I got up early to find the tent fly still wet, and began hanging things out to dry, keeping an eye on the weather, which was generally cloudy.
This was followed by breakfast, a shower, and packing up the bike.
While getting ready to head out, I had a suspicion confirmed. I'd seen 4 tents with lots of drying lines on the site next to mine when I pulled in yesterday. This morning, when I got up, the lines were filled with soaking wet clothing, including soem spray skirts and tops I thought I saw last evenin, along with a hybrid Highlander with 4 white water kayaks on top. My coincidence radar went into high gear. Just before I was ready to go, I saw Katie from the visitor centre duck out of one of the tents and walk out.
Riding out, I committed to checking out the Salt Plains and Nyarling River again, to check the information Katie had given me, and to double check the Salt Plains trailhead. First, though, I took a wrong turn and rode out to the airport. Riding out, I saw a young mother deer and two fawns.
The took one look at me and an abject terror switch went off in their brains. One fawn darted across the road and into the forest, away from its mother and sibling, who ran along the road, in the same direction as I was gonig. The mother deer kept looking at me, then trying to run throguh the airport fence she was running beside with her fawn. Then, she picked up speed, abandoning her fawn, and lept over the fence, which was likely a good 10 feet high.
This first got me thinking about how stupid deer are, and then about the reaction to me on the bike. I recalled that the herd of bison I'd seen last week started to circle up for defense when I approached too, and I began to wonder if, on the bike, I remind them of a large predator.
Clocking the Salt Plains access road, I learned that Parks was right - it was exactly 11.1km from the start of the road to the trailhead. This time, I found the salt mound, standing about a foot high, made up of damp salt crystals. I also saw a recent bear print or two in the mud leading up to it and was a bit more cautious afterwards, although I saw no other bear sign.
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| The red plants that grow on the edges of the salt |
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| Salt Mound! |
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| Salty bear claw |
At Nyarling River, there was plenty of fresh bison tracks and feces, but no bison, and no river. Instead, it looked like a long dried up creek bed - dried up at least a couple of years ago.
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| On the highway from Fort Smith to Hay River |
As I got closer to Hay River, the skies got darker and I eventually put on the rain layer. I fulfilled my promise to myself and checked out the Dene Cultural Institute on the Hay River Reserve - one of only 2 reserves in the NWT. It was a really cool place and I got to watch a video about the making of a Dene birch back canoe in 1996 - the first one made in over a generation. It was a neat process to watch, and also neat to see people recovering this important part of their cultural identity. It's part of the reason I'm so interested in going to La Crete; to learn more about the Mennonite histories that have shaped my families' histories, and why some day I would like to travel to Ukraine, to see the remains of Oma and Opa's villages.
I went to Enterprise for ga and dinner, and they're really missing out on the Star Trek theme. They could seriously get on the map with the major Canadian Centre of Trek - Vulcan, live long, and prospoer, but nope, just a little town with really good fresh made food at Winnie's (good place for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, if you're passing through).
About 100 metres before the campground entrance, the rain started. I checked in while it downpoured and the manager offered to open the cooking shelter if I needed a dry place to set up my tent and walk it to my site (I did the picnic shelter tent dry and tear down thing a number of times on the Haida Gwaii cycling trip). I managed to find a way to set up my tarp over the tent pad - the first time I've used the tarp on the trip (ever in fact)! Then, I set up the tent under the shield, shuttled sleeping stuff in its dry bags into the tent, and have been in here ever since. I'm sure the falls are impressive and gorgeous, but if it's still raining, I'll see them tomorrow just before heading out. Right now, I'm thinking about calling it an early night. If it's raining in Fort Vermilion too, I might just see about a motel room in the area.
I guess rain was bound to happen again on this trip.
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| Camp setup at Louise Falls |
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