This is why we came here!

On the road before 7:00am again yesterday morning. We find it's better to get some driving done early. There are a lot fewer vehicles on the road, plus the odds of seeing some more wildlife are higher.

There are a lot of roadside pulloffs on the Alaska Highway. Obviously you can't stop at them all, but there are so many photo opportunities and things that we don't want to miss. We simply can't figure how anybody can drive right through, and yet many people do exactly that.

Probably every second vehicle on the Alaska Highway at this time of year is an RV. And I find it odd that there are quite a few traveling south as well, but as Ruth says, that's the people who have already been up there early and are now headed home again.

Scenery along the way.

Sherman, stopped at one of the many roadside pulloffs.

There are lots of creeks and streams and rivers.

Love the mountains.

Sherman, beside Summit Peak on the right.

The Summit Lake Campground.

We pulled into a trailhead area beside the highway at Summit Lake. The trail up to Summit Peak isn't very long, but it's uphill every step of the way. Across from the trailhad is the Summit Lake Campground. Beautiful views of the lake and the mountains. Yet, hardly anybody is there. In fact, there were only two tent campers there when we arrived at about 8:00am, so I wouldn't think the RVers would have left already. 

Now, it's $26 CAD ($20.50 USD) per night with no services so it's a little pricey (although almost worth it just for the views) especially given the number of free camping spots. Oddly, we don't see many of the RV'ers staying at the free camping spots either... I guess they all want expensive full hookups.

We had some breakfast and decided to do part of the hike. The views higher up were supposed to be spectacular, and we needed some exercise. We decided to go as far as the first lookout.

A few pretty wildflowers out.

Starting out on the trail.

We had to cross a stream.

The water was crystal clear!

Didn't take long to get a bit of a view.

Us.

We love this kind of thing!

Getting higher.

And it's a bit chilly up here too!

This is why we came here!

Summit Lake, with the campground on the lower left.

The trail continues up to the peak, but it's rock scrambling and without vegetation. For our first strenuous hike of the season, we figured that we had better turn around at this point. Besides, we had been watching a storm moving in from the south west and the weather can change quickly in these mountains.

It took us two hours to go up and one hour to come back down. 

More wildflowers.

Back at the bottom, we started driving again. There is no cell service between Fort Nelson, British Columbia and Watson Lake, Yukon and we needed to find some internet to be able to post yesterday's update. Although, I picked up a very weak signal at the lookout and was able to put up a facebook picture for our readers there.

More wildlife!

These are called Stone Sheep.

They live in this rocky valley.

The Alaska Highway.

This fellow hopped the barrier and was licking salt off the side of the road.

Scenery along the way.

More scenery.

Clear blue water.

We stopped for lunch at the Toad River Lodge. This is one of the few full service stops along this section of the highway. They have gas and diesel, RV sites, cabins and rooms for rent, a restaurant etc. Their gas price was $1.659 ($4.85 USD per gallon) for the people who didn't fill up in Fort Nelson or perhaps have a small tank! Glad Sherman has a big tank!

I saw the sign that said "Inquire about wifi" so I went inside. You have to pay $2 for the wifi pass code, and surprisingly the internet worked quite well. Out here in the middle of nowhere I'm thinking it must be satellite internet. (GPS 58.847532, -125.232918)

As we were having lunch, I saw a guy walking our way. "Hey, does that look like Bill?" I asked Ruth.

Sure enough, it was out friends Bill and Bonnie. We knew they were up here. They did the marine highway heading north along the BC coast into Alaska, and now they are coming back around and heading south. We've bumped into them several times in Mexico, Michigan, and Texas... and now northern British Columbia!

Always good for a few laughs, and nice to see them again if only for an hour!

Bonnie and Bill with their rig.

We said goodbye because we both had to hit the road again... them south, and us north.

We had a nearby overnight spot to check out, but if it didn't work out we knew we had at least another hour to Liard Hot Springs.

More gorgeous scenery.

 Less then half a km off the highway is this open space by the Toad River.

It's odd because this is actually located in Muncho Lake Provincial Park, but it's not an official campground. Lots of firepits and campsites, some with picnic tables. A sign that said "This area is user maintained, please keep it clean", and nothing saying you can't stay overnight.

So we did.

Facing the river.

The Toad River.

Going across the river is an old Bailey Bridge.

There's Sherman, free camping by the Toad River!

GPS 58.852337, -125.375385

It started raining overnight, and it's supposed to rain on and off all day today. We're headed to Liard Hot Springs for a night or two and we likely won't have any internet again until Watson Lake, Yukon so you may or may not have a blog post to read tomorrow.

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