VivaEnduro

Woke up early today looking forward to finishing off the dirt road and getting to Watson Lake. The weather was perfect again, and we rode past many huge lakes, felt like riding in the Okanagan without any towns or lakefront cabins.

There was little traffic on the #4 and was stopped by a family in a huge RV asking where they were.  I guess they figured after driving for hours and seeing nobody, they must be lost.  After talking with the RV driver a guy in an old KLR pulled up.  He was from Arkansas, his riding partner that was going to be joining him had passed away a month prior to leaving, he was riding with his buddy’s ashes hanging from his handlebars.

We hit Watson Lake and checked out the Signpost Forest, people bring signposts from all over the world and nail them up here.  No surprise there are a ton of signs from Germany.  I even found a replacement GS fender.

Signpost Forest

New Fender

This one is for Caroline and Laura

After leaving Watson Lake we headed for Laird Hotsprings, along this stretch of road he ran into 12 black bears, 3 Grizzly Bears, 20+ Bison, 3 Moose, 3 Deer and a Fox.  I couldnt believe how many Bears were hanging out along the road, its not wonder we were camping within this area on the way up when the bear walked up to us.  The best animal to run across is a Moose, they are terrified of humans and tend to run back into the forest, not like deer that will dart back into traffic.  Moose seem clumsy and goofy and always make me laugh as they scramble to get away from you.  This large male was swimming in the ditch when I pulled up.  He just scrambled to get away, except he was in the middle of a swamp, was hilarious to watch him stumble through the marsh to get away.

Wild Buffalo

Sad reality of hanging out by the road

We stumbled on a mother Grizzly and her cubs playing along the side of the road, watched them for close to an hour, its rare to get so see so many animals up close, but I didnt want to get too close not being in a car.  The little cubs were very curious and ran up to any car that stopped, finally he sat on the side of the road watching us and watching the odd car that passed.

Grizzly Family

Finally we arrived at Laird Hotsprings.  Its one of the largest natural hotsprings in Canada and well worth the stop.  Aside from the deck and stairs in, its all natural.  The source is a pile of rocks and it gets progressively hotter the closer you get upstream to them, makes it easy to find the perfect temperature.  I stayed there until 2am, perfect way to end the day.

Boardwalk to the hotsprings

Moose like to hang out around the hotsprings to eat the vegetation, on the walk back I was startled by a large moose hiding in the bushes, they stay still until they think you’ve spotted them, and then just take off.  Still makes me laugh.