Day 5 - Watson Lake, Yukon to Fort Nelson, British Columbia (518km)

Very interesting day.

Let’s get to the competition first. We had three speed tests today; no Regularities.

All three tracks were over very rough gravel paths; all were short distances, but soft gravel and big bumps made the sections difficult. While the results are not test in, I believe that we did pretty well as the Marshall’s recording our times were very complimentary of our efforts.

While we will probably gain a few points in the scorecard, it will not be enough to overcome our big screw up yesterday. We just need to persevere; gain a few points every day; and hope one of the other competitors makes a mistake. We need to be patient; still another 25 days to go.

Nature: Today we moved south from the Yukon into British Columbia. The long drive reminded me of driving in Colorado. Vast vistas of mountain peaks (we are in the Canadian Rockies) with thousands of acres of trees. It was a hundred different shades of green wherever you looked….absolutely, beautiful.

We also saw some wildlife! We had three spotting of black bears. All three sightings were along the roadside with the bears eating the small yellow snd white flowers. Prior to our lunch stop, we came upon a herd of about 75 Bisons (Buffaloes). Again, walking along the shoulder of the road, led by a very big alpha male. I’ve seen many Buffalo in Yellowstone National Park, but the Buffalo we saw today seemed to be much larger.

Also, today we saw the first signs of farming and ranching, including a herd of cows, not too far from our hotel. Truth is, the folks who live up here prefer game caught locally (deer, elk, moose, etc) than store-bought beef from cows.

Finally, tomorrow we’re off to Dawson Creek where we will get our first rest day before heading south to Washington State.

These light float planes are the way many of the locals get around 

Bears crossing the road.

Fred, our Rally Master and Sara, our paramedic
doing duty as Marshall’s in one of the Speed Stages today.