Day 5 (Friday, June 10, 2016)

What a way to wake up to the day!  The evening was so cold!  Lucky for layering it up, and a small tent to keep heat in.  We have to get used to the idea of sunsets being a LOT later and sunrises really, really earlier.  I think the sunset was at 10:17 and the sun rose at 4:40 something.  If you are tired though, you sleep well.

Many of our “neighbors” disappeared during the night (even though I slept soundly I did remember hearing engines starting), the elk scared them away I guess.  We got up and started taking down our tent.  The bathhouses of this campsite were way on the other side of the campground so we thought we’d just clean up on our way out.  I popped up and headed to the bathroom and to my left:  a female elk, perhaps from our porch to the garden away.  She looked at me, and I looked back.  Neither of us moved.  But mother nature was calling so I darted.  Just like the prior evening, except knowing that she was closer this time, I really had to look left and right and proceed with caution.  I certainly didn’t want an angry female elk after me!  She had moved away from the area a bit so I ran again and we got our tent down and things packed up pretty darn quickly!  She looked more interested in breakfast than us at that moment.  The showers were hot and the view of mountains, amazing.

 

On our drive, mountains gave way to trees.  Spruces and pines of many varieties although I think most were the ones that are very tall and skinny.  They remind me of telephone and electric poles!  Also, trees that I thought were perhaps birches, but upon reading more in our Milepost (more on that later) they were most likely aspens.  Miles upon miles of trees.  The signs now said that lumber could “swing” into the other lane of traffic from the trucks hauling them??!!  There were also many gas/energy companies, or at least driveways that just disappeared into the trees, with signs that had names gas/energy related.  Lots of signs that showed trucks entering the highway.  They still look like bison crossing signs to me.

We saw more wildlife:  an elk just munching away at the edge of the woods, a bear doing the same.  We almost didn’t see that bear, but a car coming the other direction did a quick “U” and stopped on the shoulder so we knew something was up.  Our last trip ten years ago didn’t yield many bear sightings, maybe one or two.  This was first of several today.  There is so little traffic on this highway that you can actually stop and gawk at wild life.

We needed to get our oil changed; that’s what happens when you drive a bunch of miles.  We didn’t even get out of our truck and, in what seemed like very a short time, we were on our way.  We also stopped by a camping store and got some rubber mats to put in our tent to offer some insulation from the cold ground next time it drops that low.  Apparently air mattresses don’t offer that buffer of insulation!

On our way between Dawson Creek and our night spot, we did a quick “historic” tour of Fort St. John.  Ten years ago we camped several days in the GMC parking lot and biked everywhere while waiting on a radiator that was being modified for Sunshine. We drove by that radiator shop (under new ownership!), the GMC dealership, and the Chinese restaurant and library where we had access to the Internet.  Isn’t it amazing how far we’ve come!  Now we can access the Internet with our phones and don’t have to actually go anywhere (when there is a cell tower available, of course). The steep hill where our hose dinged our radiator doesn’t seem quite as steep and I remembered it being “further out” of town, but ten years is a long time so it could be it was! 

We set up camp this evening at Fort Nelson.  It was the biggest campground thus far and it was okay.   It was very crowded but perhaps campsites aren’t opened yet.  Tons of RVs, all different shapes and sizes and brands.  The tent sites were really far away from the bathhouses and bathrooms!  You’d think that tents could be closer as most if not all RVs have their own facilities!  You actually had to pay for showers, which isn’t the norm.  The mosquitoes were very prevalent and huge and everywhere.  We doused ourselves in insect repellant, even Andrew did even though he generally isn’t bothered by them much.  They didn’t land on me after spraying but they landed on everything else around me, the table, my PC (trying to finish up a class’s homework, my water bottle, literally everything!  We did eat out for the first time at the campground restaurant.  The burgers were really good!!  We really wanted to keep this vacation simple so we’ve been eating from our cooler, eggs, peanut butter, veggies and fruits, protein bars, random beef jerky, etc. 

Andrew left me at my homework and wandered up town.  He happened upon a Native American celebration of some kind, dancers and drummers in a circle!   He came to fetch me but by the time we got back to them, they were just finishing up.  He thought it was so interesting and I think it would have been very enjoyable.