I have a cousin in Fort st James that I have not seen since 1991 when I visited Vancouver during my gap year.  Jerome is my mom’s sister’s son and immigrated to Canada in 1990. When Jerome saw on facebook that I was travelling through the USA and Canada he invited Joern and I to come visit and boy does he live in an absolutely idyllic place. A small friendly very outdoor oriented town right on the lake.

The history the settlers in Fort st James is shocking and has certainly left it’s mark on the local first nation tribes, a lot however is being done to rectify the situation and the new elementary school is a great step.

Jerome is a 100% outdoors person regardless of season he does it all, he used to kayak for the British national team and took Joern and I out on the lake.

 I was a bit nervous as I had images of myself tipping over in the middle of the lake and I’m not a strong swimmer. It was FANTASTIC so much fun, great exercise and good food stopping on a small beach to cook some smokies (sausages) and marshmallows, such fun. The highlight and reason we went out on the boats was to see the ancient pictographs painted on the rocks, so interesting and a fun way to see such an attraction.

Pictographs (rock paintings) can be seen in twenty-one locations on the north shore of Stuart Lake, between Fort St. James and Pinchi Bay. Accessible only by boat, these rock paintings depict animals, fish, birds, guardian spirits and images received in dreams. The paint used for drawing was a vegetable based vermilion which weathers quickly; archaeologists believe the paints date back to early in the 19th century.

Lunch on the beach 🙂

We ended our weekend in Fort st James with a great dinner cooked by Emily, one of Jerome’s friends. Emily had invited us to dinner with Chrissy, Charlotte and Sandy. What a great evening with great company the people in this town are really special. It was hard to leave as I could easily have stayed a few more days but the road calls…