Day 10

It's a better day weather wise leaving Muncho Lake. It's warn and there isn't any rain in sight.

It wasn't too far down the raod when I came across some of these goats. I believe they are called Stome Mountain Goats and are unique to this area.








The road is good and the scenery remarkable. Too bad teh slight overcast mutes out the color in the pictures. It is really quite stunning.













The first stop of teh day is the Laird Hot Springs. This is a natural hot spring pool that have been left that way by the BP Parks . Outside of the walkway into the pool and some concrete slabs to sit on, it is undisturbed. Moving around the pool it's amazing how much diversity in temperature that exists in the pool. Some spots get so how you have to move on. Also, the temperatures vary in layers, which is rather interesting.





As it turns out, this is prime bear habitat. Speaking with one of the Rangers, they inform om that I shouldn't venture off into the woods as they have trip wires set up that fire bear spray as a deterrent to the bears. Hmmm, sounds like good advise, who needs a dose of bear spray.









I ran into the guys riding these machines at the springs. They were pilots from North Carolina on a 5 week adventure. They had been taking in some back country adventures on their dual sport bikes. Notice the gun case mounted on the back. They had a shotgun in there for bear protection.









Did I mention bears? I saw four or five today at decent distances. This was as close as I could get to any of them. It's a pretty decent sized brown bear who wasn't much too concerned about me.













Trucking down the road feeling good after the soak, I came across this big dude on the side of the road. Like the bear, he wasn't too impressed with me or my bike. These are a unique species of bison in this valley, with only 250 remaining. I was glad to get to see this one.








Oh, then there was the herd lurking around the next curve. They had the road jammed up for for an hour. They just kept pressing towards me and I had to regroup via u-turns 6 times. The old bulls weren't much of a concern but the cows with calves were and and the adolescent males thought it was mating season. A little too much action for me on the bike.






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See how they are trying to outflank me? They would come up both sides of the road and then send the main herd up the center. AllI could do was give ground. Wow, talk about an adrenaline rush!













After all of the action with the bison, I stopped for a hike at this recreation area. The waterfall was a bit anticlimactic, but was very nice none the less.















Pushing on, I cross over from British Columbia into the Yukon. The vastness of the area is something to behold.


















Continuing on I reach the Telsin River. This is a large river with a grated bridge that is fun to cross. If you never have, you should try riding a motorcycle across open grates. Loads of fun.

The world famous Yukon Motel is just on the other side and that's where I grab a room for the night.







Day 10 Saturday July 16, 2011 337 miles