When we checked in I asked if there's breakfast here and you saw the reply. What I didn't get is that before we left the "Lodge" the woman said 8AM. When we finally ended eating dinner and went to the "Cabin" we get a good look. It reminds me if a garden shed with 2 twin beds. Everything except a small dresser and 2 small glass top end tables is made of plywood. The bathroom door had 2 holes for door locks, but only one lock. That means there's an open hole with a piece of tape over part of it. The shelves are plywood, the floors are plywood, the ceilings and walls are plywood. No insulation, no fan, no A/C, did have a radiator though. It even had electricity and running water. Hot some times too!!! But we realize around 11PM, no soap. So Ed goes to the "Office" and rings a bell ad asks for soap. So far so good.
So we go to sleep and I could hear the dog barking at the bear and I swear I heard banjo music in the background sometimes. Thankfully the outside door had a lock - and yes, it was locked.
We get up before 8 and shower, change, etc, and go to the "Lodge" for breakfast. Ed gets there first and there are 2 breakfasts on the table. I get there around 8:10 and now there's a guy in there with the woman who checked us in and he asks if I was the guy who rang the bell at 11:30 at night. I say, hey, we had no soap for the morning ( or evening for that matter). He wasn't a happy type and was probably the guy playing the banjo last night. Cold breakfast. At least there wasn't an extra charge for it!
When we finish and head back to the "cabin" we see the bear. The dog ( a maltese) is barking and the 2 guys are trying to get it to leave so that they can get into one of the trailers for some nails. The bear climbs up a tree and stays for a while, then comes back down and runs into the woods. We take its que and pack up the bikes and leave. Au revoir mes amis!
Hit the road and ride through some of the most beautiful countryside - partly in the rain. It rains on and off all day. The roads get better as we go south and are twisty, hilly, and surrounded by snow-capped mountains in every direction. The temperature is perfect. Rivers, streams, and lakes everywhere - in the middle of nowhere. Most of it pristine and untouched. The water color is a clean clear blue/green color reflecting the trees and skies. A pleasure to ride through it today.
Our goal is to make it to Burns Lake and find a room. We didn't learn from yesterday, but did start looking earlier. Just as yesterday, it was still tourist season, and you guessed it, no vacancies, so on to Fraser lake a 1/2 hour down the road. The pickings didn't look too much better than last night, so we passed up an opportunity to relive some old memories - Thankfully!
On the way to Fraser Lake, as we're riding along the road at a good clip - about 70, I'm always scanning the road for potholes and anomalies and especially scanning the sides of the road for anything black or brown moving toward the pavement. There are signs everywhere along these highways warning of moose, bear, deer, reindeer. As I'm scanning, I see a black object dart out of the bushes on the side of the road and head for my motorcycle. It was a blackbird that tried to taunt Big Red and me and had an unexpected outcome. The bird darted low and I felt it hit my right foot and then nothing but feathers and a black blob rolling to the shoulder. The bird lost and Big Red saved me! WTH else is lurking in the bushed at the sides of the road planning to dart out - nothing bigger than that blackbird I hope, or the outcome would have been quite different.
On to Vanderhoof, BC, about another 1/2 hour farther east. Bingo, we scored a room and met some guys from Holland coming from Fairbanks and headed to Vancouver - same route as us tomorrow.
Had dinner and here we are. Another day closer to home. Can't wait to get back to the good old USA - it takes a special person to live in the Northwest Canadian Provinces. I'm not a fan.
Saw a Bull grazing on the side of the road on the way here too. All by itself. There are signs everywhere along the highway warning to watch out for livestock on the highway as well.
More to come.............
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