July 1, 2014 - Critters Galore!

We left Watson Lake in the sunshine!  Yippee! And, not twenty miles out we had already seen FIVE bears.  Two single bears and then a family of three, a mama bear with the cutest twin cubs.  Little tiny guys about the size of a puppy.  Oh they were sweet.  As we passed mom looked at us then put her head back down to eat and the two babies ran into the woods.  Hahaha, so fun to watch them bounce around trying to get to shelter!  Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the bears as we were riding along and it wasn't really safe to pull over.

As you can see, beautiful road, no traffic, sunshine and great scenery!  Who could ask for anything more?  I was loving this.

This started our day of critters galore!  For the days we didn't see any wildlife, today would make up for it and then some.  I counted at least 18 bears, two of which were grizzlies.  Wowza!

The road was in pretty good shape for the most part. We did have some construction zones but because of Canada Day, there were no workers.  We were happily motoring along, enjoying the sunshine and watching for more critters.  We saw signs warning of bison and sure enough, we saw a single bison, a BIG bison on the side of the road.  Hmmmm.....thought they traveled in herds.  Oh well, a bit later we spied another single bison.  Then even further up the road we saw a herd of five.  At this point my critter count of 7 bison and 8 bears.

And then, we came around a bed and bingo, a huge herd of bison including some babies.  They were moving slowly along the side of the highway.  What a magnificent sight to see!

Shortly after the bison herd, we stopped for lunch at a Coal River Lodge, a tiny place that had two ancient gas pumps, a tiny cafe with four tables and and RV park.  Lunch was okay and expensive, hahaha.  That's what you get out in the middle of nowhere.  Regardless, we filled our tummies and headed back out on the highway toward Fort Nelson.

Riding along we passed an area with ponds on either side and I spied a Moose!   (Sorry, no pic) We were blessed on this part of our ride to have rivers, lakes, ponds and all kinds of water features, including waterfalls. It was spectacular!

Moving along the highway and coming around a bed, we spied something on the side of the road and guess what?  It was a solitary mountain goat licking the salt off the roadside.  Totally oblivious to traffic, we slowed and the goat only looked at us, put it's head back down and ignored everyone.

We ended up seeing two goats in separate locations.  Wonder where the rest of their friends were?

Eventually, we stopped for a break at the summit of a mountain.  It was beautiful and seemed like a perfect place to leave a DPK sticker and a Big Tex Rally sticker.

Since I usually try to smile in pictures, I thought this one should be different.  So take that!!!  LOL, tongue out giving the ADV salute.  Seems appropriate for our dear Ken Morton and Wayne Boyter!

Eric indulged me and also gave an ADV salute in honor of Ken!

Checking the map, are we lost?  Don't know how we could possibly be lost since there is only one road.  LOL.  Just checking :-)

During our ride, and actually our entire trip, we kept seeing this sign!  For both road construction and metal grated bridges.  Gives one confidence doesn't it?  Hahaha, frankly, I'd rather not see the sign.  Just give me a warning that the road is gravel or a grated bridge is coming up.  Don't show me the wobbly motorcycle!!

Here are a few photos of Muncho Lake.  It was starting to cloud up and the pics certainly don't do it justice.  The color was absolutely magnificent. A turquoise blue, beautiful!

A seagull here?  Huh?

Our final critter count for the day, 18 bears (two of which were grizzlies), two mountain goats, a herd of bison, a single moose and a seagull :-)  Kind of makes me wonder what we didn't see.

We pulled into Fort Nelson, our destination for the day.  For some reason our hotel didn't have our reservation.  They had us reserved for two days ago.  Hmmmmm.....she blamed it on Expedia.  I've never had a problem before with Expedia.  Oh well, we got a nice room for a better price than online and I will be sure to check my credit card because they said they did not charge us for the "missed" reservation.  We'll see.

I threw on a load of laundry at the guest laundry which we really needed.  It didn't take long and laundry was washed, folded and stashed away.  It is going to feel REALLY good tomorrow to put on clean clothes.  I don't know how it happened but we were filthy.  Both our riding clothes and our day clothes.  Yup, it sure was nice to wash everything.  Well, except our exterior riding gear.  That will have to wait until we get home.  Bet it never comes clean!  It's just that filthy :-)

Dinner was an easy walk from the hotel, (Boston Pizza pasta) and then to bed. It was a long day and we were tired.  Sleep came quickly.

Tomorrow, we head to Grande Prairie, AB.

Cheers,
Cletha