This evening, while driving through gorgeous snow-capped mountain roads from Kinkolith to Terrace, from where we will begin our flights home, we encountered a number of magnificent wild creatures.
First, a silver fox mama and her two pups turned up at the side of the road. We had just videopated the Nisga’a Creation Story as told to us by Chief of Chiefs Chester Moore. This story includes a character who is a trickster. I wondered if the little foxes appeared because foxes are often portrayed as tricksters. The beautiful creatures trotted into the middle of the road in front of our rental car. John brought the car to a halt. They walked around the car! I was so excited I fumbled with the video camcorder and finally managed to turn it on and press the “record” button. They continued to amble around the car, occasionally stopping to sit and scratch or yawn. It was as if we did not exist. This stretch of road has few travelers. However, when a jeep drove toward us from the other direction, the driver, when she saw the foxes, slowed down to a crawl. She waved from behind the wheel as she passed us. Her delighted grin communicated a shared enjoyment of the wild creatures.
The fox family would have been enough to fulfill our evening. However, after we had driven for another 20 minutes or so, John called out, “Is that a bear!” Sure enough, a brown bear lurked on the other side of the road. Again, as if we did not exist, the bear began to pad across the road in front of our car, which, by now, John had slowed down. This time, I had the camcorder ready. However, as I videotaped, I felt afraid because the bear stopped in the middle of the road and lifted its head up and down in our direction as if he or she was sniffing us.
Yesterday, we had heard a story about a grizzly bear which had taken on a car. Evidently, the driver had had to quickly throw the car into reverse to get away from the maniac bear.
Fortunately, this brown bear simply leisurely continued to cross the road. It padded down the gravel slope and into the forest. It must be amazingly well camouflaged because by the time we drifted alongside the place where we had seen the bear move into the forest, it had disappeared behind leaves and trunks.
It wasn’t until we had proceeded along the lonely road a number of miles that I realized that I had been so excited at seeing the bear that I had forgotten to take any still photographs of the bear. Therefore, when John exclaimed, “There’s a deer!” I was ready with my Nikon.
It was a black-tailed buck. He stood behind a couple of tree trunks on our side of the road watching us. My camera has a powerful zoom lens. I focused the lens and clicked the shutter a couple of times. But, the digital instant playback showed only a black screen. In my exictement, I was doing something wrong but could not figure out what!
I grabbed the video camera and captured the antlered creature wagging his tail, followed by his slow steps into the forest until he diappeared behind the branches of an evergreen tree.
It was a magnificent drive through the wilderness. This area of northern BC is fantastic!
Carol Chapman
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We spent the night in a hostel in Prince Rupert, BC. Although we have a private room and bath, there are rooms full of bunk beds all around us and an open lounge area with TV, fridge, microwave, and snacks. Our room at the Black Rooster Inn is not as inexpensive as I have heard rooms in hostels can be especially considering that our bathroom was more like the bath in a boat with the whole floor being the drain of the shower. Nonetheless, we have all the amenities including our own private fridge and television and two towels each.
Nonetheless, the Black Rooster has the advantage of location. The place is full of people speaking languages from all around the world. We all came off the ferry last night. The hotels, motels and hostels in Port Hardy and Prince Rupert do a booming business accommodating passengers from the ferry which arrives at 10:30 p.m.
This morning, when I took a look at myself in the mirror while brushing my teeth, I jumped when I saw my red eyes. After wracking my brain for places I may have contracted an eye infection, I realized the red eyes were the result of the wind whipping in my eyes while photographing the sights from the deck of BC Ferry’s splendid Northern Expedition yesterday.
The “Inside Passage” between Port Hardy and Prince Rupert is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been. We travelled through snow-capped mountains, islands shrouded in mist, fog, and brilliant sunshine passing leaping whales, barges, picturesque lighthouses, cruising sailers and fishing trawlers.
Although the ship is called a ferry, it is most like a cruise ship with a cloth covered buffet dining room and two movies per day. We have travelled this route before. It is my favorite way of going into British Columbia’s north.
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We flew into Terrace, which was like a totally different world compared to Victoria’s waterfront flowers and tourists. Now, we’re in Port Hardy after spending the day yesterday on a cruise-ship type ferry going from Prince Rupert. We enjoyed the gorgeous northern views and overate at the scrumptious buffets.
Today, we’re spending another day going on the Northern Expedition going back to Prince Rupert and then driving through mist-enshrouded mountains back to Terrace and then on to visit my girlfriend who works with the First Nations people of the Nass River, the Nisga’a, some of whom are totem pole carvers.
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I am looking forward to doing taking some gorgeous nature photography for next year’s Edgar Cayce Calendar in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
We came across from Seattle, Washington, in the U.S. on the Victoria Clipper, a high speed catamaran that crosses the straits of Juan de Fuca to the harbor in Victoria in only 3 hours. They had some pretty good package deals where you get a reduced rate on overnight motel stays with the Victoria Clipper passage.
We were thinking of a whale watching excursion, which we realized we should have added onto the package deal for a reduced rate. However, we didn’t think of it when we booked the motel passage deal. Instead, we inquired to see how much the whale watching cost without the package deal.
Eek! $95.00 per person for about 3 hours! Ouch! Two years ago I went on an all-day whale watching expedition in Seward, Alaska, for only $55.00 . . . and it included lunch!
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My husband John and I toured around Rainier National Park today. Beautiful vistas and great photos of the mountain. Amazing that it is a volcano!
Carol Chapman
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Here’s an excerpt from my February 25, 2009, post on this blog:
I am so happy because last night – actually between 4 and 5 AM – I finally got a photograph of the galactic center. It is so cool!!!
You can see Sagittarius and the tail of Scorpio right beside it. And, there, glowing quietly, the galactic center.
2012 Photograph of the Galactic Center — Carol Chapman
If you are new to my Carol Chapman blog site and you are interested in reading a description of photographing the Galactic Center, you will find details of my own experiences photographing the Galactic Center in my February 21 to March 2, 2009 posts here on this web site: http://www.CarolChapmanLive.com.
My Galactic Center photographs are part of my PowerPoint presentation on “2012, Edgar Cayce and the Maya.” I took my Galactic Center photographs at the Florida Keys Winter Star Party, which is sponsored by the Southern Cross Astronomical Society,
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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Here is a link to a magnificent photograph taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope of the Milky Way’s Galactic Center. Because of dust clouds that hide the light of the stars in the Galactic Center, infrared photography was used, melding over 2,000 photographic images into this one amazing photograph.
Images of the Galactic Center are especially appropriate at this time because of the anticipated line up of the Sun and Earth with the Galactic Center on the Winter Solstice around December 21, 2012.
Just click on the link below the excerpt from the NASA web site:
Explanation: What’s happening at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy? To help find out, the orbiting Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have combined their efforts to survey the region in unprecedented detail in infrared light. Infrared light is particularly useful for probing the Milky Way’s center because visible light is more greatly obscured by dust. The above image encompasses over 2,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope‘s NICMOS taken last year. The image spans 300 by 115 light years with such high resolution that structures only 20 times the size of our own Solar System are discernable.
APOD: 2009 January 7 – The Galactic Core in Infrared
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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I’ve had a chance to go through the Evaluation Forms filled out by participants at my two talks in British Columbia. I gave an evening program, “2012, Edgar Cayce and the Maya,” in Comox, B.C. on Thursday, May 28th and a day-long seminar, “Secrets of a Psychic,” in Nanaimo, B.C. on Saturday, May 30th.
On the Evaluation Form, there is a section where the participant can choose what type of program they would like me to give at a future event. In Comox, they would like to know more about Dreams. In Nanaimo, a program on “Working with Nature Spirits,” won the top choice.
Carol Chapman
Copyright (c) 2009 Carol Chapman
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I am so happy that the 2010 Edgar Cayce Calendar: Divine in Nature , with its gorgeous nature photography and the wonderful inspirational quotes from Edgar Cayce, is at the printer’s.
That means it will likely be ready for that big week in June when A.R.E. members gather at Edgar Cayce’s A.R.E. in Virginia Beach, Virginia, for Congress. That is my goal – to have the calendar there for all those enthusiastic A.R.E. members.
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