I got to Dawson Creek midday. It was rainy, and I took a short break, but not really long enough to get a sense for the town. The end of that day is when I ended up staying with the family of a person I’d met on the road the day before, and that little break was much appreciated. I broke down a little when I got into Taylor and spendng the evening with people was really helpful. I restarted the next morning with much more confidence.

I like mule deer because they hop when threatened. I read this is to show how strong and healthy and not worth pursuing they are, but it makes me laugh

Quite the spread out here (there were some towns in between)

This is the first bear I saw. I didn’t stop too long. There have been many since, but mostly I just look as I’m going by. None have bothered me so far, but better not push my luck!

I imagine most people didn’t see this Great Grey Owl. Can you tell how huge it is from the picture? It is huge.

It is amazing to have transported myself through parts of the world that are so different from each other. I haven’t even gone so far, but I feel like I’ve seen so much variety already.

These signs show up a lot, they mean you are propably about to go up or down a serious hill, and you need to take the necessary precautions because no one is going to tow you out.

Stone’s sheep live along the road on this cliffy section. They went a bit up the hill when i stopped, but i stood and watched them long enough to convince them i was no threat and they came back down to eat more gravel.

This guy wasn’t in a huge hurry, but did walk away in a protected fashion. I saw a few more porcupines, they come out in the night more, but this guy was morning wandering.

There are about 250 wood bison left in BC. They are not afraid of cars and often hang out near or even on the roads (not helping their numbers). They are, though, pretty unsure about bikes and often ran when I came up.

I took a break at Liard Hotsprings (a short day to get there, spent the afternoon and a slow morning) which is a pretty neat spot. There are many hotsprings, perhaps, but this is the first I have visited. It is a provincial park, which sees visitors year round. Water at the source is over 50˚C (I did go in the water, but stayed toward the cooler end, because I was there for a pleasant sort of break)

There are a lot of animals that frequent the unique habitat that surrounds the hotsprings and I went for a walk ~3:45 hoping to see more activity. It was neat to walk through the “hanging gardens” a terrace formation of little pools created by the minerals deposited as water bubbles up through stone and flows down to the pools. No moose out when I went, but it was still a nice time to be out.

There was another, less official looking welcome sign about 40km back, and then the welcome to BC sign for the other way was about 5km back, but a little border confusion doesn’t actually change much.

Watson Lake is home to this sign post forest. There are close to 80,000 signs hung by visitors indicating where they came from, a fast growing collection. I saw a guy who said he was from there, though I think that hadn’t been back, who said that as a child there were only a few signs up, he seemed pretty astounded. Rows and rows, it was neat to walk thorugh.

It is worth looking over your shoulder from time to time.

This is a normal road view.