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What a beautiful morning we woke up to today. Sky is clear and the temperature is mild. We finished up our blog from the day before, had a nice breakfast prepared by the Cat Herder’s wife, and began the process of getting the RV ready to go. Water filled, electric disconnected, poop dumped, trash disposed of, bugs cleaned off the windshield, bump out pulled in, etc. Frontier life is grueling. This was a great RV park to stay in, quiet, not crowded, great wifi, and immaculate. Leaving Houston, we stopped at the Visitor center to get a picture of the world’s largest flyrod. It is 60 feet long and was designed by a local avid fly fisherman and built by local volunteers.
As we headed up the Yellowhead Highway, the sky began to become overcast, but the rain held out. 8 mile west out of Houston, we began seeing snow capped mountains and crossing the Hungry Hill summit, the scenery became breathtaking. At every bend in the highway, we got a different view of the snow covered peaks we were approaching from the east. These were part of the Coast Mountain range. After passing through Smithers, the first large town
we’ve seen in a while, we passed through the Maurice River Gorge. This was absolutely incredible scenery, with a stunning waterfall. Continuing through Hazelton we came upon two magnificent bald eagles perched in a tree. At Kitwanga, we turned north on to the famous Cassier Highway, and finally ran into a light rain that stayed with us for the remainder of the day. The cloud cover lowered and obscured the mountains. Visibility was good, just couldn’t see the majestic peaks to our west.
We stopped at a rest area located near a wooden bridge crossing the Nass River. All of the rivers thus far have been swollen and fast moving, usually loaded with silt, from the heavy rains they have been receiving. The Nass river was a maelstrom, with whirlpools and rapids. Quite a sight. The bridge is a one lane wood plank bridge, over a gorge that is 400 feet wide. The bridge is 130 feet above the river.
Traveling north once again, we began sighting black bears along the roadside, seeing four in all today. One of them was crossing the road right in front of us, as we stopped along side, it became frightened and
jumped into a tree and climbed about 6 feet up before looking at us. Passed by many inviting lakes and ponds, many of which had beaver houses built. We saw none of the occupants however, and I could think of a couple witty lines to print about this, but Sandy made me stop.
We stopped at Meziadin Junction to fuel up. The Milepost stated there was fuel, food and Lodging available there. Well, there were two fuel pumps, a tiny general store, a small bar and what looked like a gigantic trailer for lodging. I would not have wanted to be driving all day with the idea of staying there and finding that. Pressing on in the rain, we decided to stop for the day at a place called Bell 2. The only thing there is a place called Bell 2 Lodge. What a nice place it is, good RV sites, beautiful cabins, great restaurant, etc. As we had arrived mid afternoon, we elected to veg a little, and everyone took a well deserved nap. After getting up, we met a nice couple that were taking there new RV home to Anchorage. We went to the restaurant, and had
a great dinner (Baby back ribs, and Sockeye salmon).
Back to the RV for a night of light rain showers. Hope it stops by morning, as the scenery in this part of the country is unbelievable. I don’t think we can make it to the Alaska Highway tomorrow, but we’ll play it by ear, and maybe stay in one of the Provincial Parks on the way. There is no internet at this RV park, therefore we won't be posting this until we get to the Yukon.
Miles - 264
Total 2759
Wildlife sightings - 4 black bear, 2 bald eagles
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Tony
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Black Bear
Are you sure you are not in Lawrence? A black bear was walking through the streets on Lawrence on Monday.