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| July 16, 2008. Day 35 - Muncho Lake - Liard Hot Springs - Watson Lake, BC. |
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| Incredible Kindness of Strangers- gorgeous Liard HotSprings - Marcelo &
the Bear Misjudged where sun was coming up - camped in beautiful, but solar charge unfriendly valley. Moved the vehicle to as best a place as possible and spent the morning engaged in minor repairs. Landscape changed somewhat immediately from breathtaking twists and turns with slices of icy bubbling rivers to grassier gentler hills. We got excited by buffalo ahead warning signs and were lucky to come across one large one placidly chewing in the shade of the trees not far off from the road. Rolled into Liard Hot Springs Lodge low on energy early midmorning. As usual, a crowd gathered full of curiousity and questions. The same questions arise with a few variations: What is that? Is there a dude in there? Is it remote controlled? How fast can it go? How far can it go? Where are you going? Where did you come from? Do you all drive? Can I drive? Of the crowd that gathered - we were given an incredible welcome from both Richard, the manager of the Liard Hotsprings Lodge and the manager of the Hotsprings itself. Richard treated us like family and offered us fantastic breakfast at the Liard Hotsprings Lodge. When we mentioned we were short on DVDs he immediately got us 5. He took time out of his day to join us for the amazing meal and after learning more about the project, without hesitation offered an incredible sponsorship gift of $1000. We all felt quite honored to be able to spend some time with Richard. He struck us as a man of his word; a respected, intelligent, determined, authentic man of integrity with a strong vision of how the Liard Hotsprings could be transformed into an example of a zero carbon footprint success. Included in his vision is to bring well deserved attention to the world class destination that the Liard Hotsprings most certainly are (never mind the drive to and from there!) Richard, so generous with his time and knowledge of the area (and of his private wine collection!)- also shared the secret of surviving the near boiling pools of the hotsprings and took us a few kilometres from the lodge to where amazingly delicious fresh spring water bubbled out from out of a pipe near the road. We eagerly filled up our water containers before bidding our incredible new friend Massey Cho (Thank you big!) and see you soon! Before we left the springs, we got a photo of the park manager who also gave without hesitation from his own wallet. He kept laughingly exclaiming: "Even Aliens come to use my Hotsprings!" As the day passed on, Mo & i drove ahead to set up a film shot . . . we waited and waited - out of radio range of course. Mo drove back to find Marcelo out of the car, with the battery given out. Mo helped set up the ray. While we were gone, and Marcelo was all alone - what did he see but a black bear a ways down the road. Luckily for all, the bear was not nearly so curious as most passersby and just ambled off into the woods after Marcelo roared. Dee and Jeff Basarich from Watson Lake stopped by and to help out and keep us company while the car charged. The sun was still pretty strong so the car charged pretty quickly and soon enough Marcelo decided it was ok to move on. We inch our way into Watson Lake and crawl into Downtown RV Park where the manager Archie Tannock greets us with his wry humour and helps us connect to a power source. He generously lets us stay for free and gives us each a Downtown RV Park T-Shirt. |
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