Bring on The FORTS! Day 6, 7, 8

Ft St John
We left the site late this morning, 10 instead of our usual 9, because we planned to join a 10:30 tour at the WAC Bennett dam. Each of us had warmed to the idea of visiting the dam for different reasons. Joan and I revived old memories of the early days of construction and the hype surrounding Bennett. Bob and Helen were intrigued by the sheer magnitude of the project. Could one structure really provide 30% of all BC power?

We weren't disappointed. A sweet, young, tour guide, fresh from learning her patter, and a bus driver on his first trip who misjudged and had to reverse to make the turn out of the parking lot, escorted our lonely party of four down the long hill and through a barrier into the power centre of the dam. Size was staggering! I was reminded of the Boeing factory. The cavern holding the generators is as long as the height of the Eiffel tower.

Joan had a coughing spasm on the bus which had both guides worried. The suffering extend to everyone when the coughing takes over our bodies. A casual observer thinks we're dealing with something far worse than a cold, probably more like poison gas or choking on a bone. Bob has begun to notice a sore throat.

The Rotary RV Park, in downtown Fort St. John, suited our purposes just fine. Dinner was next door at the pub. A special monument commerating the lives of some soldiers who died constructing the highway, was located nearby on a lake side walking path. Blarney had a huge field of grass to call his own. I was beginning to feel close to normal but not so for Bob and Joan.

Ft Nelson

Today's drive between the two "Forts" was flat, straight and easy. We whisked along at a brisk 95 mph all day. Our picnic lunch stop was a huge, dirt and gravel parking area around a tiny gas stop. The truck fillup, at $1.47 a litre, was almost $90. Shock! The Toyota V6, with Barbie in tow, is burning slightly more gas than the V8 camper.

Fort Nelson has a renowned museum specializing in transportation. Walking through the glut of items, it soon becomes evident this is more a collection than a display. Everywhere you look there is something old and often more than one. Radios, bottles, dishes and on and on. I liked the hand made spruce bark canoe.

Out in the yard we soon found the collection of old autos and the man who makes them all run. All of the more than 15 vehicles still operates thanks to the geezer with the shock of white hair and bushy beard. He keeps an old "pump" engine near the front of the shed to fire up for the tourists. He used an eyedropper to fill a tube with a tiny quantity of gas and squeezed a few drops into one of the valve springs. Two jerky turns on the flywheel and the machine came to life, sputtering and putting like it had never stopped. Very impressive! A coke can jumped up a shaft with every rotation just to add more colour and noise to the wonder of it. "Where did you find this thing?" I asked, eyes wide. "Out in the back of my Dad's shed," he replied. This answer from a white-haired Jesus figure made me giggle inside. This would have been a shed to see!

Blarney and I found a squirrel near the trailer site. Game on for the rest of the stay. The single men's toilet hadn't been fastened to the floor and had a terrifying tendency to tip when I didn't want it to. The special in the restaurant was a slice of beef about two centimetres thick and the area of a small country. The bar stools were all western saddles with solid horns to help you hold your seat during the NHL games. The temperature was 27º outside and hot enough to melt bronze in the laundry.

Coal River
Very scenic drive over hills, through valleys surrounded by snow capped peaks. Stopped at Summit Lake which was glistening ice under 24º sun and watched three Stone sheep scramble on ledges where no man could possibly go.

Our lunch stop at Muncho Lake was the best! The temperature soared to the high twenties. We took the double kayak down and paddled along the shore while Blarnie chased us along the beach. The reflections of the mountains across the icy, blue-green water were bringing oohs and ahhs at every turn. Quite gorgeous!

Mid afternoon we stopped for gas at a lodge called Toad River which advertised a ceiling lined with several thousand ball caps. "We do take them down once in awhile," the lady said. "They were started two owners back." They also had a fantastic beaver dam and lodge in the stream nearby.

It was a great day for watching wildlife. We stopped for two black bears and a couple of bison. The bison were "loners", apparently big bulls biding their time. They had shaggy patches of long hair yet to be rubbed off. We watched as another bison rubbed his huge head against a tree while the tree trembled.

The bison burgers drew us in to the Coal River RV. We were the only clients. The burgers were delicious and the lady who made them quite delightful. Joan bought "stuff", including a sweat shirt and two stuffies for the grandkids. We took Blarney on a long walk down the air strip to the river. It's a land of many buffalo chips.