Day 4 Lake Louise to Dawson Creek

This morning, I was woken up by very hard rain.  It was cold out, but I was very warm and dry.  The tent did not leak any water and the sleeping bag kept me very warm.  It was finally time to get ready to go, and I started to formulate a plan to get all my gear back in the bike without getting the gear too wet.  The plan actually worked fairly well; however, the exterior of the rain fly was soaked.  I just folded it up into the tent and placed it in the trailer to deal with later.

I said a prayer before I left as I knew this leg of the trip would be a bit challenging due to the rain and fog (it wound up raining over 10 inches in the areas I was traveling today and it was extremely foggy).  I felt at peace and left.

The mountains were shrouded with fog, it was quite the site.  However, later I would be driving through some of the densest fog I have ever seen. 

This is a lake that I stopped by to take a photo.  The lake was still  frozen over.  It was cold, so I put on my heated gear and all was good again.  At this point I had been driving for about 2 hours and had not seen another vehicle yet.  I got off the bike and walked around for a bit.  It was perfect.

Here comes the dense fog.  The fog was really playing mind games with me, there were several times I could  of swore an animal was in the road, but there was nothing there.  It was very slow going and very cold.  Some of the roads over the mountain passes were extremely steep.

Here I am about to enter another fog bank.

Though shrouded in fog, the mountains were magnificent.

There was still a considerable amount of snow on the side of the road. 

The fog finally cleared and this was the view in my windshield.  I thought it would make a great picture.

Overall, the day was very cold and rainy.  There were many times that it was difficult to see due to the fog or amount of rain.  There were times where I was not sure if I should press on, but I did because I was in the middle of nowhere.

 

I made it into Dawson Creek at about 4:30 CST.  This is the start of the Alaska Highway.  I went ahead and decided to splurge a bit and got a hotel room and will be going out for dinner tonight.  The ride has been fantastic so far, but have concerns about the weather.  The report indicates that the heavy rains may continue for the next 10 days here.  The wet does not bother me when I am riding other than the visibility.  Camping is another story.  I wish I would have bought one of those motorcycle pop up tent trailers, it would have been much easier than a ground tent.

I forgot to take a photo of my odometer tonight, so mileage for day 4 is unknown but I suspect it was not much as it was slow going due to the weather.

Bear count: 0

Big horn Sheep count: 2 (in the middle of the road)

Moose:  1 ( I could not get my camera out fast enough)

Elk:  More than I can count