May 29, 2026 Smithers to Prince George, BC
“We are on the injured list, so only doing some light hiking now,” says one of the three women who are our senior by at least one or two decades and seem to be doing just fine. We didnt realize this was just light hiking as we head up to Malkow viewpoint to get a 360 degree view of the coastal mountains. We are rewarded with sweeping views back down to Smithers and Hudson Bay Mountain peeking out from the clouds.
The women are part of the local backpacking hiking club and tell us this is the local’s hike and it is confirmed as we meet families and dog owners making the same trek. We did have to contend with a herd of cows after the first gate that stampeded around us. They realized we didn’t have food and so moved on.
We had a tasty BBQ lunch at the Sausage Factory afterward, a recommendation from a fellow hiker who was one of the original founders and then headed to their second recommendation, Paul’s bakery, or an apple fritter.
We also made it to the history museum where they were displaying their award winning series that went deep into the city’s archives to document the systemic discrimination and purposeful land displacement of the first nations community. It was impactful to me since it was showing the agenda from the city council meeting where they passed resolutions to take native lands. At this time, the first nations community was protesting that they were paying full taxes to the city, but not receiving any services like school, water, or other utilities. To protest this injustice they witheld their taxes. The city responded by taking their land. There was also city meeting minutes of earlier attempt to move them into the steep mountainsides. One elder replied, “We are not fu##ing mountain goats!” In the end, after their homes were burned, the First Nations were moved to nearby Witset.
“We wanted to tell the whole story of our community, so one of our local staff, not even a professor, decided to look through our archives,” said the museum staff member we talked to. It became a mini-Truth and reconciliation process, they published a book “Shared Stories”, and created a “Walk to Witset” where community members from Smithers and the First Nations walked together ‘in the spirit of friendship and cooperation.”
We felt we had immersed ourselves in a portion of the local scene. This is the same town we spent an hour talking to the bartender and the German couple at the local brewery the week before.
Of course, this did delay our leaving a lot, so we didn’t quite make it to Prince George, our next destination, until late. We can’t say dark since sun doesn’t set here till after 10 pm.
Tomorrow we head to Wells Gray Provincial Park near Clearwater, BC to spend two nights. We will see how many of the 42 waterfalls (!) in the park we make it to.
Siri and David Adventures 