Fort Nelson, B.C.

 

Sat., June 10, 2023  10 Mile Lake Provincial Park, B.C. 940 kilometers  =  10.5 hours travel time

Left Nelson at 0615 and travelled to 10 Mile Lake Park (just north of Quesnel). It turned out to be a drizzly, cool day – nice for travelling in a vehicle rather than on the bike. We have stopped at this provincial campsite situated beside a popular lake. Our campsite included a painted rock collection and lots of mosquitoes until it rained them away.

Painted rocks

Frogs everywhere trying to cross the campground road has resulted some casualties but the crow cleanup crew did their duty.

When we went for our evening walk between showers we talked to a Dad and his two little boys who were just coming in from fishing. The kids were about two and four years old and reminded Norma of her boys at that age. When we asked the dad how he did he said lots of bites but only landed one. A bit of an act managing the pole, the net and keeping two littles ones out of the drink. The older one had to tell me how wet they got! It had been raining most of the afternoon but dad said every time they thought of coming in it stopped.

Fishin' buddies

Our last trip through Quesnel saw us barely miss a bad intersection accident (we rode the bike through “still spinning” debris) while the one before involved a traffic jam behind a semi that hit a bridge. Needless to say we approached with trepidation and sure enough – red flashing lights appeared ahead. This time it was just a fire dept. pickup with no one around – whew! Tomorrow to Fort Nelson.

 Sun., June 11, 2023 Fort Nelson, B.C. 906 kilometers = 10 hours travel time

Hit a wall of smoke today between Prince George and Chetwynd which lasted until a ways out of Fort St. John. Traffic was generally light all the way. Kilometer after kilometer of black spruce forest interspersed with some tracts of aspen. Many, many gravel side roads leading off the pavement are evidence of oil/gas exploration, etc. Lots of old fire scars. We stopped a Bijou Falls for a break and were impressed with the full bore spring flow.

Bijou Falls

Since we are now on the Alaska Highway, there are Alaska bound or returning motorcyclists on the road and at our motel tonight. It is almost a rite of passage for touring motorcyclists. We did our Alaska motorcycle trip in 2008 so we are of the anointed.

One more long day tomorrow will find us in Whitehorse. After that we will slow down to “smell the roses” in what is for us new travel territory. Our blog entries will hopefully reflect this.