Bear Lake to Azouetta Lake

We had set the alarm for 5am, but Marilyn wasn't quite ready to get up yet, so we didn't get mobile till about 6:30. Packed our gear, had brekkie, and grabbed coffee at the cafe. As we were leaving, one of the treeplanters walked by and said "Enjoy your freedom." We got on the pavement about 8:30.
This is pretty easy riding, and it is SUNNY. We planned to stop for lunch at McLeod Lake, but when we got there just after 11am, we found no restaurant. Turns out it burnt down a couple of years ago. Seems to be a common problem along this highway. The woman at the store told us very precisley that it was 11km to Windy Point. The reality turned out to be about 15km.
We had lunch, then a giant doughnut for dessert. They are definitely worth stopping for! Not many places make a doughnut like that anymore. I called my Mom, to let her know where we were, and ask them if they were interested in meeting us "on the road" the last day before we got to Fort St. John.
Back on the road, we stopped at Mackenzie Junction tourism booth (Caboose). They told us that there really wasn't much ahead of us other than Powder King Resort, about 50km down the road. I was pretty sure that there was (or used to be, at least) some other things through the pass.
We continued on, and we finally saw a bear! Feeding on the grass and plants in the ditch, right beside the highway. Marilyn somehow missed it, and was pretty upset about that. A bit later, my Aunt Theresa and Uncle Johnny came by in their motorhome. They honked and waved as they drove by, then they stopped and waited for us at Honeymoon Creek. We sat and relaxed in their RV, and had some cookies and nice cold pop. They were heading to my cousin Lisa's place, just outside of Chetwynd. Just down the road, we saw another bear. This one crossed the road in front of us, and didn't seemto be in a hurry to go anywhere. We took a few pictures-from a safe distance-then got the "Bear Bangers" out and handy before we rode by.
We stopped at Bijou falls. The falls are a gorgeous little spot, right beside the highway. A lot of water coming down, due to the late spring. The air coming off the falls was cold! I was hoping to see some Stellar Jays, but there were only a few ravens around.   There is a bit of a climb from Bijou falls, nothing terrible difficult, then you are at the summit. It's a pretty non-dramatic way to cross the Rockies. The elevation at the summit is just under 1000 metres. It's not even as high as Bigbie Summit, which isn't in the mountains. But the scenery is just incredible. There are still patches of snow on the sides of the mountains, and the treeline is not very high up. Everything was just brilliant green,as it was just the start of the growing season in the mountains.
We went as far as Azouetta Lake, and camped there. It is an absolute postcard setting, but it ws quite wet there-some of the sites were squishy or underwater, and the place was total bug haven. Marilyn just jumped in the tent as soon as it was setup, because she couldn't handle all the bugs that covered everything. I finished organizing things, and taking our food and hanging it in a tree, then I jumped in the tent too. We had  hung our food up, as they did warn us that it is bear country, like we hadn't figured it out from the ones we had seen earlier. They had a couple of massive dogs that were there to discourage bears. I think one was a Rottweiller cross, and the female was an Akita. They had pups that were so cute. Good thing we couldn't really take one with us on our bikes.
Dinner was Powerbars. Nedless to say, a pretty early night.

Distance 126 km.