Last night was probably the best camping sleep so far on the trip. There were no bugs fighting to get into the tent, it had cooled off a bit before sleep, and I woke early but rested and got my earliest start yet, heading out at 8am. In fact, it was cool enough that I put on the rain layer as a wind break, otherwise having on only cycling shorts and a light t shirt under my mesh and padding riding suit.
My first stop came quickly - the start of the winter road to Trout Lake. The bugs here were horrible, so it was only a couple of quick picures and then on the ay again, to limit my donations to the Mosquito Blood Fund.
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| Winter road to Trout Lake |
The next photo stop was completely unplanned. After crossing Bouvier Creek, I saw a house, rather large and new, on the North side of the road. this was completely out of place, so of course I stopped and took a picture of this house in the middle of nowhere.
The riding continued to be wonderful conditions of well worn gravel and I soon saw the 3000km rollover on the odometer. I don't know exactly why, but rollovers are somehow more special with an analogue odometer. Maybe it's seeing all of those 9's lining up, then, all together, all of the numbers rolling up.
Today was also a special wild life day. I saw some cranes before getting on the ferry across the Mackenzie, and some bison, well, being bison and doing whatever they want, wherever they want, just after I got off the ferry.
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| Bison in the construction yard |
Directly beside the ferry route was the Deh Cho Bridge, being build to permanently link the two sides of the river. It's a massive project, and expected to be complete for fall of 2012.
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| Deh Cho Bridge construction |
These two last points, about bison and the bridge, have me wondering one very important question: How are they going to make sure the bison don't take over the bridge?
The campground had lots of empty sites when I arrived, so I chose the best and explored around it. The tops of the banks of the river had bushes bursting with saskatoon berries, so I grabbed some handfuls of these for lunch before walkin into town. I don't advise doing this. It's 4km's from the actual sites at the campground in, on an ATV trail at the side of the road, and the bugs are immensely worse than either in town or at the campsite.
There was an interesting situation in town: the service centre on the highway had run out of gas, leaving the Northern in town as the only one in the area with gas. With everyone in town for the Dene Assembly there was a constant lineup around the block to fill tanks, and, like a game of Russian Roulette, no one knew when the tank would run out. Turns out it's a 50,000 litre tank and had just been filled up a couple of days ago, but that's beside the point (and yes, I joined this line too).
Walking around town the presence of the Assembly was unmistakeable. There were people everywhere, as wel as the actual meetings around policy and direction in the hall. I was looking forward to seeing the youth entertainment this evening, seeing posters for it around town, but it was cancelled last minute and I hung out with some locals, including one of the scheduled entertainers instead.
In camp, sleep came easily, until I was woken by someone chopping wood in the middle of the night, giving me an excuse to sleep in, instead of getting up at 5:30.
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