In what will likely be my last trip outside of Vancouver this year, a group of friends and I took a road trip to a small town in Northern BC called Tumbler Ridge. Tumbler Ridge is a small mining town located north of Prince George and just south of Ft St John in the Peace River district of British Columbia. Despite living my entire life in this province, I had never been north of Kamloops on the mainland, and so the trip was kind of an eye-opener.
In fact, we had gone to drop a friend of ours off, as she had recently gotten a job there, and would be there for at least the next few months. We arrived in the town/village after a 16 hr drive from Vancouver. Although I don't appreciate it as much as I should, I must say that there is definitely a good reason as to why BC landscape is considered to be spectacular. Sections of the road between Pemberton and Lilloet were truly breathtaking, and we were really in awe of the land that god had sculpted.
Tumbler Ridge itself is basically a mining town, where most of the residents are transient, and no one really lives there for more than a few years at most, mainly due to the remoteness of the town, and the harsh climate (it goes down to -40C in the winter apparently). There are quite a few activities that you can take part in the summer, namely golfing, fishing, hiking, and hunting (none of which I had really ever done before). Unfortunately, the winters are not as pleasant, as the residents are basically confined indoors in front of their TV sets.
I must say, that the residents of this town are quite different from Vancouverites. While they may not be as metropolitan and refined as city dwellers, I really found them to be warm, open, funny and genuine, which is not always something you can say about Vancouverites. I was afraid that they might be stuck-up, boorish rednecks, but I was really pleasantly surprised to see that this is kind of a myth, and racism was not an issue at all. Essentially, if you were willing to adjust and blend into the community, the community would do its best to respect your values and traditions. This was really great to see.
I don't know how often I will be going up there to visit my friends, but it turns out that a small mining town is not as intimidating a place as it seems, and it was really a nice change from the mundane.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
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Hi there,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words and keen observations of the community I've called home since 1985. You'd actually be surprised at the amount of ethnic diversity that can take place in resource communities. They tend to be a convergence point for people all over the world that are looking for adventure and opportunity. I was born in Faro, YT and lived there for the first 8 years of my life. There are pictures of me as a young child where I am the only caucasian in the bunch, as our family friends were from India, Turkey, the Phillipines and Los Angeles. I ate my first curry at 3 months...probably with moose meat;-) Growing up in Tumbler Ridge was no different. Sure, you'll get your pockets of rednecks, but they stand out and become alientated as opposed to Vancouver, where you can blend right in without social accountability. The other thing I was going to say is that winters are embraced as much, albeit in a different way, as summer. With plenty of sunshine even during cold climes, this is the season for a myriad of winter sports and a fertile period for local arts and culture. I am in a local band and winter is when we hunker down to write, record and prepare for the summer festival season. So, in other words, there's plenty of hope for your friend and we'd love to see you come back to enjoy yourself again!
Hey thanks Ray! Glad to see you enjoyed my post. Yes, it was a great trip, and I hope the winters aren't as bad as it was made to seem!
ReplyDeleteOh Sudip! You don't know what you've got in Vancouver...
ReplyDeleteSmitha! Haha... so true! :)
ReplyDelete