Nova Scotia in September

We flew out to Nova Scotia on September 9 to attend our niece Heather's wedding.  We spent 2 days at Leo's sister Ann's house and then stayed one night in Chester Basin with sister Cathy and brother-in-law Rick.  The next morning we headed out for a short trip around the Maritimes.

Our first destination was the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick.  We visited Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, named for the sea stacks created by tidal erosion.

There's an impressive stairwell to get down to the beach.  The stairs can be raised in the wintertime.

The seaweed covering the rocks is different than on the west coast, very fine.

We meant to come back to witness the high tide but that was either 2 in the morning or 2 in the afternoon when we would already be further down the road.

We camped that night at Fundy National Park.  Leo's childhood friend Kevin and his wife Medana drove down from Moncton and joined us for a barbecue.  It was great to see them again.

Summer in the Cariboo

We swam in Chimney Lake (above) a couple of times during the hot spell.  One afternoon we spotted a new fire and soon after the bird dogs and tanker planes and helicopters arrived to put it out.  It looked like it was just on the other side of the lake but later, looking it up on the wildfire website, it was really quite a ways away.

Bumper crop of choke cherries this summer.

There were about 10 pelicans loafing on a raft floating in the Scout Islan marsh.

Coming back from a medical appointment in Kelowna we took a side trip to the Merritt to Spences Bridge highway.  Checked out a new cafe in Merritt, then had lunch at our old haunts the N'kwala Rec Site, which has been closed since the 2021 flood wiped out the highway.  It's now open again though not as nice as it once was.  The river has moved way over to the other bank from the campsite.

Also spotted a herd of Bighorn sheep, nicely camouflaged against the dry slope.

All females and lambs, the males hang out separately except during mating season.

Somebody set several fires to the dry hillside above the Stampede Grounds. The fire came right up to our friends' property before the firemen put it out.  

The smoky air is not from any local air but from the Clinton fire to the south

When we checked out the damage I was amazed at all the prickly pear cactus that was hidden in the grass and now exposed after the fire.  Interesting how it's adapted to survive fire.  That's our friends' house in the background.

We went for a hike at the Farwell Canyon dunes.  As you can see the sky was pretty tempestuous. 

We got caught in one short but heavy shower.  Then as we were leaving the dunes the wind picked up and we were in the midst of a sandstorm. We managed to get back to the truck just as another thunderstorm broke out.

To Meziadin, Smithers and Home

 

Meziadin Lake

We packed up in the rain and headed out. It cleared up in the afternoon but the mountains remained socked in.

Saw a little fox just north of Dease Lake and soon after a beaver in the middle of the highway.

Then we saw a moose on the road just south of Tatogga Lake.  We were complaining that we hadn't seen any bears yet but then after Bell II we saw a female with 3 cubs, 

followed soon after by two small bears crossing the road in front of us.

Leo sw one more black bear before we arrived at our campground at Meziadin Lake.  

We snagged a nice waterfront site.  And the sun was shining!

The big spruce tree in our campsite was full of young golden-crowned kinglets.

Birds of the Day!

New this year tent campers have to camp behind an electric fence.

Meziadin is notorious for its black bears.  I haven't heard of any bad incidents so they must just be tired of shooting problem bears.

We woke up to sunshine at Meziadin Lake

Morning view from our campsite

But it soon turned cloudy and then to rain.

We saw two more bears on the Stewart Cassier Highway.

We reached Smithers by noon and parked up at the municipal campground.

And spent some quality time with Sybille and Dave.  In between rainshowers we went for some short walks.  

Down by Seymour Lake Leo photographed this cedar waxwing

And this red-necked grebe with her grebelet.

The next day we drove home.  To complete the wildlife tally we saw one more black bear.

Heading Homewards

 

Boya Lake

We drove all day, arriving in Whitehorse at 5:30 pm.  It was our anniversary so we all dressed up decent (no rain pants) and went out to dinner at Giorgio's for Greek food.  Next to us was seated a group of Argentinian motorcyclists who'd ridden all the way from South America.

The next morning we caught up with Cathy Koot, an old birding friend from Williams Lake.  She's been up the Dempster Highway 15 times (!!) including on a motorbike. She puts our excellent adventures to shame.

The locals know all the good spots so we met her at the Midnight Sun Coffee Roasters for good coffee and muffi1ns.

That didn't stop us from going back to our favourite bakery/cafe later in the day.

Ginger cookie and scone at the Baked Cafe

Leo and I decided we were travelled out so opted out of continuing on to Kluane National Park so we said goodbye to Mark and Leah the next morning.  

We saw this nice brown bear on the roadside south of Whitehorse.

We were hoping to stop for the world's best cinnamon buns at Johnson Crossing but they were closed down!  Tragic.

Stopped for gas at the junction of the Alaska and Stewart Cassier highways.  To our surprise gas prices here were cheaper than in Smithers, BC.

They  must do a good business because though it's dilapidated looking place with an old log cabin for an office they have brand new gas pumps.

We arrived at Boya Lake Provincial Park at 3 pm.  All the reserved sites on the lake were taken but there were plenty unreserved spots in the trees.

Stopped for a selfie.

Our sunny day had turned to cloud but you could still see the mountains in the distance.  After we went to bed it started raining and rained all night.

Back to Dawson City

Love the dogs led condiment tray

We had breakfast in the cafe, this morning there was just one item on the menu - bacon and eggs.

Trucks lined up at Eagle Plains

Then it was pretty much just driving all day.  We saw 2 hares on the road early on our Drive.  We stopped for lunch at Tombstone Park. 

We arrived at our trailer storage in Dawson at 4 pm, hitched up and camped up at the Bonanza RV. Then it was a mad dash to get loonies and do the laundry before it closed for the night.

On the Road Again

 

Eagle at the ferry terminal

Mark V got up early in the morning to check out the ferry situation.  The ferry was gone!  We found out later that the cable had snapped and the ferry drifted downstream.

We went for free breakfast at the community centre.  A traveller from Quebec had gotten a head's up that a local would ferry vehicles across for $100.  Word came that the boat was ready to go but the price was now $400 for vehicles, $200 for motorcycles!  We had to scrabble $800 in cash between us or wait till the Coop to open to access the ATM.  Luckily, we managed to scrape it together. We rushed back to the campsite, packed up and headed for the ferry landing.  

Love these old style plywood river boats

Our Quebequois friend had already gotten across and Mark was first in line.  The boat came back across but then took off downstream to tow the ferry back up.   A lineup of travellers was forming behind us.  There were also transport trucks stuck until the ferry service resumed.  Locals were showing up and waiting to see if the ferry would be towed back up.

We talked to two women and when we told them what we were paying they were disgusted.  Apparently Isaac of L&R Contracting is not very popular among the locals.  That guy, he's one of us but he's only into it for the money, only looking out for himself.  They told us not to pay.  They were thinking of bringing food out for the stranded people.

Everyone here was so nice, but not nice enough for us to spend however many days till ferry service resumed.

Word came down that a biker had sent up a drone and saw the ferry being towed up the river.  And eventually, Isaac's boat came around the bend towing the ferry behind.

They got the ferry moored and Isaac resumed his lucrative ferry service.

Mark was the first to go.

We'd removed our trailer hitches so we could fit in.  There were a couple of Germans in big rental pickup campers desperate to get across (they had unreasonable plane tickets in Whitehorse to meet) but there was no way they'd fit on.

We were next.

Off we go

Lineup on the other side:

Arriving on the opposite shore:

The young  couple from Prince George behind us were in a pickup with a small (6 ft box) camper. They were the heaviest vehicle he'd ever taken across.  They left the ramp partway down and water was coming into the boat.

Then it was a 3 hour drive to Eagle Plains. We'd looked into motel rooms but there was no vacancy of course because Eagle Plains was full of travellers and truckers waiting to go in the other direction.  The good news was camping was free because they couldn't provide enough electricity or water for all their guests.

Motorcycles parked outside the restaurant

The campground is just a big gravel parking lot but it's actually in a great location on the height of land. You have a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding mountains. 

We had supper in the restaurant. They had a very small menu, probably running out of supplies.  I had a porkchop with fresh carrots and brussels sprouts, mmm, real vegetables at last.

I can't remember where we saw the Pacific loons.

Birds of the Day!