Carol cleaning a 38lb Salmon

Cal asked me to fillet a salmon for dinner, I said sure until I went to the cooler and saw a sea monster on ice, so Cal gave me a quick lesson on cleaning big salmon and I had to do the other one.

Yesterday he hired a Nuxalk guide down in Hagensborg to visit some petroglyphs in the area-Dilly said the hike up was "petro"-fying. We had to follow a badly maintained trail along the Thorsen creek over several rickety bridges and up steep hills to get to the site. So despite arthritic knees and bad nerves the guide and I were able to bully, prod and pull the ladies up the hill. Dill at one point found a rock to sit on and said she was fine to live there the rest of her life so I had to point out if she fainted in that position she would fall forward over the cliff into the river of glacial water below and be dragged out to sea only to be eaten by orcas-so she agreed to continue the hike. She did say it was worth it but I'm sure the thought of going back down was in the back of her mind the whole time we were at the site. The petroglyphs based on other archaeologica evidence as they can't been carbon dated are though to be 5,000-10,000 years old. They were carved by the same people in the valley today the Nuxalkmc (shortened to Nuxalk in the 1920's) Our native guide guide Nells explained the carvings using local legends.

This Glyph attracted the attention of the Maori in New Zealand and many have come to see it as it is very similar to their rock carvings in their own culture and some Naxtle have also visited New Zealand as both sea cultures feel a kinship.

Owl glyph

In the evening we opened our 6th bottle of champainge in the lounge and listened to Doug "the Trail"

tells some stories of the woods and then he played us some songs on the guitar. He was really quite good.

This morning we had breakfast with some policemen from above "the hill". The stopped at the lodge for breakfast and some fishing. The area they cover is ridiculous, from bella coola to Williams lake over 5 hours away! They told some pretty good tales of the roads especially of the hill.

Today we plan to watch the soccer game on the television and perhaps take in a Rodeo in Anahim.