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Gearbox and the Seven Bears
Hello from Squamish, British Columbia, just north of Vancouver.
So we left Denali National Park in the rain and it was wet, wet, wet for the next 4 days or so. We drove across the Denali Highway, hoping to spot some wildlife and do a bit of camping in the wilderness. Unfortunately the moose hunters beat us to it – every pull-in, flat piece of ground, any possible camping spot was full of RV’s and tents, with their butchered prizes hanging underneath gazebos like macabre washing. The landscape was alive with camo-clad rednecks on quadbikes, equipped with high-powered rifles, scopes, binoculars and radios – our chances of quietly watching any wildlife were about as good as a bull-moose’s chance of seeing Christmas. Not surprisingly, we still haven’t seen a bull-moose.
We left Alaska on a different route that we came in on, having done a loop around the state. A lot of the roads are built on thick gravel bases which are designed to insulate the earth below so the permafrost remains and supports the road. It doesn’t always work and you get frost heaves, which turn the road into a BMX track. One road was particularly bad. We were following a 50 foot RV towing a pick-up, the RV went over a set of these bumps and the pick-up actually got air as it followed. Soon the pick-up was swerving about and there were sparks on the road, so we got the apparently oblivious RV driver to pull over. Surprisingly the tow frame connecting the two vehicles was OK, but it had actually ripped part of the pick-up’s chassis off. Not much we could to help with that one!
We soon found ourselves back in Yukon, drier weather and back at the lovely Rob & Cath’s. These guys have travelled a lot more than we have and to more exotic places too, so they’ve got some great stories to tell and some very wise words. We really enjoyed just chilling with them, wandering around their 20 acres of forest and one afternoon with their friends Les & Karen, who taught us how to play horseshoes (think quoits with horseshoes) – apparently Bry is a natural, he got 3 “ringers”! As before, it was sad to leave Rob & Cath, but hopefully our paths will cross again.
We then headed down into British Columbia on the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, another very scenic drive through mountains, past lakes and rivers – that’s what the tourist bumf says – it was hard for us to tell as we had another few days of heavy rain! The clouds did clear a bit for us to catch the solar eclipse, it was about 50% up here, not the total eclipse they had down in the States.
We took a few side trips of some pretty sketchy, gravelly, muddy roads, getting ourselves and Bowser very dirty. He was washed twice in 4 days, which is more that can be said for us. Some of the roads were extremely steep, causing our auto-gearbox to overheat – a bit of a concern and we’re currently working on a plan to remedy this, as the roads in South America will be the same, if not worse….
On the bright side, we saw seven, yes seven bears all in one day. These included a grizzly catching salmon in a creek, a very protective mother with two cubs and a huge, mean looking black bear that was just the other side of the road from us. Definitely a good day and probably the highlight so far. We also saw our first beaver, swimming between a huge dam he’d built and his lodge. The size of some of the trees they’d gnawed down was incredible – over a foot in diameter.
We then drove through central BC, where they are still fighting wildfires – the biggest in their history, but incredibly, although hundreds of buildings have been destroyed, there are still no fatalities. Some of the communities were only allowed back a couple of days ago, after being evacuated for more than a month. There is still a large military and Red Cross presence, but it was nice to see signs up in the towns saying “Welcome Home” to the residents and “Thank You” to the services.
We blew through Whistler, which was stupidly busy and all the campgrounds full. We have got so used to just being able to find places to camp, that we were a bit naïve in expecting the same in such a tourist trap just a couple of hours outside Vancouver, in August and the weather is hot, hot, hot.
So we ended up in Squamish and today is our 13th wedding anniversary! As a treat, we have booked into a proper campsite (with showers and laundry and ice cream and WiFi and noisy kids and everything) for two whole nights! And we have even got a bottle of wine in the fridge!
From here we will head to Vancouver Island and then the US of A. So goodbye for now, the ice-cream and wine are calling!
TTFN
For Canada photos please click here.