It is 1906, in the earliest days of the growing settlement of Prince Rupert, British Columbia. A transport ship is bringing the first herd of cattle into Cameron Cove, but there is a problem: no dock yet exists. Some deliberation ensues, some arrangements are made, and (presumably after being issued approved safety vests) the cattle are unceremoniously prodded into jumping overboard and swimming ashore. This area at the northwest of town will forever be unofficially known as Cow Bay.

When we visit Cow Bay, the cattle are long gone. What remains is a small cluster of local-business and tourist-business shops, just uphill from the cruise ship terminal building. And, although tourism is a significant part of the town’s business, there is a lot more to Prince Rupert than Chinese-made souvenir shops.

One of the items catching our attention is a cool little café called, unsurprisingly, the Cow Bay Café. It has a pretty interesting menu, with the miso-flavored black cod getting me very interested. They weren’t open when we scoped out the menu, but we are orchestrating a re-visit sometime very soon. Tomorrow’s lunch is beckoning.

We’re camped a few miles out of town at Kinnikinnick, a tiny private RV park. The word “nestled” comes to mind. Comfy, cozy and quiet, but pretty feeble wifi at our farthest-out campsite ‘L’. (I will have to go somewhere else to upload this post.)

Our first major activity here was a medium hike (three+ hilly miles) on the Butze Rapids trail. This is a well-groomed trail that winds through the rain forest and along the shoreline, past a set of rapids that run backwards and forwards. The double-reverse is due to the fact that the rapids are caused by natural weirs between separate tidal areas. As the tides fluctuate, so do the currents across the weirs. Tides in this particular area are remarkable, running 15-20 feet on a routine basis. Driving to the trailhead, it was obvious that the area was nearing low-tide condition.

Once on the trail, we plunged into a deep, dense rain-forest environment, complete with ferns, huge broad-leafed plants, and dark mossy tangled tree branches. Both Karin and I immediately began thinking of Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings films.

It would not have surprised us at all if we had seen Gandolf himself sitting in the trail-side Spruce-stump throne.

As we hiked the trail, we ran across several fellow travelers, young, old and in-between – but this group had to be the most unique. I wonder which of the little gnome-like piggy-back riders might be a disguised Gollum? My precious…….

Up at the high point on the trail, an overlook showed the lay of the inlet/passage. Rapids were flowing west-to-east today with a rising tide. This is one of three sections of rapids that span the passage. It’s odd to think that a few hours from now, this whole section will be level and placid – for a brief hour before the current reverses again.

Later on, the trail opens up briefly near Grassy Bay – – –

– – – and some kids’ makeshift swings accent the low-tide shoreline.

We climbed back up through the rain-forest to get back to Ralph. Even more dense and amazing in contrast to the open shore. As we finished the hike, the skies kept getting grayer (rain forecast for tomorrow). So we decided to go see some industrial stuff. There are two major export docks for coal and grain, plus a container-ship dock as well. Prince Rupert exports grain and coal produced from Saskatchewan westward; the rest of Canada’s product moves to the eastern ports.

We headed over toward the coal/grain docks but were stopped by security – no public allowed. Too bad, but the guard was cool and let us take some pix. This is the grain cleaning/sorting facility, and its giant conveyor to take the product out to waiting ships.

Finally, headed back to camp, we passed the adjacent inlet area as before, but now at high tide. This is the same island shown in the left side of the previous low-tide shot…. the tide has risen about 15 feet in the interim.

Long day but a good one. Time to go barbeque some non-organic chicken and toxify our bodies. Got it all cooked up and the BBQ safely stashed away just as the rain started coming down.

Life is good.

• Miles driven (Howie): 2,336
• Miles driven (Ralph): 479
• Days traveling: 20
• Miles from home: 1,854