Fort Nelson to Liard Hot Springs

Lots of bears!

Bernie enjoying the view!Mike

caught eating when he said he was cleaning up the spilled corn meal!

Fuzzy rumped elk.More moose!Stone sheepTypical townLook, I am a whiz at driving!

We drove through scenery so beautiful today it made me want to cry. Our earth is incredibly beautiful when we don’t work to destroy it as we have done in so much of the world. We went over a couple of passes and through glaciated valleys that were a true testament to the power of a glacier. Many of the mountains were carved rock monsters whose bottoms were covered with small pines. We saw six black bears, one elk, two moose and two small herds of stone sheep. (Just how many animals does it take to make a herd? I don’t know!) Surprise, the stone sheep were in the rockiest places. I had never heard of a stone sheep before, but have learned that they are about the size of a mountain goat, have smaller horns than mountain sheep and are a darker color than a mountain goat. We also passed several signs warning of bison on the road, but we were not fortunate enough to see any bison. Two of the bears were cubs that were resting in the grass at the side of the road. One’s mother was nearby, but the other one’s mother was not visible. We talked with a young man who is biking from Nelson BC to Whitehorse, Yukon Territories. He said that when he saw the cub without mother, he high-tailed it out of there because he didn’t know where the mother was and whether he had gotten between mother and cub. Needless to say, he is in very good shape! He is trying to leave no carbon footprint as he is passed by RV after RV.

We are camped at Liard Hot Springs and are staying for three nights. The area of the hot springs is about 2 degrees warmer because of the numerous hot springs in the area. To get to the two pools, you walk about a half mile down a boardwalk through marshlands that even contain a type of orchid. The first pool is about three to four feet deep and at the top of the pool it is about 120 degrees. Thankfully, it gets down to about 102 degrees at the other end of the pool. The other pool is another quarter mile down the board walk, and is around 104 to 107 degrees. Most of the pool is too deep to stand in and you have to tread water in the hot water. Sometimes they shut the farther pool because of too much bear activity. We tried them both out and talked with several interesting people. In the lower pool, a group of about twenty Hutterites including lots of children were enjoying themselves. I talked with one woman who said that her family was on its way to Oregon.  She told me that in her community the children only speak Russian until they go to Kindergarten and then they learn English.  One of her daughters was able to work as a translater for some international games in Alaska.   There was also a rancher who comes here two times a year for a week at a time to replenish his body. And of course there were several of us old farts, traveling in RVs stopping by on our way to Alaska. After we soaked for an hour or so we were both exhausted. We cooked an easy dinner, I beat Mike at one game of cribbage, mostly because he was struggling to stay awake, and then we went to bed a 9 pm. All-in-all it was the type of day that one dreams of experiencing once in a lifetime. Who knows what tomorrow will bring!

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