The BC Adventure 32

c/o Campbell's Store

Quesnel Dam,

Nr Williams Lake BC

August 15, 1922

Dear Mummy,

I am not sure but I think I might be pregnant. And I feel so tired and sick these days. Mark is very worried about me. He says that this is no place to have a baby. There are no real doctors within a two days' journey and even then he's really a dentist with one arm. I certainly don't want to have what Caroline was faced with
– delivering with only a stranger with me.

I am very thrilled of course. I was worried that maybe I couldn't have a baby, with us having to wait so long for me to conceive. But I don't want to jeopardize this special gift either. Mark thinks it is best for me to go back to Salt Spring and live with Joey until closer to the time of the birth, which I reckon is likely to be early April. And he will try to get back and visit us sometime during that period. I hated the journey up, and the journey back will be even harder – but at least I will leave the cat and dog here for Mark to care for and to remind him of me. I probably will try to leave Canada by January, so that if anything goes wrong with the birth, I will be at home with you and Daddy.

I will tell you a bit more about this place we are calling home at the moment. It is situated where the west arm of Quesnel Lake empties into the Quesnel River. It is the largest lake in the Cariboo and has a very scenic shoreline. At the west end is Quesnel Dam which I'm sure you have heard Mark talk about.

The Forks, as Mark calls it, was originally one of the largest communities in all of BC. It was an important trading centre for the Hudson Bay Company in the 1850's.

We had a treat this week. We watched the salmon migrate up the Quesnel River to their spawning grounds in the Horsefly and Mitchell Rivers. Another place we enjoy going to is called Cedar Point, where there is an impressive stand of yellow cedar on the shores of the lake. Occasionally when Mark is prepared to take a break, we go fishing. You can get rainbow trout to up 16 lbs and he got a lake trout that was nearly 40 lbs.

We are fairly close to the 150 Mile House and can go there for supplies.  There are lots of these signpost supply places. These were originally campgrounds for the Hudson Bay fur traders, but now each is a roadhouse along the Cariboo Wagon Road, much used before the railway came through. Each is describing the distance from there to the town of Lilooet. 

Enough of this for one letter.

Love,

Gwenllian