Dust, Fire, & Baby Bears

The dusty road as we left camp.

Bob fishing the Morley River.

Forest Fire Damage.

Mama and Three Little Bears.

Tuesday, June 7

Bob fished and walked Ben while I sat in the little cafe at Johnson's Crossing to update the blog. I watched the travelers come and go and the owner interact with them. (I came to just love this lady!) It was so interesting. In between, when it was quiet, she told me of different kinds of people she had met ranging from kind of scary to just fascinating. I enjoyed her stories and could have stayed all day. I ended up buying a book from her on the history of Johnson's Crossing written by the previous owner. The writer is still alive and comes back to visit to make sure the cinnamon rolls are still up to snuff.

Bob got back and hadn't had any luck fishing, but we had cinnamon rolls and coffee for breakfast. Hands down, these rolls are the best of the trip.

We had to wait to get on the road as there was construction and they were letting people cross the bridge in groups. As we watched those coming across from the other direction, we wondered where several of them had been to be so caked in dirt. When our turn finally came to go, we found out, as we could not see at times through the cloud of dust driving through the construction that seemed to go on for miles. Bob dropped way back and tried to avoid the biggest clouds. We were so glad we hadn't spent the time and money in Whitehorse washing the truck and trailer.

The air finally cleared and it was a beautiful, sunny day. We stopped at a picnic area on the Morley River and I fixed lunch while Bob tried some fishing. There were moose droppings there, but we didn't see any moose.

Down the road, we saw split rail fence with a sign posted that said, "No shooting. Horses at large." That surprised us this far north, but we saw a few more horse ranches as we went. We saw their droppings along the highway and realized they could range freely. We saw some of them and they were beautifully healthy.

We saw a mama moose and her baby cross the road. She jumped the guard rail and so did her little one as she trotted off into the woods. The coordination of such young ones is incredible.

We stopped to take a picture of a mountain that was reflected in Swan Lake and we talked to some people there who were from Switzerland. They were also taking pictures and they pointed to the meadow next to the lake and there were two bull moose grazing. The moose swam across the lake to the meadow. Awesome!

We pulled out a few more places to fish and finally turned off at the Junction of Highway 37 south which is called the Cassiar Highway. The road was like a roller coaster with big steep hills rolling up and down with tight dips in between and no shoulder, just deep ditches on the side. We saw a black bear running, but couldn't stop as the road required Bob's full attention, and I reinforced that often.

The road had been closed for a few days before we got there because of a forest fire. They had just reopened and had the fire stopped except for a few puffs. Crews were everywhere cleaning up. The destruction was so sad in such beautiful country and the smell was kind of a chemical, acid smell. It wasn't like a nice campfire.

We finally drove out of it and saw a few more black bears and one moose.

What a gorgeous drive. We climbed and went right through the mountains on narrow winding roads with rivers and lakes on both sides.

Just before we stopped for the night, we saw a car pulled over and we slowed to look. There right at the side of the road, was a mama bear and her three fuzzy babies. They were so darling. We watched them for a long time and took a million pictures.

We finally left the bears and went down to the Waters Edge Campground which was a mile back down a gravel road to a lake in the pines. It had no electricity or water, but thanks to a generator at the office, did have a weak internet connection. The site was beautiful and so quiet. We heated dinner over a fire and sat out at the picnic table till late. It was a lovely, peaceful night.