July 19, 2013 Friday
Day 12
What a beautiful place we have found. We slept so well last night with the windows open, listening to the gentle sound of the waves and every once in awhile we heard the cry of a loon. This morning we took our time, relaxing by the glassy lake with our breakfast. It was hard to leave this quiet, tranquil setting, on Francois Lake, BC, but we were excited to move on towards Alaska.

Within the first few minutes of our drive along the Lake, we saw a big mule deer standing right on the side of the road. We wanted to get a picture, but it is not cool to stop quickly when you are going 45mph, pulling 4,000 pounds, so we didn't get the shot, but she sure was pretty.
Today's drive along Trans Canada Hwy 16 took us through the Interior Plateau, The Lakes District, more forests, meadows and farmland, and a few small towns. Burns Lake, was a cute lakeside town where we decided to stop for a coffee & tea at Redfern's Coffee House. Nice.

Back on the road, along the east side of the snowcapped Coast Mountain Range, we were on the lookout for moose. This is moose country and we saw some interesting barn fronts decorated with varying sizes of moose antlers. Moose antlers, bleached by the sun, on a red barn make an artistic statement on the bright green landscape.

Mishap # 3
Stopped for a picnic lunch, opened camper door, saw 16 ounces of organic popcorn kernels spilled on the floor along with (unopened, thankfully) containers of spices, vinegar, oil, etc. Ok, so the cabinet door must have come open. The bad news is that the 10 ounce glass jar of honey that I brought from home, had also fallen out, broken open & spilled everywhere. So now we have a soup of honey, popcorn kernels, spice containers, broken glass & 2 throw pillows from the couch on the camper floor. THAT took awhile to clean up. Here we were - smack dab in the middle of bear country with a honey coated camper floor!

Our campground tonight, Ksan campground in Hazelton, BC was quiet, peaceful, with stunning views of Blunt Mountain looming over us. This campground was right on the Skeena River. Again we were blessed with no bugs, comfortable temperature, so we sat outside enjoying the evening for a bit before retiring early. We were awakened about 6am by the sound of a big crow walking on our roof. That thing made such a racket!

Wildlife Sightings
Mule Deer