2019 Alaska Trip - Day 7 - Moving From Beaver River Rec Site to Cobb Lake Rec Site With Lots of Bear Sightings, British Columbia, Canada

After sleeping in a bit, we got up and got ready to leave.

Linda & I are still having issues with propane. We cleaned the refrigerator burner a few weeks ago, but it seems that we just don’t have the flow we should have. I don’t know if it is a coincidence, but the problems started showing up after we were attached to a 100 lb propane tank with an “extend a stay” adapter for the winter.

This morning I re-checked the propane connections and hoses, and everything appears to be proper – no leaks, no kinks, etc. So, we’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that we need a new regulator. We can get by without it for a while as everything is operating, but the water heater is giving us a “low flow” propane error, and the refrigerator is still not cooling very well on propane when the temperatures get high. Hopefully, we can find a place to get it checked out.

I didn’t have much else to do to get ready, and I had vowed to clean up around our campsites. So, I took a trash picker and a bucket and made sure that we would leave our campsite cleaner (much cleaner) than we found it – something we try to convey in all our seminars.

Linda and Esther drove the motorhomes out to the paved section of road near the highway, and we hitched up the Jeeps there.

We then made a stop in McBride. The Husky gas station there has a dump station and potable water, so we paid our $10, dumped our tanks, and took on water.

They only had a propane cylinder exchange, but the Petro-Canada station next door had a propane tank. So we went there to top off the propane. But they only fill cylinders. They pointed us to the auto repair place - JNR Auto Services - across the highway which could fill our motorhome propane tanks, so we ambled over there.

Once all that was done, we were back on the road around 11:00. I started checking our plans.

We saw a sign on the highway for “World Class Chicken Races” in Fort St. James, and Linda decided she wanted to go. She thought it would be funny to post pictures of the chicken races to let all our friends in Kentucky know we were “at the races” on this Kentucky Derby weekend.

However, upon further investigation, the chicken races don’t run for another two weeks. Therefore, that plan was out, and that changed our travel options for today.

We had planned a 235-mile drive to Fraser Lake, but with a planned stop in Prince George for groceries, I decided to shorten today’s drive.

I found another free BC rec site at Cobb Lake a few miles short of Vanderhoof. It would be about 4 miles off the highway and the last half mile of road would be rough, but I confirmed that it would accommodate our RVs.

With that out of the way, I was just starting to put away my phone and the MilePost book when Linda said “Bear!” as we whizzed by. I caught a glimpse, and then shortly thereafter, there was another one, a big healthy-looking bear just standing there. Again, I couldn’t get a picture.

Then there was another one at a roadside pull-out where there were bear-proof trash containers, but some trash on the ground. “Pull over!” I shouted as there was lots of room.

So, we sat there watching and taking pictures.

 

 

This was my best one.

 

 

Esther crept up giving Steve a really good look.

 

 

After a little time there, we moved on.

Then there was another bear, and another, and another. Steve got this shot of one I missed. 

 

 

That one was just watching the traffic pass like a big dog.

We saw a car pulled over ahead of us giving us more warning, and we pulled over on the side of the road where I was able to get some closer shots.

 

 

 

In all, we saw eight Black Bears in about a 20-mile stretch of highway between McBride and Prince George. This was the biggest one, but I only got it on the fly, so the photo isn't great.

 

 

Wow, that was pretty amazing. 

Reaching Prince George, I asked our Canadian friends on the walkie-talkie which grocery store we should shoot for, and Esther replied “Real Canadian Superstore” which was right off Yellowhead Highway 16.

They also said they had a fuel discount card there, so we decided to top off our fuel as well. All went well until we pulled into the gas station. Linda couldn’t quite make a turn, and we couldn’t back up with the Jeep attached.

That’s never fun, but fortunately people could get around us. So, we hopped out, unhitched as quickly as possible and then fueled up. With Esther’s discount, it was $1.35 CAD a liter which is about $5.13/gallon CAD and about $3.85/gallon USD.

Since we had the Jeep disconnected, Steve and I drove off to find some more firewood while the ladies conferred on the grocery list and then went shopping.

With that out of the way, we re-hitched the Jeep and took off. We were all looking to get out of the city as the pace was just more than we could handle.

Eventually, we came to our turn at Finnmoore Road a few miles short of Vanderhoof and drove back the gravel road for about three and a half miles. We considered unhitching the Jeep as the motorhome was tossing rocks, but Linda just went very slowly leading the way. There were just a couple of bad, spots, but for the most part that was good road.

We turned on Cobb Lake Road and the last half mile or so to the rec site was through lots of potholes. Our experienced confirmed what I had read - that section was really rough. It was slow going and took us a little longer, but we finally reached our destination.

We parked at the top of the hill where there was one large open, campsite that we could both get into if necessary. But we unhitched the Jeeps and scouted the lakeside sites below. About half of the sites were occupied, but we found a couple of side-by-side sites on the lake that were pretty level, so we claimed them.

Linda pulled into the larger of the two, and then we maneuvered the rig so that it was level and parallel to the lake. Nice.

 

 

Steve & Esther pulled in next door and got leveled. They have a great view as well.

 

 

So far, I’m loving these BC rec sites. What a deal. That’s two waterfront sites in a row with picnic tables and firepits for free. Fantastic! Oh, and we don’t have to contend with the mud here, so that makes this one slightly better than the last one.

Shortly after we set up, we got out our binoculars. Almost immediately, Esther spotted a Black Bear sow and cub across the water. That made ten bears sighted today.

With the “it” factor here once again, we got out all the chairs and just relaxed while looking out over the lake.

 

 

We saw two new birds species that we hadn’t marked off yet in our bird book – Common Goldeneye and Red-necked Grebe. An Osprey and a couple of Bald Eagles flew by. We saw Common Loons ....

 

 

and Buffleheads as well. Later, a beaver swam by. Yeah, it doesn’t get much better than this, although a little sunshine would be nice.

As the afternoon turned into evening, I got out the Blackstone griddle, and Linda cooked up a shrimp stir fry.

 

 

 

Another waterfront, delicious camp meal.

At some point, I set up our cellular antenna and booster, and again we have just enough cell signal to access the internet if we need to.

After dinner, we got a fire going and sat staring at the lake. Steve and I were close to falling asleep in our LaFuma loungers. It was still light, but we all went inside around 8:30 – 9:00.

I went through my hundred photos and deleted way over half of the bear photos I had taken. I was dozing off doing that, so I gave up and we crawled into bed around 10:00 hoping for calls of the loons to lull us to sleep.

We’re definitely staying here for two nights before continuing west. Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow, but even if it’s just sitting and watching the lake, we’ll enjoy it. This is certainly a place where we recognize and are grateful for how lucky we are.

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Comments

[JB]

Looks like you have found a couple of great sites. We'll be keeping them in mind if we head towards the Cassiar later in the summer. Years ago I had a similar propane issue on a fifth wheel, turned out it was caused by oil in the propane lines probably from a pump that was used to refill the 100# bottle we hooked up to when we parked the rig here at the farm.

[Mary Williams]

I am thoroughly enjoying your blog posts!!! I had to go dig out my journal of our trip to Alaska following much the same route as you are taking and re-read and compare experiences! Funny how many references there were in my journal about having to find libraries, cafes and even retailers willing to allow us to hook up to the internet - many requiring reservations and $$$. Things have changed since 2001 for sure! I wrote an article for your "magazine" in 2007 called "An Alaskan Cruise by RV" if you still have it in your files somewhere. Enjoy your travels!!! PS..we had our RV refrigerator repaired in Wrangell.

[Susan Anderson]

WOW you hit the jackpot with the BC Rec Sites for sure.....definitely our cup of tea as well for the "it" factor.

Can you share with us if these sites will accommodate a 5th wheel?

Fantastic bear pics as well as the scenery pics.

[Howard]

Susan,
The BC Rec Sites are all over the place as far as accessibility for larger rigs. The three we stayed at could all accommodate a fifth wheel, but getting there isn't the easiest. And with a limited number of sites, the availability of the sites that can hold a fifth wheel would be iffy depending on the day of the week and the time of year.