Moose and Black Bears

June 12, 2010 –Fort St. John B.C. We have been without internet access for a few days so there is much to tell. But first…

Moose update: On June 10th, two MOOSE were sighted on the road from Quesnel B.C. (Kwe- nell) to Barkerville! What are the odds that on day two I would see not one but two moose, or is it meese. I don’t know but I was beside myself. Thrilled I tell you, I was positively thrilled. No pictures, but the first sighting was from a distance and was a bull with a rather large looking rack. The second was a cow and lord help me but she was drooling or had just lifted her mouth out of a puddle. This one was barely off the road. I begged the big fella to pull over because I needed a picture. Alas, he kept driving. Darn!

Since my last post, we have made our way up from Cache Creek to Barkerville, Prince George and Dawson Creek. Today we are at about mile 50 or so of the Alaska Highway near the town of St. John, B.C. There have been several stops for museums and points of interest. Among them are Hat Creek Ranch, Barkerville, a very cool small town museum in Quesnel, and of course the Alaska Highway House in Dawson Creek. We are not as far north as I thought we would be, but the joys of this adventure are the spur of the moment side trips. Hat Creek Ranch was one of those moments.

Hat Creek Ranch is an historic stop on the old Cariboo Waggon Road. No I did not misspell wagon. It was misspelled by the locals here in B.C. We took a tour and wound up with a lively group from Australia. Greg spoke to one man and mentioned that we had spent part of our honeymoon in British Columbia. The gentleman thought that we had just married and asked how the bedding was going! There was an awkward moment when Greg informed him that our honeymoon was 30+ years ago. The subject was changed rather quickly. Never-the-less, we both got a chuckle out of that one. The next stop was Barkerville, but first was the Quesnel museum.

Say the word museum in our house and both kids will run the other direction. Family vacations/camping trips always included a museum or two. Being a good parent requires that you expose your children to local culture, and small town museums are just the ticket. These excursions –to museums that is- always lasted a bit too long for their attention spans, and things would deteriorate kind of fast. I got to where that looks of horror would cross their faces, when they knew a museum was about to be entered. They thought it was torture. But I digress, the little museum in Quesnel is a gem. It is full of local history and memorabilia and includes a haunted doll. Once finished with the museum, it was on to Barkerville.

Barkerville is a ghost town from the 1860’s Cariboo gold rush. It may have been inhabited until the 1960’s, but is now a well preserved historic attraction. It was a stop on our honeymoon 30 some years ago and was fun to go back. Neither of us had any recollection of the place so it was like seeing it for the first time! It was on the drive up to it that I spied the two moose and as a bonus a little black bear ran across the road in front of us.

Today was the day for bear sightings. We saw three as we were on the road from Prince George to Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek marks mile one of the Alaska Highway and merited a stop. The exhibit on the highway construction is well done and helped give me some perspective on what an accomplishment it was. It was completed in eight months and at that time was a feat of engineering. It was nearly 1500 miles of road building in 1942.

portion of the Original Alaska Highway

Since we left on Tuesday, we have traveled about 850 miles. Gosh, we only have 1430 more miles until we get to Fairbanks! Tomorrow, we are off to Fort Nelson and another 250 miles closer to our destination.

I am still hoping for more moose encounters.I know they are around because there are warning signs along the roads. I am keeping my eyes peeled and next time I will get a picture. Stay tuned for the next dispatch.