We left Smithers, BC at 7:45 am, continuing east on Highway 16. It had rained all night and was overcast this morning. We turned north on Highway 27 just before Vanderhoof toward Fort St. James. This small town of 2,000 at the edge of Stuart Lake, is the geographical center of British Columbia. 
Simon Fraser established a Hudson's Bay Company Trading Post here in the early 1800's. The original log buildings of the trading post have been restored and is now the Fort St. James National Historic Park. There is a Visitor's Reception Centre, where they play a 10 minute video, as well as displays of Indian and pioneer artifacts. The park has staff dressed in period custumes stationed at each of the restored buildings (including the men's quarters, the officer's house, the general warehouse, and the trade store), who explain what life was like at the fort and answer questions. They had lots of different animal pelts, long johns, old Levi jeans, beds, wood stoves, dried salmon,. . . . . on display in the various buildings. Admission was $4 for adults and $2 for kids. There was a snack bar serving food that like what the men at this fort might have eaten (bannock, vegetable soup, ....). We left at about 12:30 pm.
We went back to Vanderhoof and Dale found Sen Sens at the Chevron station. Between Dale and Jacob they just about bought their entire stock. We continued east on 16 and reached Prince George at 3:00pm. It finally stopped raining. We turned south on 97 stopping to rest at Ten-Mile Lake Provincial Park. This park at 142 campsites. A group of musicians were playing under one of the picnic shelters. We stopped for gas at Williams Lake. It started warming up and we saw some blue sky. At Clinton we took the turnoff for the Pavilion Mountain Road. At 8:00 pm we stopped at Downing Provincial Park which was a small park on the shore of Kelly Lake. 
There were quite a few campers here and not a lot trees for privacy. We saw a sign for Pear Lake and continued on a gravel road just a couple miles. We came to a wooden gate that was open. Here was a grassy area with two outhouses, a body of water (we weren't sure if this was Pear Lake or Kelly Creek) and a sign with a verse painted on it and the name of an Indian tribe. We were not sure if this was private or public land, but it looked like a good camping spot. A couple in a camper were the only ones around. We decided to set up our tents here for the night. We finished our Kentucky Fried Chicken and went to bed. We (that is Dale and I) were woken up twice by very noisy
trains in the middle of the night. Jacob didn't remember hearing them the next morning. The wind started gusting around 2:00 am. Jacob's tent had been pushed around so he was laying on the door of his tent. When we set the tents up, it was just a little windy and he had asked if we should use the stakes, which is something we never ever do. I assured him that with the stuff inside them they should be fine. We finally put the tents up around 3:00 am and tried sleeping in our sleeping bags on the grass. It was kinda warm out, but pretty breezy.