We woke quite late and when we did our Hillbilly neighbours had already packed up and left. Their site was an interesting assortment of half burnt beer cans and perfectly cut rectangles of BC forestry fence. The fence was already destroyed and there was no point in wasting good firewood. If we left it the next person would have used it so we gathered it up and threw it under the bed frame in the van. Well you would wouldn’t you? Once we had breakfast and the van sorted for the day we headed off North again on the same pin straight road that brought us here yesterday.
We didn’t drive a huge amount of distance this day as we did our usual thing of looking out for signs of interesting sounding places and taking the recommendations of people you meet along the way. We tried to get to a few places such as the Pink Mountains and a waterfall that Dani had heard about, but unfortunately we weren’t able to get to them. We have driven on a few forest roads now that are radio assisted where big trucks have to call what kilometer up the trail they are. Odd numbers call out on the way up and even on the way down. They have a radio transmitter/receiver to do this and it’s so they know when to expect each other to avoid accidents. These logging and forestry trucks are huge industrial beasts and eat up the off-road terrain like Ayrton Senna in the wet. They fly around some sections at about 80 Km/h and we’ve had a few scares at times. The places we tried to get to this time though were radio controlled not assisted which basically means you HAVE to use a radio and transmit your distance up the trail no matter if your a truck or a small van like us. This is because these trails are very narrow much rougher and more challenging. It was a Sunday and we weighed up if there would be any trucks about that day. I was pretty sure we had unknowingly used these kind of forest roads before and just not read the signs properly (there are a million signs to watch out for in Canada and it’s easy to miss a lot). We hummed and harred for a while deciding if we should have a go or not but the waterfall was about 60 Km there and back and we decided against the possibility of going round a bend at 40 Km/h to get smashed head on by a 120 ton truck with a full load doing 80 Km/h the opposite way.
As evening drew in we rolled into the small town of Fort Nelson which sits at mile 300 of the Alaska Highway. The girl at the tourist centre there was really canny and pointed us a few kilometers back down the highway to a wild camping spot on the river bank. It was a great spot for the night. The river was really low and the gravel bank we drove along was massively wide. We were a little concerned that the river might rise during the night as the gravel bank we parked up on was immensely flat and wide and it would only take a small rise in the river level for the entire place to be flooded. Thankfully some locals parked up for the night further down from us so we took that as a positive sign that we would be fine.
The next morning we headed back into town and took a look at the Alaskan Highway Heritage museum located opposite the tourist centre. The museum has been lovingly built and maintained by a guy named Marl Brown. Marl started with his own small collection of vehicles and items many years ago and over time this collection has evolved into what is now the museum. He is the voluntary curator at the museum and he has done a really great job of growing it into the impressive collection it is now.
After an hour or so at the museum we did the obligatory petrol top up before resuming our drive up the Alaska highway. We always top up the petrol whenever we can as you can sometimes go a few hundred kilometers between gas stations. Many a sign will advise you how far to the next gas station round these parts and we always make sure we have enough in the tank to cover the distances in between.
The next stretch of the Alaska Highway was really cool. We had read about this strange unofficial competition that is ongoing on this section of the road as to who can make the best cinnamon buns! The girl at the tourist centre in Fort Nelson had mentioned it as well and recommended a place called Tetsa river lodge as being the current best cinnamon buns in Canada. It would be rude not to find this place and it wasn’t hard to find. It sits right on the Alaska Highway and there are hand-made signs advertising the said tasty buns all over the place as you drive along. We love all these random little things you come across at the small places. Everywhere seems to find or create something in order to make their town or village more appealing to tourists. Chetwynd became the self proclaimed world capital for chainsaw carving and this small stretch of the Alaska highway has become a hot bed of cinnamon bun activity. The buns at Tetsa river lodge are sublime and divine. Huge glazed sticky sweet swirls of joy. They are impossibly huge and one between us washed down with a coffee was more than enough for our breakfast. The lodge itself was pretty cool as well. A nice rustic log cabin feel to it with little decorations and quirky items all over They run a small campsite opposite the lodge and have a Santa mail box and fairy lights on year round. I can imagine it’s fairly magical in the middle of winter when the snow here is several metres deep.
With our belly’s full of pastry and our sugar levels high we left the lodge. The lodge sits right at the start of the Northern Rockies and we were instantly plunged back into the land of mountains and impressive scenery. The past couple of days of straight roads and flat plains abruptly gave way to narrow winding mountain roads and rocky vistas. Compared to the Southern Rockies and the Icefield’s Parkway the Northern Rockies are much quieter and sparsely populated. A lot less tourists make it up this way and it was nice to meander along at our own leisurely pace.
The Northern Rockies have a completely different look and feel to their Southern counterparts. The terrain up here is more barren, more rugged and well, more rocky. This difference in geography supports a difference in wildlife. Black bears were less evident and quite a few new animals that we hadn’t been lucky enough to see yet started to appear. Mountain goats gracefully skipped down sheer rock faces and relaxed in the sun on the tarmac road. We were excited when we rounded one bend to slowly pass a porcupine going about it’s business at the side of the road. Unfortunately we couldn’t totally stop as there was nowhere to pull over but it was amazing to see the spiny beauty in it’s natural habitat. As we arrived at Muncho lake we were also lucky enough to see a Caribou as well, just a solitary one but it’s great to see the diversity of wildlife that thrives here.
We really enjoyed this first days drive in the Northern Rockies. New places, new scenery and new wildlife is always great to experience. Muncho lake is vast and beautiful in itself and with nowhere nearby to wild camp we decided to pay our $15 and stay at one of the parks sites right on the lake shore. We are hoping to see the Northern lights while we are this far North and we stayed up most of the night with our camp fire going hoping for a glimpse. But unfortunately it’s not the best time of year to have a chance of seeing them. Summer solstice was only a week ago and at this latitude it stays light all night. The sun barely dips over the horizon and you are treated to a non-stop sunset for several hours until it creeps it’s way back up again and before you know it sunset has blurred into sunrise without the dark of night appearing.
It’s been a really enjoyable couple of days. A good adventure, and we are looking forward to what the next few days bring as we head off into even more remote parts of Canada.
