Fort Nelson to Watson Lake

Day 11 (14 Sep) — Arctic Canada (the far north)

Fort Nelson to Watson Lake

Pleasantly sunny from the morning. But very cold... The tent we hung out to dry had instead got wet with morning dew. In the sun it soon dried crisp again.

Breakfast today was burgers at A&W again. We'd been given coupons at the branch in the Edmonton shopping mall, so we could eat very cheaply. Three dollars each is plenty to fill you up. A&W seems more particular about meat than McDonald's; there's nothing like a Filet-O-Fish, and every burger has meat. We never ended up eating it on this trip, but the triple-patty Grandpa Burger is something else.

The scenery was so good we kept stopping the car. As we kept heading north, the average temperature seemed to be dropping steadily. You could clearly see the autumn colours advancing. Unlike in Japan, you hardly see any red in Canadian autumn leaves. It's almost all yellow, and looked as if golden carpets had been laid here and there.

The view from Summit Pass. Far in the distance we could see a pure-white mountain range. Still only September, and they were completely snowy mountains. Probably part of the Northern Canadian Rockies. We were about to plunge into a wilderness covered in permanent snow.

As we drove, something moved at the roadside. Stopping the car, we saw a deer-like creature eating grass. It stared at us, but made no attempt to run.

The contrast between the autumn leaves and the snowy mountains was beautiful. Depending on altitude, the white parts covered in snow and the black parts of bare mountainside were clearly divided.

We met animals again! This time a herd. A family of mule deer with young, perhaps.

This time a family of goats. Even when we stopped the car, they paid us no attention at all. Nothing in particular seemed to be lying on the road, but they showed no interest in anything else and just kept eating something.

Another animal encounter. A short-antlered moose, or perhaps... Once we entered the mountains, we suddenly started meeting animals. The Canadian Rockies really are a paradise for large wildlife.

Perhaps because of the high latitude, the mountains gradually lost their trees entirely. Bare black mountainsides were exposed.

Some cloud came in. A short break on the shore of Muncho Lake. Looking at the information board, bison appear around here. The article said several are killed every year in traffic accidents. From the photo, they're big with scary faces. Last year too we often saw "Watch for bison" road signs in the far north, but never actually saw a bison. Probably there are few of them and you rarely meet one...

Or so I thought, for a moment. A little way on from the rest stop, black dots appeared ahead, and as we got closer they turned out to be a herd of bison!! We were overwhelmed by their huge numbers. But they were occupying the road, which was quite a nuisance. I honked to get them to move, but of course human common sense doesn't work on them, and they didn't budge at all. Seconds after honking, their total lack of reaction filled me with fear that this was a bad idea. If they charged us, there was no doubt we would suffer serious damage, even inside the car.

Just before Watson Lake we finally crossed 60° north. North of here is called the far north, a land of extreme cold.

We arrived at Watson Lake. Few buildings, and we couldn't tell where the supermarket was; we had come somewhere very remote. After driving hundreds of kilometres from Fort Nelson, to find only a place this remote. Tonight's lodging, the Air Force Lodge, was a very clean log building. The rooms were small, and the bath and toilet were shared, but it was cleaned thoroughly and the owner was friendly. After settling in a bit, we went into town to eat dinner, but couldn't find anything like a restaurant, so we ate a hot meal at the motel's restaurant.