From our fresh air spot in Big creek campground we continued East. First stop Watson Lake - memories of trying to get our propane problem fixed over a month ago. Back in 1942 a homesick US army engineer working on the construction of the Alaska highway put up a sign with the distance to his hometown. That was the beginning of the Watson Lake sign post forest On July 2oth 1990 the 10,000th sign was posted - goodness knows what the count is now. We stopped and looked but couldn't find a 'Black Country' sign. More gas, more groceries then more miles. Not much of interest in this area. Watson Lake was smoke fire but within 5 miles visibility was reducing as the highway was blotted out with smoke. We passed through the small town of Lower Post which had been evacuated but the road was still open for us. The smoke got thicker, it was like the end of the world. The smoke to our right seemed to have an orange glow! We kept going expecting to pop out into clear air at any moment but the some just went on an on. Then behold a bright light in the sky, the sun. Things were improving, then we spotted bison right next to the road, so close to us in fact that Donna had to drive off as a large bull was moving closer towards us - these beasts charge! Oh no, back into the smoke, when will it end. Our destination for the day was Liard River Hot springs and campground. We had passed by several hot spring visits over the last 2 months based upon Liard supposedly being the best, now it looked Liard would be smoke bound. We didn't emerge from the smoke but it slowly thinned out and again we could see the sun. Just by the campground entrance Donna spotted a black bear, we pulled up and filmed the bear before joining the queue for the site and hot springs. A family was sauntering along out of the campground towards where we had seen the bear. We called them to warn them, and in turn they informed the lady on the gate. In no time at all a pick up arrived and a ranger with a rifle stepped out. The bear had already been seen in the campground, the ranger didn't plan to shoot the bear but fire bangers to scare it away. We parked up for the night and strolled down to take a relaxing dip. Knowing we might experience more smoke today we had been wearing the same smelly togs as yesterday. It was blissful to relax in the hot springs and wash away our smells! I stayed in the extremely hot end way too long and felt faint! Another rare BBQ opportunity and then the smoke crept in. We retreated indoors and had a rotten night's sleep. It was too hot and stuffy in Tilly with all the vents closed and we could still smell smoke. The rangers had told us they have had smoke coming and going like this for over a month now!