0049 26th June - Summit Lake to Dawson Creek

Beautiful sunny day – Hot ! Made it worthwhile that we had pushed so hard last night to make it to Summit Lake. It meant so much to me to wake up there, after promising myself 2 years ago that I would camp here next time – And the fact that it was such a beautiful day justified it.  I think the photo says it all.  It was cool out of the sun, as there was a bit of wind, and after all, we were at about 1400 metres, so a little cool was not surprising.

We set off down the road, and about half an hour later I noticed that the two French Land Rovers that I had seen yesterday parked in Liard Hot Springs were behind me.   We were stopped at some road works shortly afterwards, so I jumped out to say Bonjour and see where they were headed.  But we were interrupted by the traffic moving off, so later, in a layby overlooking a magnificent view over the Prophet River Valley, we pulled over, and they pulled in behind us.  We started chatting, as you do, and then just a few yards further down the layby we noticed a tiny red Fiat

Cinquacento !!  With Argentinian number plates !!!   So we ran down to them and introduced ourselves, and before long were having a truly international gab fest with Juan Manuel and Santiago, the French, and then an English couple from Liverpool who were on a bike they had brought over for their trip !!  I think we were there for about 2 hours, talking, swapping stories, swapping stickers and addresses, and generally having a very pleasant morning with the most stunning view behind us.  Juan Manuel and Santiago have both offered us friendship and accommodation when we get to Rosario !!  Lovely guys, and look forward to meeting up with them again.  We eventually set off as we have a deadline to get Janet to Calgary to catch her flight, and while the French followed us for a while, they eventually overtook us and headed off – We only travel at about 100 kmh as a) the car seems happiest at that speed, and b) because it gives us good gas mileage at that speed !!

 

I little further down the road we spotted a black bear back on the edge of the bush, set back from the road.  When we slowed down, we noticed she had two tiny little cubs, and was actually trying to get them out and across the road. We have noticed previously how maternal the mums are, and this was no different – She was in and out of the bush a couple of times as cars went past, so we decided to move on and leave her in peace, as she was obviously getting a bit agitated.

We past a couple more bears as we drove on, but they were all disappearing into the bush.  Photography of wild animals on the road is not easy – if you think about the chances of actually even seeing animals in a country as large as this, as they cross a single narrow ribbon of road,  then the chances of having them either close, or even looking at you is even more remote !  And today was one of those days – Lots of bum shots of animals as thy disappeared into the bush !!!

After Fort Nelson, the animals seemed to disappear from the road side, although we saw odd flashes of things – Like a black ferret looking animal that we think might have been an ermine.  Also some kind of stork like birds up in the bush – But you see often them and are past them before you have time to really register, and then spend the next 20 minutes discussing what it might have been !  Even if you do see them in time to stop, you have to make sure no one is behind you, and who is coming towards you, and so on, so that you don’t cause a pile up by suddenly slamming on the anchors when a truck or two is behind you !!

So a bit of a boring cruise into Dawson Creek, through what is quite an industrial and oilfield area, and we pulled into a good little campsite by the road – Same place I had stayed in two years ago.  We set up camp, chatted to a few neighbours, Janet cooked a nice pork chop, and after a welcome laundry and shower (after 3 days on the road !!), we turned in – Just as the sun went down and it got dark for the first time in 2 months !!   Weird !!!!  We even had to put the lights on in the van !!

Rest of pics here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0049SummitLakeToDawsonCreek?authkey=Gv1sRgCL326aPo4ZaMmQE#