The Moon over Charlie Lake

It is a new month. Wow! the summer has gone fast. Last night it was dark around 10. A continued drive south means that tonight it was dark at 8:30. I can’t believe the difference.

Granny says good bye to Story

Tonight I am in a campground just north of Fort St. John BC on the shores of Charlie Lake. I have not had internet or phone for a long time and things have changed since we last talked.  My Uncle’s surgury was bumped with no rebook time in sight so it seemed silly for me to be underfoot while we waited for the big day so I cancelled my flight and started driving on Monday (Aug. 31). I left Whitehorse on a beautiful, crisp fall day and headed south to BC and the famous Liard Hot Springs. I thought this would be about an 8 hour journey and it was. 647 k later, I reached that destination. On the outskirts of Whitehorse I picked up Austin, a young man heading for Calgary. He will be with me til tomorrow when we part at a crossroads in Dawson Creek. He has been good company.

Mist over the hot springs

From Whitehorse to here we have passed through two towns. Watson Lake in the Yukon and Fort Nelson in BC. Other than that we have seen only lodges and campgrounds. Once we were in BC there are hardly any rest areas on the road and so we have had to stop at the lodges. Today we saw a very nice one at Toad River. If we hadn’t just left Liard I think I would have stopped for the night.

Toad River

I loved the hot mineral water bath at the hot springs. The pools have been left in a fairly natural state with a board walk over the hot mineral spring bog that has developed around the area and change rooms at the site. 20 minutes in the pool left me feeling like I had consumed 3 glasses of wine. I think it would be a good business opportunity for a massage therapist to set up shop right on the board walk and get clients coming out of the pools with their muscles already softened to putty.

Board walk to the springs at dusk

Last night was the coldest night I have had yet. I was cozy in Vincent but I sure wish I had tucked my clothes under the covers with me because they sure were hard to put on in the morning. Even after I ate my hot oatmeal I was still freezing. We rushed to get ready to go so we could turn on the car heater but in the end, Austin and I looked at each other, then the clock and decided to hit the hot spring just one more time. We shivered our way up the long board walk. I hated pulling on my still wet and icy cold bathing suit but floating in the misty hot water was worth every second of discomfort. I started the drive warm to the core and VERY relaxed.

Today we saw bison, elk (or caribou – I have no internet to google and see which) and sheep on the road, not to mention bunnies, red squirrels, and yes, a sasquatch. We must have passed through 2 mountain ranges, it is really hard to tell from the road and through valleys of endless trees and some farm land. The scenery seems to change drastically every hundred KM or so. In the past two days we have gone over 1300 KM. Whew. In that time we have seen very little evidence of people and have met almost no cars except around Fort Nelson. From here Canada seems very empty. Austin is an American who thought he would try his luck working on fishing boats in Alaska. He is on his way home to Idaho. He has been very impressed by the vast acres upon acres of trees. I am learning alot about Idaho too.

This is not the trip that I imagined. I thought I would meet more people. See more communities and in some ways I am rebelling against the trip it has become. I am learning that as much as I like to think that I am very flexible, I don’t like change. I like to make a plan and goldarnit I want things to swim along in that way. I sat last night and contemplated my quest across Canada. It seems to be over. I am out of money, I am heading home (Via Vancouver) and I am no longer meeting anyone…. And then there is the other voice saying “are you kidding!!! You are driving through some of the most spectacular country in the Universe (perhaps a little bias there), you are seeing things that you have never seen before and that stops your heart at least hourly and you are still putting gas in the tank…which implies some travel. Quitcher whining.”

Sasquatch near pink mountain...someone

Torn between two voices I  have to laugh. Probably reality is somewhere in the middle. I am constantly surprised by how much I am enjoying the drive. Because I am going back to Vancouver I will be traveling some of the same roads that I have traveled before, be back in places I couch surfed. As much as possible I am going to try to take new roads but in BC the mountains seem to restrict where they go and so the selection is somewhat limited. I am hoping to be in Vancouver before the long weekend when camping will be out of the question with the weather so great.

I hope to find some loose internet tomorrow to send this. If not, I will take tomorrows thoughts on and send it Thursday. Talk soon.