Beer, bugules & carbon monoxide....

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After settling into our campsite we decide to walk a mile down the mountain into town and check out the local brewery we spotted on the way through. Trying to avoid getting hit by cars coming up the narrow mountain road we find ourselves taking a shortcut through some parking lots and around a few fences. All in all we made it to the brewery and enjoyed a couple beers. Knowing that it gets dark around 7 we started our walk back. About half way back we both stop dead in our tracks and listen. It's a sound we've both heard before but never so intensely. We can't see what's around the next curve but as we slowly walk up we see the tail end of a large bull elk raking his antlers on a spruce tree.
The only way back to the camper is passing this brute. I turn around and Paige is jumping a split rail fence and high tailing it to the nearest cabin. I go closer to get some pictures. The elk quickly decides he wants to come in my direction and as I jump the same fence Paige did and hide behind a tree the bull jumps a barb wire fence and high tails it down the paved road as cars try to avoid a collision.
I go looking to see where Paige had gone and I find her talking with a woman who gave her shelter in her cabin. We introduce ourselves and share pictures of the wildlife we've seen. The woman named Galya lets us cut through her property to save us some time on our walk home. We walked a little quicker as we tried to avoid any more close encounters!

Tired from a day of plane rides and driving up and down mountain passes we call it a night as we listen to the elk bugle in the distance and the stream flowing behind our campsite.

3:30am - We awake to the sound of a screeching alarm. Joking about bear alarms, I jump out of bed... Turns out the CO detector was going off so I Kyle gets up to investigate. We air the camper out and check the furnace. Everything seems fine, maybe a false alarm. We go back to bed......

4:00am - The alarm goes off again. Now Paige is quite nervous and we do the same maneuver as before along with calling the 1-800 number for assistance. They say the alarm is sensitive and that's about it..... Good to know. Haha. After turning the furnace off (it was 40* outside) and some negotiating with Paige to trust me and that it will be ok we ended up going to sleep again but this time with a few more blankets on.

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