Day 29 July 30, 2024 Toad River BC to Pink Mountain BC 255 miles
We took off at our usual 9:00 am. Today is partly cloudy with a gentle breeze. Last night the breeze stopped and the lake became like a mirror. This morning there are gentle ripples in the water.
The beginning of the day required us to cross two bridges with metal floors. They cause the car and trailer to wiggle all over. Luckily there was no traffic coming the other way on either bridge. It’s so much easier driving down the middle. The bridges aren’t all that wide to begin with.
We came to the washout that had closed the road a few days earlier. They have it open for one lane. We didn’t wait long. Water must have come down the mountain rapidly and removed all of the lane closest to the river, no crews working on it today. They probably have to go out to bid or some other crazy thing. A person in a pickup is at each end controlling the stop lights. They both looked incredibly bored.
Rob spotted our main wildlife for the day. Just over the guard rail was a young Stone Sheep. They are mainly found in northern British Columbia. They are smaller than the common big horn sheep and they are darker in color. This one was very cooperative as it jumped over the guard rail into the turn out. We stopped on the road and got a few shots before it went back over the guard rail and down the hill. We saw watch for moose, deer, caribou, sheep and horses signs but only saw the one sheep.
We are climbing up the summit that is the highest on the Alaska Highway at about 4500 feet. Surprisingly the assent and dissent were more gradual than expected. Maybe that means the rest of the day will be less. Well there were more hills during the day most of which had longer steeper assents and dissents. Naturally we slow way down. Most didn’t have passing lanes. The traffic seemed light today and we did not hold any vehicles up.
At the top of the summit is a small lake and nice campground. A few of the campsites were right at the edge of the lake.
Went through another area where a wildfire had occurred perhaps last year. The green ground cover had returned. The logs are being harvested because they were stacked ready to load on a logging truck.
A car passed us on a long flat straight section of road with no oncoming traffic. Well that part isn’t unusual but this person cut back so soon they missed our front bumper by less than a foot. Rob honked several times but the car was a quarter of a mile down the road already. So far this was our closest encounter on the trip.
The road straightened out into a small valley. A couple of large fields of baled grass hay in them. They are the big marshmallows that have not turned white yet.
We stopped in Fort Nelson for lunch. We chose Amanda’s Northern Delights. The food was really good and reasonably priced. Stop by if you are in the area.
Then we went across the road to the museum. They advertise it as the finest collection of antique cars in British Columbia. Well don’t know what else is in the province but this doesn’t come close to what was in Fairbanks. The museum is quite large so you could spend several hours there if you wanted. They did have one 1930 Model A coupe.
We fueled up again and got on our way. We didn’t spend much time at the museum. We are only about half way of todays journey. The wind has greatly increased. Our gas mileage won’t be so good this next time.
We have noticed that fewer motorcycles are on the road today. Of course it isn’t the weekend. There are also more pieces of retread from tires. Some in small pieces and some rather large.
One last section of construction for the day and it is right in front of the RV park we plan to spend the night in. We are staying in the Pink Mountain RV Park. Supposedly there is a mountain nearby with pink coloring. We didn’t see it on the way here. Rob thinks that you have to be on drugs if you want to see a pink mountain.
Spoffords Travel 