June 8, 2013 Fort Nelson, Muncho Lake

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Slept in a bit today and it was 48 degrees when we headed out towards Fort Nelson. Stopped at the Visitor’s Center there and ran into a few of our fellow travelers.  Also stopped at the Fort Nelson Museum, quite a collection of cars, old mining and road equipment, you-name-it. 

Next stop was Trapper’s Den, which had quite a selection of locally made crafts including beautiful antler carvings and wooden bowls and dishes decorated with porcupine quills. Also featured things like furs, cookbooks and camouflage everything (including lingerie J).

Back on the highway we went for long stretches with little or no traffic.  Clouds gathered again, though we only had sprinkles.. Passed mountains with names like Steamboat, Indian Head,  and Sawtooth. 

We are getting back into the Canadian Rockies now and saw a lot of animals today.  Two black bears munching grasses, Dahl sheep,  stone sheep, a porcupine, a caribou, a shy moose and a couple of sandhill cranes! 

Getting a little confused with the sheep and goats – I’ll have to show someone pictures to get the right moniker.  The owner of Trapper’s Den confirmed that what the sheep were looking for when they gathered round the Trek was salt.  During winter, the roads are heavily salted and they have learned to check vehicles for salt!  Sorry, no treats here.

Stopped for a little lunch at   Toad River Lodge and met up with a few fellow travelers. $17 to share a burger, fries and 2 drinks.  At least it was tastey!  If you think of log buildings with big fireplaces when you hear “lodge”, you’d be mightily disappointed here, as most of the lodges are smallish, weathered wooden buildings.   Some have rooms,  a small restaurant and/or gas pump.  We are not even calculating gas prices as we have no control over it, but think we paid the equivalent of over $5 today .

Approaching Muncho Lake

 We opted for a campground with showers tonight and found a great place near Muncho Lake, called, curiously, Muncho Lake RV.  Nice site in the trees and we skipped the electricity.

Some rain later in the evening and I saw a little sunset tonight, around 10:30 PM