Lynne and Halvor gave us their copy of The Milepost which is a thick tome, published yearly, detailing every mile/kilometre of the Alaska Highway and connecting routes, including where the pot holes are, not kidding. This book has been very helpful and has added immensely to our trip. Along with things to watch for and some of the accommodations, the book talks about places to eat. Seems that every lodge/bakery/eatery along the highway has cinnamon buns for sale – each one claiming to be the best, of course.
The area around Fort St. John was quite busy with gas and oil traffic but as we moved further north we noticed fewer trucks on the road and our first nightly stop, at Fort Nelson yielded some stories of companies folding because of the lack of work/employment. Not many birds in Fort Nelson either but lots of mozzies (mosquitoes in Australian speak). We counted 25 of them on Jeannie’s hat at one spot.
After we escaped the mozzies, we stopped at Parker Lake and had much more success with the birds there and a lot fewer bugs.
(Can you see the differences between the Sandpipers?)
As we travelled north, we got some shots of a caribou from a distance of about 15 feet and some Northern Wood Bison from the roadside. Missed shots of a porcupine and a grizzly bear.
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As for the cinnamon buns mentioned earlier, we found the tastiest so far were at Tetsa River Services where we ate some lovely homemade soup and shared a large bun. This place was advertised as the Cinnamon Bun Center of the Galactic Cluster (that one's for you, David Pickles). The food may have tasted so good because the weather was horrible outside (cold wind and rainy) – one poor motorcyclist, from Tennessee, came in out of the rain and stripped off his very wet, wet weather gear before having some lunch. He wasn’t too happy about the gas price of $1.59 per liter but as the sign said, NO SNIVELLING, at least there is gas (we later saw gas for $1.70 a liter!!).
Liard River
We arrived at Liard River Hot Springs in the rain and got the last room they had available at the Lodge - photo on right. Thank goodness we got a room as the next lodging is a considerable distance away. When I looked out the window of our room, the first thing I saw was a black bear near the kitchen area of the restaurant. I took a couple of photos and then hurried down stairs to tell the kitchen staff not to walk out the back door. Turns out the bear had been hanging around for a few days and they had been trying to scare it off. The staff went out with air horns and an explosive device called a “bear banger” that did scare the bear away but only for a few hours.
Next morning when we got up we looked out the window and there was the bear again. Took more pictures and warned the staff again. They called the Conservation Services as the bear had been down in the RV Park the previous night.
We walked over to the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park in light rain and walked up to the hot springs and a place called “The Hanging Gardens”. This area reminded us of Mammoth Hot Springs at the north entrance to Yellowstone Park but here the vegetation has started to cover the mineral deposits. Found a few birds along the way and enjoyed a soak in the springs where you could find just the right temperature as you moved toward the water bubbling from underground.
When we walked down the boardwalk, we found a group of people walking back towards us with the black bear walking up the boardwalk behind them. A park worker was using his pistol to fire squibs at the bear from 10 feet away and the bear hardly reacted at all but did get off the boardwalk and move into the bush but it was always in sight. We scurried down the boardwalk and saw the bear back on the boardwalk again.
At that point we were passed by a Conservation Officer with a rifle. He was able to shoot some very loud bear bangers close to the bear and it took off. We hope that it finds a home in the wild because as the park signs said “A fed bear is a dead bear”.
A walk through the RV Park that night revealed that a caravan of about 20 RVs were staying the night. They were on their way to Alaska but met each evening to ensure that everyone was OK. We have met quite a few American travelers who are bound for Alaska, maybe because it is the 75th anniversary of the building of the Alaska Highway in 1942 (took 8 months to build). Many travelers are on large motorbikes with even a few bicyclists.
Day 3 at Liard saw us backtrack to Muncho Lake (see photo at right) since it was raining heavily on our first pass. This area of the Alaska Highway between Fort Nelson and Liard River is very scenic with snowy mountains in the distance and rugged rocky cliffs close by. Since this is a northern extension of the Rocky Mountains, it shows many similar features, like folding. You are able to see many features because there are fewer trees in the alpine areas.
We stopped at a place called the Mineral Lick where there was a clay bank that Stone Sheep visit because of the minerals in the clay (the cliff is on the left hand side of the first photo). After hiking about a kilometre, we saw 6 sheep on the bank.
A little farther north, we again found a number of Wood Bison grazing beside the road. We counted 15 adults and 6 kids.
Next day, we left Liard heading for Watson Lake, Yukon. Along the way we stopped at Smith River Falls. Very pretty waterfall and there were a few birds around too. The birds, however, were hard to find due to the thick leaf cover. Most of the songs are new to us so we were quite frustrated at being able to hear the birds but not see them. We did figure out the song of the Tennessee Warbler but unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures. We do recognize the song of the White-crowned Sparrow but it likes to be tricky as it seems to have a different dialect depending upon the location.
And so ends our travels thru northern BC on our way to the Yukon Territory. If you want to check our route so far, go to: http://routebuilder.org/27ra.
Next blog: Yukon Territory