Day 7 - The Shortest Day
The primary activity the next morning, beyond breaking camp, was pouring the last of our fuel into the Series IIa. All the gas powered trucks were down to reserves. So far I had used up 30 gallons for about 350 KM and I had one 5 gallon jerry can left. We set out about 10:30 after waving at a float plane who was dropping off adventure fisherman to this remote, supposedly roadless lake. If anyone actually saw the road, they would still say it was roadless, as its little more than a couple of rough ruts. South of the lake by about 10 KM the rutted trail joined a larger and firmer path and about 20 KM later joined the Dean River Main Road and the Beef Trail Road. This winds down to Highway 20, just west of Anahim Lake, bordering Tweedsmuir Park. We actually got to shift into high range somewhere on this road. When we stopped at Highway 20 we were surprised at the heavy layer of dust that had accumulated on all of us. Oliver looked like an eskimo dog, and it took days to get rid of dust blowing out of everything.
At Anahim Lake, everyone filled up with fuel and civilized goods like native trinkets, Indian sweaters and of course beer for the cooler. About half of the group chose to head back towards Williams Lake and points south, while the other half opted to head westward to Bella Coola, eventually visiting several museums and memorials to Alexander Mackenzie and then boarding the ferry to Port Hardy and home.
Since this trip, in August of 2005, there has been an effort to promote and maintain trail access to this area by the 4WDABC, NCOAS and RoverLanders clubs. At time of this writing it appears that the corridor of this trail has retained its current limited road access, however, there is another sub-committee forming that will do further evaluation of the impact of tourism of all types on this trail. I look forward to attending those sessions in hopes of maintaining future access for motorized recreation.
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