Day 4 Watson Lake, Yukon --> Fort St John, British Columbia

We left Watson Lake at 7:55am. It didn’t snow over night but it was a cold 14 degrees. We ran into some Buffalo about 30 minutes outside of Watson Lake. They were nestled warmly in the snow. The roads have been pretty much snow packed the entire day. We are still able to keep a good speed though. As we approached Muncho Lake area we saw two ravens on the side of the road; when we got closer we saw them chasing a little fuzzy white bunny. They wounded it and were now pecking at it as it was squirming to get away. Shortly after the bunny incident we came upon some caribou in the middle of the road. They are so pretty this time of year with their antlers and their full coat of fur. We had to stop several times in the Muncho area to let the caribou run off the road. We came across some sheep as we were heading up Stone Mountain; they are very different than the sheep on Turnagain Arm. They are brown and have smaller horns. We flew by Liard Hot springs, the lodge was closed and not much was going on there. We stopped at the Northern Rockies Lodge to change John and stretch our legs. Just before Toad River, Scott saw a small group of elk. Then we stopped at Toad River to fuel up; Scott had to keep his tradition of stopping at Toad River for gas. Toad River station is famous for all the ball caps hanging from the ceiling and while waiting for the cashier/cook, Scott noticed an Oprah hat hanging behind the cash register – he got a little taste of Oprah. We pulled into Fort Nelson at 3:30pm and decided it was too early to stop for the day so we fueled up and grabbed some grub from A & W and were on the road again to Fort St. John. About 100 miles north of Fort St John Scott and I were playing “name that animal butt” and we saw two black wild horses on the side of the road. So between, horses, sheep, elk, caribou, bison, moose, and deer, it was too dark to really tell what they were, their butts all look the same. The farther south we get the better the roads are getting. 50 miles north of Fort St John the roads cleared up and it was smooth sailing. We had a full moon and clear skies that lit up the highway. It was quite a beautiful night. John has been a very good traveler, he has enjoyed just watching out his window at the scenery, pulling the cat’s ears and tail and watching the occasional Baby Einstein movie. He naps about twice a day. It has been a much smoother drive than we had anticipated thus far. We plan on heading into Edmonton and I am trying to convince Scott to stay two nights so we can go play at the mall and get some laundry done, plus I should do some homework too. We pulled into Fort St John at 8pm, which turned out to be 9:00 since we missed the sign for another time zone change. Scott surprised us in getting a Jacuzzi suite for the night and boy is it nice, after some of the places we have stayed at the last few nights. Ahhhh, Calgon take me away, far, far away!!