Day 12: Meziadin Lake Provincial Park to Bell 2

June 16, 2010

The terrain was challenging today. It was a long climb out of the junction and it was hilly for the first 25 km. My original plan was to continue to the next provincial campground today. The brochure said it was 175 km from where I started. Just before I got to Bell 2, there was a rest stop with mileage signs that indicated the provincial park was actually 208 km away. The original plan would have been pushing it, but 208 km would have been too much. So, I pulled into Bell 2. It all worked well and I had a nice meal and a hot shower here.

I got speaking to Len, a wildlife biologist who is stationed here. He invited me up to the room where he and the rest of the crew spend evenings. When the joined them, them (Len, Doug, Rebecca and a mystery women) were finishing off a game of scrabble. Len and team work for the Ministry of the Environment as biologists (and budding biologists on summer jobs) tracking goats that have had sensors placed on them. After they finished their game of scrabble, we watched Uruguay defeat South Africa at the soccer World Cup. Len told us a story about when he used to play soccer. He scored the apparent winning goal in a league game. Unfortunately, it was disallowed because somebody took a blatant dive. When he complained, the referee gave him a red card which he took and ripped up thus getting himself kicked out of the game, league and off the league board all in one fell swoop.

I saw three black bears today (all separate incidents). The first on just stayed in the middle of the road and stared at me. Len said that when I saw the mother bear and the cub on the slope yesterday that what I described as a 'bark' was actually a 'hough'. This is a sign of agression from a mother bear.

I stayed at Bell 2 ($21). It's a decent campground with a place to get a meal, nice showers and even a hot tub.

End point:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=56.74382,-129.79207&ll=56.74382,-129.79207&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1