Day 25 Toad River, B.C.

Good evening from Toad River, B.C. We should know by now that planning a destination just isn't going to work. Yes, we wanted to be in Fort Nelson today, but we are about 170 miles short. It's 9:30p.m. and we rode 389 hard miles. We started out this morning with nice weather. If you have been following the blog you know that's how a lot of our day's started. You also know what I'm going to tell you next. Yes, 150 miles into our ride, the rain started. We had already started the day with our rain gear on so there was no need to stop. As we rose in elevation in the Northern Rockies we would get wet. The scenery was still a beautiful sight. Mountains surrounded by clouds and covered with snow. Even though we had passed through them several days ago, they looked different. Approaching the range from the west gave us a different perspective and we felt like we had never been there before. We could see the next mountain ahead and the rain falling from the clouds. We were praying to God that the clouds would empty before we got to them. Sometimes that happened and sometimes it didn't. We did however discover that really black clouds are not good, they contain hail. Once again my face is lumped up from hail and I'm sorry to say Tracy didn't escape this storm. Neither of us were wearing our face masks so we pulled over and took shelter under an outhouse roof. There was a bicyclist standing under the roof of the other outhouse. We chatted with the young man and found out he was bicycling to Edmonton from Whitehorse. I couldn't imagine the shape this man was in. It is a tough motorcycle ride let alone peddling all the way. We geared up and headed out. We decided to have lunch in Nugget City at the Wolf It Down restaurant. Dave, our host, had lived in Niagara Falls, Ontario in the seventies and was a renowned chef. We had a good conversation with him as we ate our Buffalo Burgers. We met the owners Scott and Linda and expressed to them that we would be interested in taking up seasonal work with them. One thing we have discovered is that help is hard to find along the highway. Most places are seasonal and most are run by the owners or their families. Scott seemed very interested and showed us around. We talked for some time then exchanged e-mail addresses. The tourism season runs from June through September. Four months in the Yukon sounds like a nice change of pace and we are giving it serious consideration. Check out their web site at www.nuggetcity.com. We said our farewells and rode into the mountains again. The ride slowed down because of the sharp turns and rolling roads. The rain was still with us as we continued on our way. It seemed like we would never get to Fort Nelson. We saw several Bison grazing alongside the road. We stopped to photograph one and he started to rear his head and basically told us to move along. We did, but not before we got his picture. We stopped in Hot Springs, B.C. to inquire about a room, but had no luck, so we pushed on. We then stopped at the Northern Rockies Lodge and had the same results. By now we were really tired and remembered that Toad River Lodge was the next town up. We prayed that a room would be available and as always, God pulled through. We grabbed some munchies to hold us over till morning and headed to our room. Tracy wondered out back while I settled in. I joined her out back and she was excited, she was watching two moose hanging out in the bog. The male grunting is what caught Tracy's attention. To date we have seen bear, mountain sheep, bison, caribou, moose, deer, fox, and rabbit all within a couple hundred yards some as close as 15 feet. Well, it's getting late and we have some ground to make up, so I'm going to call it a night. We cant wait to get to the lower 48 so we can share the pictures with you. God Bless and keep returning, the adventure continues.