After Leaving Watson Lake . . .

I left Watson Lake fairly early, after a good hot shower.  At this time of the year, wildlife is abundant along the highway.

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I also encountered a caribou near Stone Mountain, which wanted to race me.  It ran along the side of the road like I have never seen a caribou run.  It was a close thing, but I finally won the race . . .  

I was suffering a caffeine deficiency, so I stopped by the Liard River to have a cuppa.  With my little espresso maker, I concocted a Shot-in-the-Dark.  Using Starbuck's coffee of course.

The Toad River is a nice place.  Beautiful Mountains, nice river, convenient services.

Like, drive up fuel for your airplane.

After dinner in Ft. Nelson, I saw a sign informing me that the highway was closed near Ft. St. John due to a wildfire.  I didn't believe the sign, so I kept on driving.  After all, since I could not see smoke, there could be no fire.  Wrong.  There is the fire up ahead.

When I arrived at the roadblock, the nice man informed me that indeed the road was closed, but "We have an alternate route for you if you would like."  With some vague instructions about the route, I took off.  It was, as the song says, "A long and winding road . . .".  Two hours and a metric ton of dust later, I arrived back on the highway.  The route actually took me between two wildfires.  This is the other one.

And I found another gravel parking lot in which to camp!

This gravel lot had one of the nicest bathroom facilities I have seen in North America.  However, they were guarded by a cipher lock.  I called the number on the office door, and they gave me the code, but the lock was a stubborn mechanism.  After a jabillion attempts, it finally yielded, and allowed me to pass.  Which was fortunate for all involved as a gastric event was imminent.  However, it refused to open for me the next morning.  Happy I was not.