Save the Peace!

 Finally have made it to the Peace River. How beautiful is the valley below us despite the stiff wind at the over-look. As soon as we started down through the farm land though there started to be signs against "Site C" so when we got to the Visitors' Center at Hudson's Hope I had to find out and what I found was that ever present dagger of pernicious human activity. This valley and actually three contiguous valleys are slated to be flooded for another hydro-electric dam! It doesn't matter that these families have farmed here since the 1800s, that dinosaur fossils are everywhere and yet undiscovered, that First Nations and early settler trade routes were on this river, that it is critical habitat for the bull trout and essential grizzly migration habitat... it's in the final phase of approval. (See www.paddleforpeace.ca : www.keepingthepeace.wordpress.com and check out the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Institute for an online petition.)
We drove over the huge earthen dam of Williston Lake (largest lake in Canada) and saw the vast hydro-electric grid there on our way to long, skinny Carbon Lake which we reached with some travail. (I fell asleep during my navigation shift and we rumbled past it.)

 The weather at Carbon Lake was finicky. Wind, spits of rain and an end of summer finality that went with the dried up feel of the lake margins. One thing that was definitely happening though is these little mud colored frogs were trying to make their ways into some sort of frog future (and their desperate and mindless movement reminded me of our human headlong rush to somewhere/something-- yes, the collective; yes, our own.)

 Michael was steadfast in his purpose though and has continued to collect waste restaurant oil and process it. I love his tarp stabilization with the canoe paddles and his ability to weather everything the old truck can throw at him. Improvise and problem solve and get it done.

 This morning we are in Chetwynd, home of famous life sized wood carvings that are mostly fanciful and beautiful. I liked this "builds character" one though... seems like our brains are always getting stacked up with stuff and it is a never completed task for the little voice inside us that is trying to do a good job and make sense of it all.