20030821                      Open new window with today’s pictures.

August 21, 2003
Thursday


Start:   Downtown RV Park, Watson Lake YT
End:     Westend RV Park, Fort Nelson BC
Miles:   225
Hi Temp: 72.5
Lo Temp: 42.6


We are currently in Fort Nelson, and a thunderstorm is banging away outside. It's actually going to the south of us, but it's close. I haven't plugged the laptop into the shore power, I'm still on the battery as I type this.

They've had some odd weather here, according to the young man who filled the truck with diesel fuel this afternoon.  He said it snowed 6" a week ago somewhat south of here (Pink Mountain) the day after it was 34 degrees C (that's about 98F).

Back to the normal form. We arose and ate, unplugged the utilities, and hit the road about 9:00am.  Not far east of Watson Lake, we came over a rise and saw a car parked on the side of the road. Up here, that sometimes means the person is watching some sort of animal.  Sure enough, as we got close, we saw a mommie bear with her two young cubs (this year's).  I turned off the engine and coasted to a stop.  Dolores shot a couple of pictures before we noticed that this bear might be a grizzly (brown) bear. She had sort of a hump over her shoulders. They were all a dark brown, but the mommie had blondish fur on her shoulders and upper back.  These bears can be any color from deep dark brown to light blonde.  We finally took about 15 pictures as she and the cubs ate little willow leaves on the edge of the forest.  Finally, we coasted away, then turned on the engine and drove off.  They were still eating.

Later down the road, we had to wait at a construction zone for a pilot car to lead us through the five miles.  Just after the five miles, as everyone was accelerating to highway speed (we were first in the waiting line), we came around a corner and found about nine wild buffalo. We didn't stop to take pictures, thinking we'd get run over by the mob behind us.

We found a single buffalo ten miles later and slowed to get his picture. He was a big male, just walking down the margin of the road between the shoulder and the edge of the woods.

Sometime after the buffalo, a person was stopped on the shoulder so we slowed down.  Then we saw the bear and stopped.  This one was a large black bear.  He got a little nervous and walked slowly away, but we got a couple of pictures of him.

The day started gray and cloudy, then we had some broken clouds with sun, and it stayed that way.  Now and then, we'd run through a shower.

We'd just had a shower and we were climbing to the Stone Mountain summit of the road, somewhat west of Fort Nelson, when we came around a corner and saw a mommie Stone Sheep (native to the Stone Mountain area) and her baby.  I stopped at a pullout and Dolores walked back to talk a few pictures of them.  She got frustrated because they wouldn't move - all they did was look at her.  While she was doing this, I noticed that the fan on the auxiliary transmission fluid cooler wasn't running when it should have been.   Hmmm.....

Incidentally, Dolores is feeling better today, but she's still not taking any prisoners.

We arrived in Fort Nelson and set up at the campground, per the sign in the window.  Later, the proprietor came back from her errand and we checked in. I checked out the fan problem; found a blown fuse and replaced it. Runs fine.

We took dinner at Dan's Neighborhood Pub, a nice place with good food. Two good fish-and-chips-with-salad, a pint of good ale and a glass of chardonnay cost $CDN35 with tip ($US25). We've stopped here before and highly recommend it.

Back then to the campground, got the email, walked back to the trailer, the thunderstorm started, I typed this, the thunderstorm ended, so that's it for today.