We wake up to a sprinkling of snow around on the higher peaks, it has been drizzling slightly on the lower elevations, nothing to stop us from exploring. Today we decide to gradually make our way to the far park boundary and Chapman Lake at the 116km mark.
Of course we start with a photography session at the valley lookout capturing the snow and the better view down the valley, André is in his element.
As the different vegetation changes into autumn colours nature puts on these amazing ribbons of yellows flowing down the gullies and then reds from the ground cover on the slopes, the off white of the lichen fills the in between. Lichen is the foundation food for the Carribou that is currently migrating between Alaska and the Yukon. The colours are really stunning with Whitecrown Mountain on the right and Cathedral mountain on the left.
Today’s weather is a mix of cloud and sun, which makes the colours pop even more.
The first spot we come to is called Two Moose lake.
An open valley with willows on the margins of the lakes, Moose favourite nibble. As much as we would love to see a moose, we actually will them to stay undercover as from the 1st of August hunting has begun. Although this is a Park it allows “managed” hunting for Carribou and Moose, we are not sure if they also allow bear hunting.
Of course the prize Moose to bag is the one with the biggest rack of antlers, which does mean the oldest, wisest and best gene pool of a Moose. We therefore secretly hope not to see one out in the open meadows.
Just to bring in some good vibes, we pull out our last cinnamon bun from the Alpine Bakery and have it with a nice lemon and ginger tea.
We then get to the end of the park, our battery fully recharged. We have been very good with our power and water usage and we hope to get at least 5 days of “freedom camping=unplugged” out of our water tank.
Big Bertha really looking the part of an expedition vehicle.
As we head back to camp we come across a couple of white swans, these mate for life and clearly have decided to take full advantage of the warm summer this year. The rest of the swan community has already left, heading south for winter in.
The campground is full and overflow of campers is in the parking lot of the Visitors Centre, so we feel our timing was pretty perfect to get site 33.
We get back to camp to make sure we can take part in the Mushroom Munch and degustation of wild mushrooms. A local First Nations lady called Kristy has been asked to do some creative mushroom magic in the kitchen. We sample just about all of the food and rate them according to taste Bud satisfaction. Highest marks go to the mushroom quesadilla very closely followed by the mushroom soup, the secret ingredient here is surprisingly nutmeg. We are given, Boletus, morels, chanterelles and oyster mushrooms in these dishes. We also really like the mushroom pizza and are just too full to try the mushroom risotto. I am not quite sure whether nutmeg figures prominently in First Nations cuisine, but it certainly was delicious in the soup.
We get told an interesting story of how to grow your own oyster mushrooms ( they look very different to ones at home, they are much bigger and meatier) , which is that when they sporn, dissolve that in some oil , spread it on your chainsaw when it needs oiling and cut down a poplar somewhere close by. This will result in oyster mushrooms growing all around the stump of the cut tree.
As we walk back to our campsite I give André a very well deserved smooch for such a great day, but as André has stopped shaving for a couple of days now , it feels like surely it must feel to kiss the snout of a beaver!