Ft. Providence

---

Thursday July 28, 2011
Ft. Providence

The weather looks good this morning and I got a good start this morning. The terrain is changing bit by bit. There are a few more dips in the road and I always seem to be going ever so slightly on an upward climb.

I did a stop at Lady Evelyn Falls. It was a 16 km side trip; 8 there and 8 to get back on the highway.

I saw 7 Sandhill Crane today. The first 4 took to flight (as usual). I got real lucky with last 3 cranes. I was able to photograph them. It seems that wildlife get real nervous when they see me coming on a bike. Most animals seem quite accustomed to vehicles but they don’t know how to react to me, on a bike. This has me bit nervous about the next 315 km’s. I took the ferry across the Mackenzie River to start me ride for Yellowknife which means I will be riding through Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary. Apparently the park has a very healthy population of bison that like to stand on the road. In 2004 on my road trip I came across bison but felt very secure in and from my car. On my bike that doesn’t exactly go from 0 to 60 when I press the gas is another story. I came across a lone buffalo on my way to Fort Providence and he seemed just a little too interested in investigating me out.

I spent the night in Fort Providence Park but almost slept in the wilderness. It seems that all parks in N.W.T. are now powered sites and all sites are $28 for the night. Well there is no way I am going to spend that with all the free wilderness camping. I tried to negotiate with the lady and then ended up paying $5 for a shower that should only have costed maybe $1 at most $2. I was only willing to pay the $5 because I felt that I had sort of been a little rough on her. In the end 2 older guys from High Level (that had earlier in the day stopped on the road to see if I needed any water) invited me to stay at their site. The lady still said it would cost me the $28 but then said it was fine if I just stayed there. The thing is I have to go through Fort Providence on my way back from Yellowknife. I wonder how much a shower will cost me then?

With the little side trip to the falls I rode 115 km’s today and if I don’t count the 5 little rain drops that landed on me when I got to Fort Providence then I did not get rained on today which would be the first day since Grande Prairie which almost seems a life time ago.

---