessary to reach beyond multiple islands to the Queen Charlotte Sound and open waters. For us the water was smooth and conditions were as perfect as they have ever been-- crew kept remarking about it.
 We were exhausted from a long day of peering out at the surrounding wooded mountains and watching for whales. (I just saw four.) The sunset, which was at about 9:30 pm was quite beautiful in Chatham Sound and quite the exception apparently. This morning in Prince Rupert's Safeway parking lot dawned drizzly and fog bound as is normal in this rainiest of Canada's cities.
 So this isn't a picture from today but alas the computer wouldn't cough up any totem pictures or the sign post showing that we are just 27 miles from the Alaska border. We have a fuel leak to fix and need to process veggie oil to get to our next destination but I wanted to show you Michael's ingenious veggie oil carrying capacity before urging you to have a thoughtful Hiroshima remembrance tomorrow and on Nagasaki Day. Only peace, only thoughtful preservation of earth resources and species will allow humans to survive the next epoch. Ever grateful, we voyage east after visiting a few more Asian restaurants.

 We are in Port Hardy at the end of a beautiful sunset and tip of a beautiful island that we couldn't begin to do justice to.
We had a bumpy time of it. Right from the drive off the ferry. We had to go through inspection (but luckily the veggie oil stuff on the outside of the truck wasn't even noticed!) Next, the traffic was impossible... turning magical Victoria into a tourist log jam.
Hwy 19, the only road that spans the island was crowded and we were relieved to get to Nanaimo where our friends Tom and Lucia welcomed us. We stayed in Nanaimo a couple of days but the last day was the kicker. We both ended up with health problems and actually had to engage with the Canadian health care system (60$ for the visit was quite fair and we got to watch the Olympics on T.V. probably for the only time of these summer games.)
 As a result of our maladies, I had to drive the first day we left Nanaimo and it made me even more aware of what Michael has taken on with this clunky old truck. We really appreciated the hospitality and support of our friends from Pueblo Partisans though--- really made us aware of our fragility and how important it is to have friends and made me realize AGAIN how dependent on Michael I am.
 Last night we stayed at this Lake Roberts... a very relaxing place to be and to recover more. Then today we stopped at Lake Nimpkish where Michael used to wind surf before finally getting to Port Hardy at the end of the island.
 It's beautiful here and we are very lucky with good weather and even a backpackers hostel here where we can use internet. Whew! I wish we could stay to explore this end of the island where there are very few people visiting for the Canadian long weekend but we are off on the ferry tomorrow morning for our 15 hour trip to Prince Rupert. (Read this enigmatic sign about the trans-Vancouver Hwy 19 if you get a chance...  and click on the photo below so you can see the mountain chain in the distance, with snow in the peaks.)

 Michael processed veggie oil on a road side high above the heavily logged Quinault Nation on the Olympic Penninsula. He made changes to his set up which an interested person can find at www.biodiesel.infopop.cc on the SVO side. His name on the site is "bio-me" and the photos will be under "acme juicer on the road."
Above, a simple and ancient process is taking place. There is a smelt run and hundreds, perhaps a thousand gulls are gathered for it. This was the most lively bird event we've seen and what seemed to be evident was that very few of them were actually getting any fish.
 At the next and last Washington beach we visited we were struck by the beauty. Don't tell any friends in Oregon or Washington I said this but our California beaches, with the august providence of the California Coastal Commission (which stopped development) and our natural rocky coasts are the Best of west coast beaches although all beaches, any ocean, are better than not being at a beach. This is Ruby Beach and it was the loveliest we saw in Washington.
As we leave the U.S. we say good-bye to all the clear cuts we stayed in. After three states of this desecration of the land you almost get used to it. The logging roads have also been the easiest places to find shelter and what is evident up here is how many people depend on logging.
Last night, on Hoh Nation land, coyote voices cut through the night with three individual singers--the ultimate sound of wildness. Dancing foxglove and hopeful young trees competed and grew together in the whimsical nursery there.
In the same frame are these individual flowers, remarkably unremarkable, and amazement.
 We leave Port Angeles tomorrow for Victoria, Vancouver Island, Canada. We are a little nervous but mostly just excited to go on the next stage of the adventure. We've eaten all our fresh fruits and vegetables in anticipation of the produce restrictions and are just enjoying yet another coastal community under muted skies.

 Styrofoam, styrofoam, I must hold forth on styrofoam! Here in Washington the saga has continued. It's in all the floats, in the boat building, in the coolers and it is everywhere on the beaches breaking down. It is the home to muscles and works well as a Cheese Hat for my Wisconsin man. I harvest it large and small wherever I go and fret about the stomachs and health of the creatures who you can tell are eating it (from the tooth and nail scratches in the big blocks...)
 We came across to Washington and headed for Cape Disappointment, where Lewis and Clark saw the Pacific. At that time the mouth of the Columbia was five miles across with shallow bars at the entrance which caused hundreds of shipwrecks until jetties were built like the one you see behind Michael above. Lighthouses were built at both the river mouth (below) and on the Pacific side. As a result of the jetties the Columbia is now "just" two miles across and over a thousand acres of land has been added so the Cape looks little like it did when Clark and the Discovery team completed their mission.

 One of our missions was to complete getting the solar running on the V.V. We parked out on the beach at Grayland and Michael worked on it all day yesterday as I rode the flat beach on my bike. I have to tell you (again) again how amazing Michael is... he not only put up the panels shown here but connected and put together the shut off box, the solar controller, the AC invertor, the fusebox, the battery box and the monitor from all those hardware stores and in a really small space with a mind-boggling amount of trouble shooting. Already, even on a typical gray coastal day we are collecting and storing a great deal more energy than we did on the 2007-2008 Veggie Voyage with the addition of the extra panel. We've also picked up small amounts of veggie oil from restaurants along the way so we'll be able to make it to Port Angeles without any more diesel dependence.
We are in Aberdeen, Washington and now head toward the Olympic Penninsula with the mandate to eat up all our fresh fruits and vegetables in preparation for entering Canada.