Alaska Highway - Causing a Sheep Traffic Jam in Muncho Lake, and Providing Roadside Assistance Near Lower Post [260618]

(Posted 260712) Our final day in British Columbia ended up being a fairly packed one, with lots of animal sightings (Stone's Sheep, two herds of bison, and a bear with her cubs), a visit to a famous hot spring, and a little roadside assistance thrown in.

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We were up Thursday morning by 8 a.m.  As our weather apps had predicted, the morning was rather cold and drizzly compared to the rather nice evening/night before.

We were through our morning routine and ready to start our planned hike (from the trailhead where we overnighted) by 9 but the attempt was rather short lived: about 0.1 mile along the "trail" we encountered a small creek/river that was too wide to jump and running too rapidly to attempt walking across the loose stones to get to the other side.  Rather than risk getting our boots wet and ruining several days worth of hiking, we decided to try another trail up the road.

Four km north was the Stones Sheep Trail.  We popped across the highway from there to take photos of the lake . . .

. . . and then were going to hike as far as the dyke "just to see what was there".

Once we got to the top of the dyke we decided to keep going further - but then realized that we had forgotten our bear spray in the van (again) and Tom had to run back for it. 🙄 Once armed with bear spray, we walked along the top of the dyke until we spied a couple and their dog standing on the alluvial fan and staring off into the distance.  It took us a moment to figure out what they were looking at, but we eventually noticed the small group of sheep traveling along the base of the mountain in the southern drainage.  We were able to see them for a few minutes, before they dropped below our line of sight into some sort of crevice or ravine.

We decided to cross over to the opposite side of the alluvial fan to try to find the path indicated by the sign at the trailhead, and hopefully catch up and parallel the sheep as they made their way up the southern drainage.  But the sheep had a good head start on us, and they move fast.  As we rushed to catch up, we saw signs that sheep had been on our side of the fan recently as well.

Eventually the sheep moved from the base of the mountain to the side, and we were able to get a better view of them:  four of them traveling together.

About 2/3 of the way up the drainage, our intrepid group of four sheep ran into a group of nine sheep headed the opposite direction, on what apparently is some sort of sheep highway.  (You may want to follow the instructions here to view this next photo at full resolution 😉.)

After what we presume is some customary sniffing of each other, the groups passed by each other and continued on their separate ways.  We decided to turn around and stick with the group of nine as they made their way out of the drainage.

 

As we got close to the opening of the alluvial fan, the group of sheep came down from the side of the mountain and walked along the surface of the fan for a while.  Then they stopped for a bit, took a hard left, and disappeared from sight.  We assumed that they had gone in front of the mountain, and that was last we were going to see of them.

A few minutes later they popped up again, a bit up the slope.  And we noticed that they seemed to be watching us.  We watched them.  They watched us.  This went on for about 8 minutes.

Finally, the sheep came down off the mountain again and made a bee-line for the top of the dyke, following it all the way to the parking lot, and then across the street and out of sight.

We finally figured out that the sheep had probably assumed that we'd want to cross the dyke ahead of them like all the looky-loos who come out to gawk at them usually do, and were confused why we weren't when they were waiting for us to do so.  They eventually got tired of waiting for us, and ran on ahead.  So we had unintentionally caused a sheep traffic jam that morning!

With the sheep now out of sight, we returned to the T42.  The total "hike" ended up being 1.82 miles with an elevation gain of 263 feet.  The moral of the story we guess, though, is that we could've saved ourselves the hike and just sat in the van and waited for the sheep to walk by if we wanted to. 😉

By this time the clouds were starting to burn off a little bit and some blue sky was starting to show through, so took one last pano by the lake before leaving.

You may be wondering why the sheep were headed to the other side of the road.  It couldn't be for water, since there was a perfectly good stream running down the center of the alluvial fan that they could be drinking from.  Food?  Not really.  We saw our sheep friends again on the lake side of the highway, shortly after getting back on, licking the rocks.  There was a good sign at our next stop that explained why.

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Our next stop was 23 km up the road at the Salt Lick Viewing Area trailhead.  The actual viewing area is accessed by a 1.5 km (Apple logged it as 0.72 mile) loop-ish trail, along the way of which you get some pretty nice views of the Trout River Valley.

As we neared the actual salt/mineral lick area there was a sign that described why the animals come here to lick the rocks - but there were no actual animals anywhere to be seen.  We were doubly happy about our sheep experience earlier today, at this point.

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Around 1 p.m. we crossed over "the last remaining suspension bridge on the Alaska Highway".  Oooh . . . exciting!

And while we're on "exciting topics": for lunch that day, Tom opened the pack of "Cajun Chicken Breast" we had found at the last Walmart, as a "fun change from the usual smoked turkey".  He was a bit hesitant/skeptical after the previous "Oven Roasted Herbed Turkey Breast" fiasco, but it turned out to be quite tasty!

And speaking of lunch:  we had stopped in the parking lot across the street from the famous Liard Hot Springs for our lunch break.  As we ate lunch, we watched a rather large bison wander around the opposite end of the parking lot - and for a while, guard the pit toilet.  But he eventually tired of his sentinel duties, and wandered off.

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Our original plan was to see if it was possible to view the hot springs from the road, or somehow get to see the hot springs without having to pay the entrance fee since we had no intention of actually getting into the springs (not being hot springs people, and not having brought swimsuits) but the signs at the entrance made it clear that wasn't going to happen.  So we just bit the bullet, and paid the $5/person entrance fee and entered the Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park.

The first most striking thing you notice when entering the park is that it appears to be surrounded by an 8 foot tall electric fence.  Once you get in, you realize that the fence only surrounds the campground and day use areas of the park - you have to exit the fence area again to get to the hot springs.  (We found out later that the fence was built after a fatal bear attack in 1997.)

Once outside the safety of the fence, you begin walking on the 0.7 mile boardwalk that leads to the hot springs.  The boardwalk passes over warm water swamp and boreal forest areas, that are home to many interesting plants and critters.

Near the start of the boardwalk, the water was teeming with tiny little Lake Chub.

A few feet away and on the other side of the boardwalk were tadpoles.

Tom wondered how these endangered freshwater snails tasted (and how many he would have to suck down to feel like he had gotten his $5 worth 😜).

The hot springs were a reasonably pretty place to take a soak, if you're into that sort of thing.  We dipped our fingers in, and as expected the water was much too warm for our personal tastes (the sign said they're usually 36C = 96.8F).

We continued past the hot springs to see the Hanging Gardens.  On our way, this brightly colored bird (which Google identifies as a "Western Tanager") was singing very loudly to catch our attention.

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About 4 km south of the park we encountered a herd of bison grazing by the side of the road.

"Do I have something stuck to my face?"

On the down side: while we've been able to get some great shots with our new/used 70-300mm lens today, we've also missed a number of them (both at Stones Sheep Trail this morning, and now again with the bison herd) because the lens flat out refused to focus.  We're beginning to wonder if we got a bum used lens . . .

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We continued cruising up the highway along the Liard River . . .

. . . when we encountered a second herd of bison, about 24 km NW of the first one.  This herd was on both sides of the road - and, well, on the road too since they were crossing from one side to the other.  Since trying to get a photo of the entire herd wasn't practical, we decided to capture half the herd by video as we drove by instead.

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We continued to stop at scenic viewpoints called out in the Milepost as we drove up the road.

One such spot was Whirlpool Canyon, where you're supposed to be able to see whirlpools in the water.  While true, it sounds much more exciting than it actually is in real life.  They only happen every so often, and aren't very big.

At around 5:20 p.m. we crossed over from British Columbia into the Yukon Territory for the first time, and stopped for a photo by the sign.  We were a little surprised to find that the sign was faded and almost completely plastered over with stickers, to the point that you almost wouldn't be able to tell what the sign was supposed to say if you didn't already know.

We say "for the first time" because, interestingly, the highway continues to oscillate back and forth across the Yukon/British Columbia provincial line several times over the next 60-ish kilometers.  On one of our swings back into B.C. we came across this black bear and her two cubs by the side of the road.

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All day we had been on the lookout not only for animals on the side of the road, but vehicles pulled over as well - since vehicles are easier to spot from a distance, and they're often pulled over because of animals by or in the road.  Not too long after the bears, we saw what appeared to be a car stopped on the shoulder, but eventually could tell that it wasn't actually stopped but rather was just moving very slowly.  As we drew nearer, we could make out other details - like the "Just Married" written on the back (and side) window, and as we passed we could see that their front driver's tire was very, very flat.

Should we stop?  We hadn't seen another soul on the road in either direction in a good long time, so it seemed like the right thing to do.  Tom pulled over a few hundred feet ahead of them, turned off the engine, and went back to see if they needed help.

The answer was "yes".  Apparently the nice young couple in the car had gotten the flat tire some time back, didn't know if they had a spare (and didn't know how to change it if they did), and didn't have enough cell service to call their roadside assistance.  So they'd just been slowly driving on the flat, hoping to make it to the next town.  Apparently a few cars had driven by, but we were the first to have stopped.

Tom told them that we had a WeBoost in the van that we could use to try to get a cell signal with, but if that didn't work we could drive one or both of them to the next town to try to get help.  He returned to the T42 and fired up the WeBoost, but still got zero bars of both AT&T and Verizon.  So Christine started moving things out of the dinette seats so that we could take on passengers.

Tom went back and told the couple the news about the WeBoost.  They decided that they preferred to stay together, so they gathered a few of their valuables, locked their car, and we all piled into the T42.  As we drove up the road, we learned a little about their story.  Chloe had just graduated from college in Portland, and she and Xander had just gotten married there last Sunday.  They're currently moving her up to Wasilla, AK, where Xander currently lives (having moved there 6 months ago) in a used car that Chloe's dad bought for them.

It turns out that the "nearest town", Lower Post, wasn't too far from where we picked them up.  But it also isn't much of a town.  It has a single gas station, that was already closed by the time we pulled up.  However, Christine was able to get a single bar of service on her phone from there, and with the WeBoost Xander was able to use it to call his roadside assistance company.  The company was actually really impressive.  After verifying his account, they got info about his situation, asked where he planned on taking the car, and when he didn't know they looked up shops for him, checked reviews, and helped him find a place.  Then they put in a request for a tow truck and put a "flag" on it since they were stranded by the side of the road - but given that they were out in podunk, the best they could "guarantee" was that the truck would be there "by 8:30" - which was 1.5 hours out.  They were told to stay with their vehicle, which Xander was fine with, but we were a little nervous about the fact that they'd be stranded out there with no cell service again if the tow truck failed to show up.

Before taking them back to the their car, we drove the "streets" of Lower Post for a bit to see if there might be a restaurant or some other business open that they'd be able to go to if things didn't work out, but Lower Post appeared to consist of nothing but sparsely spaced residences (think "multi-acre lots, with the the house set far back from the road"), and an elementary school that was supposedly somewhere down a dirt road that we didn't feel like driving down.  We decided we'd just stay with Xander and Chloe until the truck arrived.  When we got back to their car, Tom offered to help them look for a spare, since the tow truck driver would be able to put it on for them if they had one, which Xander gladly accepted.  It turns out their spare is in the normal place for a car of their type: in a compartment under the floor of the trunk (which was packed full of Chloe's moving boxes, so it's understandable that they didn't look under there).

In the end, it didn't take long for the tow truck to arrive:  we estimate just over 20 minutes after the call to roadside assistance ended, which is about the time it takes to get from Watson Lake (the next "major" town) to Lower Post.  He said he could put their spare on for them, but wanted them to move their car to the side road in Lower Post first (we don't blame him; we wouldn't want to try changing a driver's side tire on the shoulder of that narrow highway either!), so we left them in his capable hands and went on our way.

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Where the highway took it's final transition from British Columbia to the Yukon is a "Welcome to British Columbia" sign (on the opposite side of the road, of course).  Somewhat miffed that there was no such sign when we crossed over from the U.S. into British Columbia in Abbotsford, we decided to take advantage of this one instead.  (Note that this sign, too, has started getting overrun by stickers, but nowhere near as badly as the "Welcome to Yukon" sign from earlier today.)

Finally at around 7:30 p.m. we reached our stopping place for the night: the 60th Parallel Rest Area.

We went to read the signs in the kiosk, but ended up just snapping photos of them all and then making a run for it when the neighborhood mosquitoes caught whiff of us.  These signs in particular describe the significance of the 60th Parallel.

We saw a very familiar looking "Just Married" emblazoned vehicle drive by about 20 minutes later, so we know that Xander and Chloe got fixed up and on their way.

Dinner that night was pre-cooked rice, some new tinned oysters from Costco, and canned carrots for Tom, and a can of Tim Horton's Minestrone soup and bread for Christine.  The Starlink was pointed south and properly aligned as usual, but extremely slow tonight for some reason; it kept reporting that it was "Obstructed" but there was nothing visible in the way so there must be space debris between us and the satellite(s).  With such limited bandwith, we pretty much just updated journals and converted photos tonight (although blog post #7 did end up getting proofread and posted).

Just for fun:  this photo was taken just before midnight, with the lighting adjusted to properly reflect "what things really looked like" when looking out the windshield.  The days will only keep getting longer the farther north we travel, and the closer we get to the solstice.

Bedtime was around 12:45.  Tomorrow we'll be heading to the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake to leave behind our reverse-souvenir.