DAY 31 - Northern BC and the 7 black bears!
Today we left The Yukon and headed for British Columbia, our last destination of the trip! We were hoping we would have cell service when we got into BC but it appears the Cassiar highway is even worse than The Yukon was hahaha
We took off around 8am and headed South, which felt very weird considering most of our trip so far has been North. We dipped in and out of British Columbia along the Alaska highway going back the way we came up to Whitehorse. Both of needed a coffee this morning, so we stopped at an RV park and service centre in a little town called Johnsons Crossing. The whole park was a little rundown with a lot of "nicknacs" on their front lawn lol We walked in and the delicious smell of fresh baked goods and roasted coffee filled the air. There was an older gentleman who was running the place, and reminded us of an old rancher. He definitely had an interesting sense of humor. As Zack put it, his wife definitely said "Okay were going to add a breakfast cafe onto the RV park" and he responded with a "Like F*** we are" and now here he is, serving up baked good and pancakes. We grabbed ourselves each a hot coffee, I grabbed a fresh blueberry scone and Zack a cherry turnover. All were extremely delicious, easily they best cafe we've been too based on the quality and the service!
After a couple more hours of driving we officially left The Yukon and arrived in the beautiful British Columbia! We took our usual pictures with the sign, and just as we were finishing up a truck and trailer pulled up. We walked back towards the truck so the people could get their pictures. And by walked I basically mean ran so we could avoid having to take a million photos for people 😂 But then just as we were climbing back into the truck the older man came up and asked if we wanted them to take a picture for us. Zack let them know we were okay but then of course offered to take a couple pictures for them. The women who was just coming out of the truck at the time instantly yelled "SURE THAT'D BE GREAT!" It became clear that they were definitely hoping we would offer to take a photo for them as they probably didn't quite know how to master the selfie! We ended up chatting with them for a while about both of our trips. They were from Seattle and were heading home now after being on the road for 2 months. They also told us the hilarious experience they had the other day that perfectly encaptures The Yukon. The plate that connected the truck and trailer had broke and they weren't able to hook it back up. Along comes a big pickup truck and a local Yukoner jumps out in his high vis work gear. They let him know the problem and he basically told them they were out of luck as all mechanics around this area book up months in advance, they won't be getting in. So he takes a look at the problem and says, "You know what, my guy can definitely fix this for you." So with high hopes, they hop in their truck and follow the man on a wild goose chase through the town, all over the place. Finally they arrive at this lot that is full of heavy machinery, tools etc. and realize it was a mining site. And what d'you know, this man owns his own mining company. So his partner takes a look at the problem and welds them up an exact piece they need, fixes it within an hour. And of course he wouldn't take anything for it. Before they left, they went inside and met the man's wife who then insisted cooking them up some lunch and they spent the whole day chatting away. Classic Yukon experience for sure.
After we parted ways we got back onto the highway and kept going South. The early fall colours continued and the roads became more windey with huge hills. It was like we were on a rollercoaster for a good hour through the mountain. Although it was beautiful the drive was getting a little sickening lol Eventually it evened out a little bit and the drive became so much more enjoyable. The mountains were all around us with tall birch forests, golden trees and huge blue lakes along the way. We had no idea Northern BC would be so stunning, and have a bit of everything in their landscape!!
When Zack was finally done with driving (8 hours later) we did the ol' switcheroo and kept on driving. We were going to stop at Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park for the night but after passing that around only 4pm, we both decided to keep going as far as we could! The awesome thing we've noticed about Northern Canada is the GPS time is often incorrect and you can always shave time off. In Ontario, you're guaranteed to arrive later than your original ETA, but out here you will usually make it quite earlier than estimated. We're not sure if it's because they account for the rough roads and possible construction, or if Google has only driven the road once before and it's just truly a "rough estimate" lol
We decided to make it to Meziadin Junction which would put us at about 7pm and hopefully with some service. As the sun was starting to lower in the sky, it began to light up the golden tree tops and more leaves were scattered along the roadside. It was starting to feel like a real fall day drive. As we were admiring the long road ahead, we came around a corner and there was a big, black shilouette on the side of the road about 500m ahead ... BLACKBEAR!!!! I slowed right down, inched towards it and Zack got the camera ready. We figured it was probably a female adult as she was fully grown but pretty small. We stopped just before her, and she looked back at us curiously then continued to graze the side of the road carelessly. She zigzagged on the road for a couple minutes infront of us then hustled into the woods. Just as we were starting to drive away, we spotted another one about 20ft away!! This time it was just a cub, also grazing along the berry bushes. We figured how lucky are we to happen to catch momma bear and her babe eating some dinner? As we crawled further down the highway still watching the baby bear, that's when the miracle happened. We looked ahead, and gradually more black dots appeared along each side of the road. I nearly screamed from excitement, not even comprehending what was happening!!!! We continued extremely slow, 4 ways on and not a single other car around us. We got to see each one up close trotting down the road and munching on their dinner. There were full adults and cubs of all different sizes that we got to see. It was the most unreal experience we have ever had in our lives. We were also just talking about how we haven't seen much wildlife and that bears were what we were particularly looking forward to. We both knew that this was mother nature making up for us having to see that baby bear get hit at the beginning of our trip, and she was looking out for us 😊 Some people never see a bear in their lifetime and we got to see SEVEN within about 2kms. Apparently Northern BC is a black bear haven, and around 6/6:30pm is their dinner time lol
After they were all off in the brush and we couldn't see them any more, we continued on with our eyes peeled and speed low. We had about 4 cars come out of nowhere and fly past us, so clearly they didn't see what we just did. The funniest part is about 10km down the road, there was a "Warning: Black Bears for next 40km" sign and Zack and I laughed, thinking that sign was in the wrong area!!
We finally arrived to Meziadin Junction around 7:30pm and still no service. However, they did have wifi in the restaurant so we headed there to check it out. It was closed, and we realized it is almost 8pm on a Sunday evening of a long weekend, whoops. So we headed into the service centre to use the washroom and figure out our plans for the night. After taking a look at the map and talking to the lady in the store we figured out we wouldn't get service for about another 2hrs and there was no way we would make it. We looked around the store a bit and Zack noticed the super nice moccasins along the back wall. We have been trying to find a nice outdoor pair since the beginning of our trip because you see them everywhere here. Unfortunately we have only been able to find ones without soles or none in my size. They had all different kinds here thoigh, short ones, tall ones and all different colours and sizes. After some convincing from Zack I finally tried on a couple pairs. The last pair I tried on were a tall grey pair that were lined with fur inside and felt like heaven. There was no price on them but we could only guess it was well over $200 along with the other tall boots. We found a 2nd pair that were priced at only $174 which is really good for a real pair of mukluks! After even more convincing from Zack and him reminding me thete will be no regrets on this trip! I finally caved and we headed to the cash to buy them. Worried that they were actually going to be like $300, she rang them through and said, "Okay so the total will be $117." After very quickly paying and leaving Zack and I have eachother the WTF look and felt like the lady from the Ikea commercial as we ran to the truck... START THE CAR!!!! Total score on those, and definitely was meant to buy them haha we ended up looking them up online and the price is actually $220 before tax!!
Zack ended up going back into the store just after that and asking about wifi as we noticed the lady was on her phone. Turned out you could purchase unlimited wifi codes, so we were set for the night. We finally had a bite to eat, set up camp for the night at the back of the parking lot and hit the hay after an incredible day of driving! Tomorrow we have another full day of driving through BC.
Comments
Post a Comment