Aug 29 update from Fort Nelson, BC

August 29, 2010


Okay, so it’s my turn, Alison, to write a blog note and I’m not sure where to start. It seems that Dean will keep you all up to date with what we are doing, so perhaps I will try to concentrate on what we are experiencing. I am glad to be starting this today because it has been our first day of driving in sunshine, and the experience has been so different and so much more uplifting than it has been in the rain and dark greyness. This morning as we started out from our heavily tarpaulined camp site in Liard Hot Springs it was foggy and dank, but we decided to pay one last visit to the hotsprings itself and immerse ourselves in the hot, sulphury waters. By the time we left an hour later, it was completely sunny and remained so for the rest of the day. Suddenly our trip was transformed… from merely achieving distance to reveling in the landscape under a crisp blue sky with puffy white clouds punctuating the vistas and reflecting in the lakes. It was lovely, and a classic image of the Yukon Territory. We drove through miles of mixed aspen and spruce forest, with lofty mountains and deep gorges, some with an incredible color of turquoise water in rivers and lakes. We saw lots of wildlife today, too, a great treat and privilege; some bison including calves, some stone sheep, a mature solo caribou and two separate caribou youngsters with velvety brown antlers. We have once again been thrilled by the sound and sight of the squawking of the sandhill cranes, many fewer in number than we saw last year in September, but wonderful and inspiring nonetheless. On other driving days we have also seen bears, moose, hawks, and were lucky to see a lynx running across the road (a first for each of us). The vastness of the terrain remains astonishing. So far we have not encountered any forest fires or fire smoke, but this may change as we proceed southward in BC. The central western part of the province has been heavily struck with fires this summer and the weather remains dry there. Their smoke apparently has reached as far east as Ontario. I am looking forward to several days of moteling, after a few very wet days of camping. It will be a relief to put the tent up at some point and let it dry out, along with the tarps. Dean is ingenious at protecting the tent from incursion by rain, but the result is a dark, shrouded campsite environment. The weather forecast for the rest of this week involves sun each day… so I am cheered. We are eating like kings while camping, as usual. All is good thus far.