We were up early and ready to get on the road. We were supposed to head to Muncho Lake, but there is no room at the campgrounds. The last I knew, our friends had headed to Liard Hot Springs instead, but at this point, we are not sure where they landed. We’re hoping to hear from them on the GPS communicator as we head that way today

Let the adventure continue!

It turns out that the car that was parked in our campground spot was probably a homeless guy. When we spoke to the campground person this morning, he said the homeless problem was really bad in the area. That’s sad and probably plays a part in the safety issues in Dawson Creek.

We started the day at a truck wash before hitting the road.

The truck has been giving a bit of trouble climbing the hills. Temperature has been getting a bit high. Not too far into our travels today, it hit over 260 and gave an engine overheating warning. We knew we had to stop so Mike could replace the thermostat (which he had already purchased before the trip . . . just in case).

Once that new thermostat was installed, the truck was happy and began climbing the hills like a champ!

We ate some sandwiches and got on the road again.

It was an incredibly long travel day full of long mountain pulls, and we landed in Watson Lake around 12:30 a.m. Sadly, we had issues getting into the campground I had spoken to earlier in the day. It was all barricaded and fenced off. I have no idea what was happening. After trying all possible approaches (not easy with a trailer in the dark), we went down to the Signpost Forest lot, where other campers were boondocking and slept there for the night.

The portion of the Alaska Highway we traveled today rewarded us with quite a bit of wildlife. We saw a badger, some sheep, bison, and somewhere around 10 bears!

We only photographed one bear, but it was at one point about 20 feet from the truck and could not have cared less about us at all.  The bear appeared when we were beginning to really feel road weary, and the sighting really perked us up and gave us the energy to go the 120 miles we still had to go.

I was super happy with being able to photograph the bear. No matter where I go, I am usually the one who never even sees a bear when everyone else does.

We drove for 15 hours today. We have been trying to catch up with our friends.

When we arrived at the campground, we drove around for about 45 minutes and couldn’t find a way in. The entrance was barricaded and fenced, and even though there was a road in the back to get in, nobody told us about that.

We ended up boondocking in the parking lot of the Signpost Forrest, which was going to be our first stop in the morning anyway.

It was way past time to sleep!