Day Two

I woke up at 4:30 AM, thanks to the early rising sun.  I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but when I heard Catherine attempting to make a fire around 6 AM, I got up, too.  (The rule was whoever got up first had to start the campfire.)  We managed to make a breakfast feast of sausage, eggs and oatmeal and get most everything packed between the raindrops and then headed to the shower. It was a pay shower – a Loonie for “10-ish minutes”, per the sign on the wall.  I think it was closer to 8-ish minutes, and was grateful I had another Loonie on hand! This was a big travel day – we were traveling on the West Access Route from Lac La Hache to Prince George (188 miles), then west on the Yellowhead Highway to Gitwangak (298 miles), and finally north on the Cassiar Highway to Bell 2 Lodge (155 miles) – at total of 641 miles.  And we were hoping it would be a big wildlife day – after all, I was promised sightings of bear and moose!  The Milepost had a listing for Cariboo Wood Shop, which specializes in fresh fudge and lattes, which sounded like a delightful combination after being on the road for a whole hour!  We knew we weren’t in Seattle anymore when the clerk asked us if we were in a hurry because she wasn’t very fast at making lattes. But all was good after several fudge samples – we walked out properly caffeinated and sugarated!  Back on the road we drove through Quesnel and caught site of the “World’s Largest Gold Pan”.  We didn’t get tricked into stopping for this “World’s *-est” thing – but did take a fly by picture! At Prince George we turned left onto the Yellowhead Highway.  Signs on the highway promised pie and ice cream at J & S Drive In in Vanderhoof, so we stopped there.  I was intrigued by the wareneki on the menu and had to try it.  The restaurant specialized in Mennonite food and while the cottage cheese stuffed perogies smothered in a white gravy with a piece of grilled sausage on the side was one of the oddest lunches I’ve had in a long time, it was delicious! We sampled the cherry and coconut cream pie for dessert - yum!  As we sped on towards the Cassiar turn off, we spotted our first bear – just hanging our near the side of the road eating in the bushes.  This was getting exciting!  Unfortunately, bears tend to run away when they see a car on the highway stop abruptly, put it in reverse and head towards them so we couldn’t get many pictures of them.  Finally we reached Gitwangak and turned north onto the Cassiar Highway.  The terrain started changing from the flatter farmland and got more hilly and mountainy.  The Cassiar is not a busy highway and has very few services on it.  However, it makes up for all that in bear.  We spotted 11 more bear before we got to Bell 2 Lodge, including a mama and her 2 cubs.  We finally pulled in to Bell 2 Lodge, which is primarily a place for heliskiers in the winter, around 9 PM.  As we carried our stuff up into our comfy alpine-inspired room, we had to dodge the swarms of mosquitos outside.  We were very glad to have a bed inside and away from them that night…