Sharing the Road with Brother Bear

June 11, Friday and our ninth day on the road.

We are headed out of Jasper on Hwy 16 and turning North on Hwy 37 and into the wilderness where you don't see many people nor pass many vehicles. The road is getting narrower and vegetation comes right up to the road. You have to keep your eyes focused and watch for critters stepping into the road.

Yes he has me in the lead again, screening for critters.

It was not long before we saw our first critter as a large Black Bear crossed the road in front of me about 200 feet ahead. He stopped and looked back at us as we passed. Ray churped at me on the CB, “that was a big sucker”. “Amen” Mr. Ray is was.

That was the first of seven Black Bears we saw today. I captured one pair on camera and Ray will publish the photo for you. We also saw moose, fox, wolf and coyote today. I think we saw more critters than people today. There was a considerable distance between gasoline venue and we had to cut our speed to conserve fuel between stops.

It was very windy and cool today and we encountered lots of rough road and many washed out areas and many areas under repairs from an obviously tough winter.

Let's not forget about the mosquitoes !!!! Holy Cow, there is no Louisiana swamp that has anything on British Columbia. Whenever we stopped they swarmed us. It is hard to do anything with these vicious, hungry buggers covering you.

We also answered another age old question today.

Does a bear poop in the woods? Actually from what we saw, they prefer to poop on the road and so do the deer, moose, elk and numerous other creatures. Yes we have photos.

The small communities don't have much to offer so you take what you can get in the way of lodging and dining. We made it to Dease Lake, BC, a community of maybe 100 people, two motels, one gas stop/general store/laundrymat/liquor store/post office/deli/town hangout. We had a nice dinner at Mama Z's and walked over to the general store/etc. for some bottled water for tomorrow. Just as we approached the counter to pay, the power went out for the store and the whole town. As I sit here blogging, we are still without power, three hours now. I may be one long night, as the Big Bear is already snoring. Geez Rubette, you could have warned me !!!! (Editor's note:Grumpy Bear snores also)


Tomorrow, North and West as we head up the Alaska Hwy for new sights and adventures.
We ran out of words to describe what we are seeing but will try to communicate what we can.

After BB reads the snoring thing, this may be my last contribution.



GB and BB, North to Alaska