Day Four - Fort Nelson to Coal River, BC

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It was a drizzly morning. Not enough to make packing up miserable, just enough to let you know it was there.

As I said in yesterday's post, Mike and I went to the on-site restaurant for dinner. The dining area had a high curved ceiling. At about the height a regular ceiling would have been built, there was a wide wooden shelf that ran on three sides of the room. Now on this shelf there was some greenery; some bushy greenery, some viney greenery. The greenery on the shelf, and the shelf on the wall and the walls there in the dining area-o. Oops, sorry. So among the plastic pine boughs and fake trees were several taxidermied animals posed to attack, alert or flee. It was a little too dark in there last night to take pictures without using the flash so I went in this morning to get shots of each of them. I sent them to my friend, Alicia, who has a fondness for taxidermy and has a stuffed raccoon she dresses up for Halloween (or any occasion, really). I've included a couple of the better pictures here.

Now let's get this show on the road! A few miles out of town I see an overhead digital reader board flashing through different warnings: rockfall danger; rough roads ahead; and wildlife on the roadway. With each of the warnings it gives a kilometer range within which to be cautious. We were all looking forward to the last one!! About 20 miles later we hit some of the rough roads. The road was actually "paved" but it looked and felt like compacted gravel, complete with the beginnings of the washboard, but without the loose stuff flying everywhere or getting stuck in the tread of your tires. Thankfully it only lasted a couple miles and we were rewarded with several miles of freshly paved, not yet lined, asphalt. Unfortunately the asphalt didn't last forever either. Eventually we were back to the rock based road. Mike commented, "Back to lined road and bumpies. I prefer the other; unlined, but smooth." Again and again we were rewarded with respites of blacktop.

There seemed to be a lot more traffic on the road today than we've seen previously, especially RVs. It could be because it's Monday and more people are heading out on vacation. I noticed the tow-behind travel trailers have identical large, brown patches on their lower front corners. I'll have to check and see if we're developing the same badges of honor. A short time later I found out how and where they acquired the brown, temporary tattoos. We were about to get some version of them as well. We had come to a long section of road that was in the process of being rebuilt. The road was nothing more than the base layer of mounded, then leveled and compressed dirt and gravel. We were driving on the "road" in the westbound lane, but there was a ridge of unpacked dirt down the middle of the lane going under the truck. It reminded me of how fresh snow on the road gets after a few cars have driven on it. The right side of the ridge was a little lower than the left, and now and then there would be tracks going through the ridge when a driver would give up and just move over to the clearer eastbound lane. Shortly, we were forced to do the same by a road crewman driving a grader. The other side of the coast was clear so we were able to pass him safely and without either of us having to slow our progress.

Around 2:30 we stopped for an extended break at a pullout along Muncho Lake. There was one other truck and trailer combo in the fairly large gravel area. It was a family of 6 making their way back home to southern Georgia (near the Florida border) after driving to Alaska. The parents are both teachers and this is how they and their four young boys are spending their summer vacation. One of their sons is also named Charlie, so the Charlies each met a new Charlie today. Enjoy your vacation little human Charlie and safe travels Georgia family.

The lake is a beautiful clear turquoise and, at least near the shore, is a comfortable temperature. The water is so clear you can easily see the contour of the lake bottom as it drops lower and lower into the depths. Charlie enjoyed dipping his toes in to lap at the mountain fresh water. Later he waded in a little deeper to where his feet were submerged. Back on shore he found something intriguing to roll in and wore his new cologne proudly!

All day we've passed signs warning of potential wildlife in the area. So far today all we have seen are crows (or ravens?) and the one chipmunk we saw earlier in the day. At this point I was willing to settle for Max with a branch tied to his head!

3:35 p.m. - Buffalo ahead! A herd of them. There were lots of babies following their mamas and bulls with very large horns wandering along both sides of the highway grazing in the tall grass. One or two of the larger animals ambled across to see if the grass was greener on the other side. About halfway up the small hillside, a large bull was taking a dirt bath. I'm sure he was trying to rub off more of his thick winter coat. I didn't see anyone get out of their vehicle and attempt to take a selfie with any of the bison. This is how you do it Yellowstone visitors!

The smoke got worse the farther west we drove. By 4:00 it was difficult to see more than maybe a quarter mile ahead. The sun tried to shine through the thick layer of smoke. It cast an orange tint to the air making is look like sunset was soon. I could taste the soot. We should probably find some masks somewhere. Some people enjoy the smell of charred wood. Many professional baseball players will smell their bat after they've fouled off a ball because of the scent left behind from the friction between the leather an the wood. I love the smell that lingers on my clothes after sitting by a campfire. This? This is just a little too much campfire.

Today, Point A and Point B were closer together. We arrived at our campground in Coal River by mid-afternoon. The bugs here are various and plentiful. Another thing to keep us cooped up in our trailers. The place is very different from the information provided on the internet. There are 10, maybe 12 RV spots situated side-by-side behind the "lodge" portion of the business. When we checked in Mike asked which spots we were in. The manager told Dave and Mike to just go pick a spot. We had our choice as there was nobody else here. Not long after though, another other guest arrived and asked Mike if we were in site #5. We were. The new guest said he had reserved #5. Mike told the new arrival what the manager had said. The new kid looked around and decided one site was as good as another and chose #3. Around dinnertime a motorhome moved in up the block.

Mike has been keeping track of the weather where we are as well as the weather in the next couple of cities we'll be visiting. We will be staying two nights and the itinerary the four of us created has us soaking in the hot springs back down the road tomorrow. The weather prediction calls for temperatures in the upper 70s (a little warm for sitting in bath water) with an 80% chance of rain (could be fun while sitting in bath water) and a high likelihood of thunder (not a good combination while sitting in bath water). At the very least, we'll drive back and go look at and take pictures of the hot springs.

Time to upload some pictures and post this puppy. I'll chat at ya later.

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