Friday, June 8, 2012

A Beautiful Day, Fort Nelson To Toad River

Renita was the first to spot the three large animals. They were on a hillside and we had just passed Summit Lake and Summit Pass, high in the Canadian Rockies. Could they be stone sheep or perhaps caribou? We had seen fenced caribou and wood bison in a game farm in outside of Fort Nelson, but those don't count.
That morning I had heard Renita say is disgust, "Its 5:45!", and I knew the bright sunlight had made her think it was a later. She grabbed the covers and pulled the blankets over her head trying to go back to sleep and I chuckled a bit as I got up. See I had already been woken by the light skies at two am, yup its light then, and this was my second time I had risen.
We got an early start and left Fort Nelson heading for Summit Lake Campground or perhaps Toad River. The forecast was for more another area of low pressure and more rain and perhaps flooding so we decided as we drove to go to Toad River.
After filling up with diesel we got caught in the middle of an rv convoy, this one had several Escapees in it, who we had met this morning. One couple Rick and Karen Bennet have a blog and I actually remember reading a bit of it. Anyway I got real tired of being in the convoy and let them pass, I never did play well with others.
As we climbed toward the pass we stopped to look down on the Mushwa River valley and I found some fossils, the rocks we were driving past were from the Burgess Shale. Its a rock formation that's in all the geology textbooks and I told Renita the story of how the first fossils were found.
As we approached the pass we got ahead of the caravans, must have been the sign for hot cinnamon rolls, anyway we pulled over and glassed the slopes hoping to see a stone sheep. No luck but as we drove further Renita spotted three caribou,(did you find them in the image she took)?
As we headed down from the pass we continued to stop above the outwash plain and look for stone sheep to no avail. Near the bottom I suddenly saw movement and three ewe stone sheep materialized on the hillside! There wasn't any traffic and so I stopped so Renita could take some images. Its a definite no no in the Milepost but we got some good images and the trucks and cars didn't appear till we were back on our way.
Later a truck was drafting my rear and I had to suddenly brake as a moose ran and then stopped in our lane. Luckily the truck driver was awake and it turned out ok. I had to laugh as a book we got from Jim and Nancy complains about getting behind rvers that go slow, they could have been writing about us!
Later we arrived at Toad River Lodge and checked in. We were rewarded with four bull moose feeding in the beaver pond behind the grounds. A horned grebe displayed his breeding colors and we have finally found the day that makes all the driving worthwhile. This is the reason we are traveling so far north! Clear skies

1 comment:

  1. Great job on keeping us updated. Banff is beautiful but very rainy with a bit of snow this AM. Safe Travels!!!!!!

    Happy belated Anniversary!!!

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