The next morning we headed towards Fort Nelson after a quick stop at the World Famous Sign Post Forest. Here we walked the rows upon rows, trying to find some signs from our hometowns out of the 70,000 posted signs. While there were none from Comox, Ricki found one from very close to where she lives.
We wanted to leave a sign of course and decided the best option was to just make our own. Since we had no wood or paint, we had the brilliant idea to use Ricki’s flip flop which she had been carrying around since she dropped the other into Miles Canyon at the beginning of the trip. We had to round up a sharpie and I had to get Ricki on my shoulders to get our “sign” posted in an empty spot. We laughed.
Leaving Watson Lake we made our way through mountain ranges, along beautiful lakes and lots of trees. After paying way too much for gas at Muncho Lake we made our way to Fort Nelson. We stocked up on groceries and hit the road again, driving right into a massive storm. We got to see some lightning and of course more rain and drove until we couldn’t keep our eyes open any longer. Ricki made some perogies for a quick dinner and we crawled into bed.
We spent the night at the Bucking Horse Provincial Park where we awoke to freezing temperatures which we would later learn was -5 C. The tent was frozen stiff so we half ass packed it together and headed to the gas station for coffee at 6 am. Making our way to the Sikanni Chief Campground we got a hold of Kurt who was going to meet us there that afternoon. Arriving at the campground we were still too early, so the gate was locked. We turned around and headed up the gravel road looking for the spot where we would begin our hike into the cabin. The first 40 km were easy but the last stretch was a choice between 7 different routes. The first ones we drove down ended up on gasfields and our GPS did not line up with the coordinates on our map so we kept trying. Eventually we found the right well to park at, marked it in our GPS and headed back to the campground.
Once we got there it was finally open and we began talking with the park attendant. After a bit of a discussion about leaving Kurt’s truck there he mentioned that the cabin was no longer there. “Apparently” it had been torn down last year by a local hunting guide. This of course was a huge disappointment for us but we decided to hike it anyway. He told us that we were dumb for trying to hike in there and that he would not call the police if we weren’t back by Monday. His in hospitality was surprising to us and after he told us that the cabin should never have been built there in the first place we decided to end the conversation and wait for Kurt. After many hours of pacing and planning out what would happen if the cabin wasn’t there we finally met up with him.
We packed all our gear into three big back packs and made our way back down the gravel road. We were carrying everything we needed, food, a massive tarp, a tent, sleeping mats, and sleeping bags…. Sort of. Kurt was clever enough to forget his sleeping bag. Arriving at the well we left a note in our car saying how many of us there were and when we planned on being back at the truck. Hiking into the woods we picked up what we thought was the trail but shortly learned it was not. The grueling trek down to the cabin consisted of bush whacking the entire way. While walking down we noticed that there was a lot of dead fall since last time I was there (5 years ago). Scraping through the trees, braking branches, ducking under massive logs with our very heavy packs we huffed and puffed our way in the relative direction. We knew we had to follow a ravine down to the river and had a GPS with us that was not picking up signals properly. At one point we ended up on a small out cropping on the side of the ravine and had to crawl up the lose gravel on all fours. The whole way I was trying to remember if any of the parts looked familiar.
We cleared away some branches that had fallen onto the roof and cleared the area around the chimney. We noticed that a tree had broken off and was leaning over the cabin. Using our expert engineering practices we attached a pulley system to the tree where we could pull it clear of the cabin as we cut the tree down. Of course, it fell perfectly, missing the cabin.
As the men were working, Ricki was busy making beef stew. We graciously ate the dinner around the fire and as the darkness began to roll in we moved inside. Here we started a little fire and played a game of cribbage while enjoying the warmth of Jack Daniels Tennessee Honey Whiskey. As it got later we decided to call it a night while Ricki kept us up noisily doing a Swiss crossword puzzle, she was drunkenly excited about her skills. Our choice of bed would be the demise of a good night’s sleep. While we had three inflatable air mattresses I ended up waking up with only one and none of them were actually inflated. The bed had a nasty edge on one of the planks which woke me early in the morning and hindered my ability to fall back asleep. Around 5 am my tossing and turning woke up the whole cabin so Ricki began breakfast consisting of bacon, eggs, and cheese on bagels as Kurt and I watched the sun rise.
After a delicious breakfast we tried our hand at fishing and relaxed on the river bank. Throughout the morning we ended up catching one small fish, which seemed like a mutation between who different species which ended up with a very unattractive fish. Tossing it back in the river we fished and skipped rocks a while longer and decided to call it a day. Heading back to the cabin Kurt and I decided we needed a better device to carry water up the river. Since a Yoke was the first thing that came to mind we set off with our project. First we split the log we cut down the day before in half using two axes and then carved out the shoulder sections with the chisel and axes. After all was said and done we tested out the system, it was at this point that we realized the two water containers in the cabin were different sizes so the balancing system would always be a problem. We were able to make it work by only partially filling one of the jugs, which made the balancing a lot easier.
After we had a healthy supply of water we felt we had accomplished a lot that day and were satisfied with our results. Thinking it must be late in the afternoon we quickly realized that it was only 10 am. We sat around the fire and relaxed, then decided to clean up around the cabin. I had the brilliant idea to build a broom. Under the tough criticism of my fellow hikers I came up with a system that worked very well.
After a while they both admitted that it was a fantastic design and were eager to try it out. After sweeping around the front of the cabin, weeding the small trees that were beginning to grow through the porch Kurt and Ricki cleaned up the inside. That morning we had noticed that there was some moss insulation missing between some of the logs so we began the process of stuffing all the little holes with fresh moss. After a few more hours of relaxing and doing small fixes here and there we headed to the river for some more fishing. This time both Ricki and I were going to try our hand at fly fishing. Kurt led the way by catching a few more fish, which of course we released.
Then it was my turn, while the technique is fairly straightforward, getting it to work the way it should was difficult. With the wind blowing the line around and the hook whipping past my face on each wind up I ended up catching a massive fish….
Ricki also enjoyed her time fly fishing; she ended up getting a small bite but nothing that she could reel in. When everyone was satisfied we headed back to the cabin for another night of cards and more food. After some complaints from Ricki and Kurt regarding the lack of flip flops, I decided that enough was enough and created a pair of birch bark sandals for them so I could further enjoy the silence of the cabin.
This night we decided to stack up the tarps under the air mattresses to get a better night’s sleep.
The next morning we had another delicious breakfast by Chef Ricki, as Kurt and I organized our gear outside. After having everything packed up, cabin sealed, and stocked with new dry food and items we didn’t want to pack back out, we then headed back up to the car.
At first it was difficult to find the trail due to the massive overgrowth that had taken place. Luckily we ended up finding it and huffing and puffing our way up the very steep incline we made it to the car much faster than on the way in. Luckily the car was still parked there. It had a note on the windshield from Scott saying we should stop in and give him an update on the cabin. We tried finding his gas well that he was working on but must have missed it. Sorry Scott. We found it ironic that one of the only ten or so people on the planet that have been to this place found our car and knew where we were and left us a note.
Making our way to the campground where we had left Kurts truck, we decided to keep the location of the cabin confidential and simply told the grumpy campground owner that we didn’t find it. As some might have noticed we also did not transmit an exact location of the cabin or the trail. This is due to not only the comments from the campground attendant but due to the fact that park rangers were going along known hiking trails and tearing down all the cabins during the beginning parts of the summer. We think that it would be a shame to see this happen to the Sudden Cloud Cabin and want to keep the little piece of paradise intact for as long as possible.
Our next stop was Fort St John, where we met up with Kurt’s roommates James and Ryan. Here we had a big BBQ, fire, and had some beers. Swapping stories late into the night we headed to bed. Finally being in a house was a weird feeling after spending over 30 days sleeping in a tent, usually cold and wet.
The next morning we all had a huge breakfast, thanks again to Ricki. After packing up our gear we said our farewells and headed towards Jasper. The drive was long and uneventful but after grabbing some groceries we finally found our spot for the night. For dinner we made a chicken caesar salad but substituted the chicken for turkey. This ended up being a bad decision. It is now getting late and we are looking forward to a good night’s sleep on our soft mattress and in warm temperatures. Tomorrow we are going to head towards Edmonton where I will be spending the next couple days catching up with friends and relaxing. Ricki has talked me into staying in the area to see the World of Outlaws sprint car races this coming weekend before making my way back to the island Monday morning.
