cabackroads--Liard River Hot Springs to Fort Nelson

cabackroads--Liard River Hot Springs to Fort Nelson.

travel date: August 25, 2016

The weather forecast was for rain and blustery weather. So the objective for the day was to get as far east as possible and hopefully have the mountains wring out the moisture before it dropped on my head.

So the objective was speed. That fell right off the table since as I left Liard River Hot Springs I promptly parked the truck on the Alaska Highway for about an hour waiting for the escort vehicle to get me pass the highway construction.

This day was about making miles, but as I got on the road I did notice that the scenery was pretty special and it was rather interesting country to travel through. Don't make my mistake. Plan on doing this part of the trip not in one day, but plan on spending at least two or three nights minimum. I would definitely return to this part of the world again.

The first clue that this was special country was the out wash plain from the mountains along the road. This was pretty impressive ecologically, It must have have some event when all these rocks came to their current resting place. These are interpretative signs at this location and a very large turnout.

Next stop on the road was Muncho Lake with its beautiful green and blue water. I did stop at the Northern Rockies Lodge to get diesel and encountered a sit a squat person that took 20 minutes to fill up and check his fluids. Thank god, I am retired and have nowhere to go in a short period of time!

It was worth the wait to see this fellow pull into the service station. How knew that Canada has a military?  Of all the NATO countries Canada spends the least on it national defense. It was nice to know that at least they had one military vehicle.

From Muncho Lake the road goes through some very pretty country and there is always the possibility of running into some interesting wildlife.

The first possible spot for a campsite was Summit Lake inside of Stone Mountain Provincial Park. It has twenty-eight campsites for $18 a night, but I kept looking at the clouds blowing in from the west. It was very windy and the forecast was for rain. This is a popular spot with plenty of neighbors. Cell service was spotty even with the amplifier, so the decision was made to head farther east and hopefully find a more sheltered spot with decent cell service.

I kept going looking for a boondocking spot, but the better ones were taken and the others looked a bit wet. Pretty soon we were down to Testa River Campground Regional Park. On the highway there was great cell phone service, but after the turn-off to the campground the "bars" kept disappearing at a rapid clip until the no service notification appeared a couple of miles before the campground.

It is a very pretty spot. Sheltered. I was hopeful that the mountains to the west would capture the clouds and keep the rain mainly in the mountains.

The weather was nice when I pulled into the campground. So I took Bugaboo and headed to the river for some grayling fishing. I did catch three or four small fish before it started getting dark.

It started raining at about mid-night and continued on a pretty steady basis for the next four days.