July 5 2012 – Mountain Shadow RV Park & Campground, Iskut, BC Canada

Larry developed a cold and sore throat yesterday and had a miserable night. I thought he might need to stay put today and rest up, but he thought he could drive and feel as well as he would just sitting around. There are very few roads in this area, so we turned on Rt. 37 which is the only one going south from the Watson Lake area other than the ALCAN. It is somewhat of a secondary road, paved but no center line and very few signs. We had only gone about 10 or 15 miles when we saw a bear by the road. We did get a picture of it, but the internet connection here is not strong enough to post pictures. We spotted three moose – no pictures – and two more bears romping around together, also no pictures.

There were hardly any towns along this whole stretch of road (about 200 miles). The one little town where we got gas had a population of 400. That was the big town for the day. They had a gas station, a little grocery store (by our standards) and a “hospital”. Another town had a school, but the only store was more like a convenience store. At one stretch, we probably drove for 10 or 15 miles without meeting another single vehicle. We are definitely out in the wilderness.

In one area we saw several small tents somewhat together, then a few more, then we saw a larger tent with some tarps strung up beside it with an “open” sign, then a few older campers and tents somewhat close together. We couldn’t figure out what that was all about. They weren’t by a stream or lake, they were by a burned out forest. Was it some kind of limited hunting or trapping season? Then we saw another larger tent with a sign that said “Mushroom Buying Headquarters”. We kept seeing several other clusters of campers and tents, then again one that said “Mushroom Buyer”. A few miles beyond that, we were stopped by a flagger for some mowers and brush cutters, so I asked the flagger what that was all about. She said they were hunting morrell mushrooms. She said the morrells grow where there has been a forest fire. The buyers then sell them commercially.

The campground we are at is at the base of some mountains. It is a beautiful setting. It is off the road about a quarter of a mile, down a winding narrow little road, but when you get back here it is just gorgeous, trees, mountains, a lake and more trees.