Tetsa River to Liard Hot Springs
Today was not a mammoth drive, for once. We didn’t even have to buy any petrol.
After our now traditional toast and peanut butter breakfast — a tradition that has to end temporarily tomorrow as we’ve run out of bread, and there are no shops — we got back on the road. Soon after leaving, we were in the Stone Mountain Provincial Park, being treated to quite astonishing views. From time to time we would come upon groups of goats in the middle of the road. Apparently these were Stone Sheep, but they looked like goats to me. We also saw some deer. The guide book warned us that the main danger on this road was not the sheep themselves, but tourists stopping in the middle of the road to take photos. The guide book was right.
It started drizzling and the views took a turn for the worse as we exited the park. We pulled up at Muncho Lake, and attempted a short bike ride. Unfortunately the trails were poorly signposted, and we did little more than follow the lake shore around a short way, take some photos then turn back.
When we got back to the RV, Debbie heated some soup while I folded up the bikes, and we ate in the van, out of the rain.
We drove on, again through spectacular scenery, to Liard Hot Springs by two o’clock. Given the choice between the government campsite - with no power - and a commercial one right opposite, with power, we chose the one with power, just so I could type this. Debbie claims that hair straighteners have no part in the decision, and who am I to doubt her.
Once we were registered and hooked up to the water and power, we strolled over to the Hot Springs park itself. We were just in time for a guided walk, and were the only people on it - so we had a friendly ranger named Danni to ourselves. Before we set off, she had a walkie-talkie discussion with her colleagues about a grizzly bear that had been seen in the area. As we started our walk, we heard a loud bang. This was a bear banger, a little cap gun, but very loud, used to scare off bears (we have one on loan from Ruth and Dave — but it was back in the RV where it was useless). “That’s not good”, said our guide. Another bang followed, and her walkie-talkie informed her that the grizzly had been scared out of the park and “towards the Lodge”. That’s where we live.
Danni explained to us how the hot springs created a swampy area 60% of which doesn’t freeze in winter, creating a unique climate for the region. When white settlers first found this tropical environment deep in the north of Canada, apparently rumours spread of a “lost valley” where bananas grow, there are monkeys and even dinosaurs. None of that was true. Still, the flora is very different to what we’ve got used to - with lush ferns on the forest floor. We were shown indentations in the foliage where bears or moose had slept.
The springs themselves are open for bathing. Danni left us at Beta Pool, the deeper, cooler, less developed of the two that are open. We changed into swimwear. It was about the temperature of a good hot bath, and it was very pleasant. Being quite deep, and with the water temperature detracting from buoyancy, we were worn out after a few minutes, and we moved on to the Alpha Pool. This is only two or three feet deep, it has an artificial gravel bottom, and it’s much hotter. The temperature gradually reduces from one end to the other, and Danni had told us that people would leave rocks at the hot end to prove they had made it. This was a challenge we could not resist. Debbie achieved it by standing up, running as close as she could, and tossing her stone. I swam towards it, stirring up cooler water from the bottom, placed my stone and swam back. It felt very hot - but I’m sure if it had been dangerous we wouldn’t have been allowed in.
It was raining quite hard as we returned to the RV. We hung our wet things to dry, and had a game of cards (specifically, Chrononauts). It stopped raining for long enough for me to light a fire and cook some burgers over it. The campsite does not have fire pits, but they seem to have left bits of old farm machinery around the place, suitable for use as makeshift barbeque grills. It did a good job of our burgers.
We sat in the RV with some beer, the pouring rain tapping on the roof, planning tomorrow. There was a magnificent rainbow outside.
Suddenly Debbie exclaimed, “Look, a bear”. Due to several japes up until now, I didn’t really believe her, but sure enough, there was a grizzly nosing around one of the picnic tables in our sparsely occupied campsite. Contrary to what the media has led me to expect, the bear was not wearing a hat. It moped around for a bit longer, then trotted into the undergrowth. Perhaps we should have fretted about being mauled overnight, but we were too tired for that malarkey.