Today was a transition point... from traveling to get here.. to finally arriving... to the country I came to see. What a fantastic day it has been, with beautiful scenery, weather, lots of wild animals, and finally sitting in one of the renown Canadian Hotsprings relaxing. This is one of the popular Provincial Parks in Canada, and is maintained very well but primitive.
But the day did not start out this way. It rained hard all last night, and local radio predicted more clouds and showers for the area. I woke up at 3:30, and finally got up at 4:30 preparing to leave. The rain let up enough for me to "break camp" (dig that lingo as I get to be a seasoned camper). I had breakfast, battened down the hatches and was on the road by 6:00. I have a checklist pasted on a small piece of cardboard that I keep on the dash of my car, and check it every morning before I leave. Lucky because I found that I had forgotten to take up the wheel jack. Better to discover it from the check list than as it is dragging behind the jeep going down the road.
Once on the road, it was quiet, and I was alone again... leaving the camp full of RVs behind me. I noticed as I drove that several RVs had camped in turnouts along the road, unable to find room in the park. This was the first time I had seen this, and is the advantage of traveling in a small group. More common, I understand, in Alaska. The roads were becoming more typical of the north with rough patches, wash board, rock in asphalt surface and loose gravel in spots. I hit one spot of 5 kilometers of nothing but gravel. An occasional truck would come by quite fast as the speed limit remained 60 mph on most of the road, although I kept my speed in the 40's most of the day.
The clouds soon gave way to sun as it was turning out to be a beautiful day. The roads were winding and heading up into the mountains where snow began to appear and the temperature dropped into the low 30's. The views were magnificent, making the the whole trip up to Fort Nelson nothing but innocent foreplay to tantalize the traveler. I was beginning to feel now like I was in the north woods, and soon the frequency of wild life sightings verified it. Sightings of Caribou became frequent as well as Moose. And near Stone Mountain, sightings of Stone Sheep that lived there. The road curved in and out as it went through the mountains, and on a curve just on the edge of the mountain I found a very large Stone Sheep ram sunning itself. But as I slowed to take the picture, it crawled over the edge, but then turned and peeked at me over the edge of the road as I stopped and took the picture.. just horns and eyes staring at me. Later sightings became common place along the road. I shot about 40 pictures today, and loaded them on my computer. As I sort through them I will be including a couple of my favorites on the web site. Some great animal shots.
The road followed along the Tetsa River to Summit lake where we saw heavy snow coverage and ice on the lake yet. It was there that the temperature dropped as low as 33 degrees, but the mountain tops, covered with snow, glistened. I took enough pictures in this region to bore the bravest. One spot at a small park on the edge of the lake where the ice had broken up leaving open water, an RV had pulled over and a man was attempting to fish in the open channel. As I left and moved through the Stone mountain area to Muncho Lake, it warmed again, and that lake was beautiful and blue sitting in the mountains.
By Noon I arrived at Liard River Hotsprings Provincial Park where I am staying the night. It was near empty, so I had my choice of locations and picked one near the front gate and entrance to the hot springs. By nightfall the park was completely full and many were being turned away to find another camping spot down the road. It does not pay to drive beyond 4:00 PM in this part of the country if you want a place to stay. Since I leave so early in the morning, I get my full day's drive in before noon so get the first choice of spots... works so far. This is a dry camp, which means no electricity and I will have to heat with gas tonight. Also, no radio or clock... and my 'puter is on its second battery now so will need to find electricity to recharge tomorrow.
Once in the camp, I headed the down the quarter mile board walk to the first hot spring. Very quiet walk through the woods until you arrive. The spring is surrounded by decking and has a changing room build on the end as well as bathrooms near. Several were in the pool and you could smell the sulfur and see the bubbles. I met a couple coming back from the direction of the second pool which was another eighth of a mile through the woods on the boardwalk. They had not gone far because the woman was afraid of the possibility of bears. Bears are common in this park and are frequently seen wandering across the board walk by tourists. A year or so ago on the second leg of the boardwalk, a very old and ornery Black Bear mauled three people, and evidently the article was in Reader's Digest. So this woman had read it as has several others I met. I agreed to walk with them and offered to take their picture if attacked by bears along the way. We got to the next hot spring but nobody was there. More underground activity was evident with all the bubbles coming up. The couple, from Toronto, decided to return and use the first pool. I also returned to camp and quickly set up the trailer so I could get my bathing suit stored in the front compartment.
I headed back to the first hotspring and changed and went in... spent two very relaxing sessions in the pool (very hot) spinning yarns with the others there. One man who was a fulltime RVer was having a picture taken with a digital camera of him and his wife... he said he loads them into his computer and uploads to a web site for his family to view... Well... we started comparing techniques and discovered that he is making a long distance toll call each day back to the states to connect to world.net which is AT&T. I mentioned how handy it was for me to have local numbers in major cities with ibm.net and the Canadian 800 number when needed. AT&T has purchased ibm.net (the ISP portion) so I hope they don't screw it up.
Well, that is about my day... It is 8:00 PM here now and the sun is still bright and high in the sky.. I like the long days of light.. it does something to my attitude. Tomorrow I plan an early start, but am undecided on how far I will travel. At least Watson Lake and maybe further. I understand that there is road work on this next stretch. My rig (again the lingo) really needs washing. The front of the trailer is nice and brown and the sides of the Jeep are coated. After the roads tomorrow, one priority will to be to pick a campsite that has an RV wash.
