Stories from the Road

The weather doesn't always cooperate with pleasant sunshine and the bikers are not getting up to date reports from Garrett the MIT weather guy so they are taking their chances. A couple of nights ago they decided to find a nice camp site about 7/10 mile off the road,down a nice "gravel road" and near a pretty lake. It was a great place until there was a "torrential downpour during the night." Well when the time came to rejoin the highway, the gravel road had turned to mud "slicker than ice." There was no way to ride the bike to the road so the choice was to hook a log through the bike trailers and carry them to the road. This was followed by about five trips carrying the bikes and then all the gear. It was the "worst mud ever" said Matthew.Of course the mosquitoes were "Horrific and voracious" Just another story to put on the list of adventures in camping.

The more pleasant stories are about fishing. It seems the dragon flies were working very well in the Laird River. On Matthew's first cast "boom a grayling latched on." With primitive fishing gear Matthew flung the fish on land and casted out for more. In a little while they had three fish ready to filet. As Matthew was cleaning the fish with his Leatherman Knife he wished that Grandpa Gilbertson was there with his trusty filet knife. It took "about a half hour amidst hot humid weather and hordes of mosquitoes, but it was worth it as they were British Columbia Grayling and tasted great."



The wildlife reports grow as the bikers have spotted a herd of buffalo and also a herd of Mountain Goats. They stopped to watch the baby goats climb up the mountain sides as they followed their moms up the steep climbs. A little further down the road they came upon a Caribou. It wasn't afraid of them and it started walking along the road. They followed it slowly for about ten minutes until it reached the hilltop and they passed it. Matthew wondered what the Caribou was thinking.
The road has not been as flat as I thought as they climbed about 5,000 feet in the last hundred miles. It looks like it will be flatter on the road the next few days as they near Dawson Creek.