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September 22, 2009, a Tuesday
W of Muncho Lake Provincial Park to W of Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada
— The Alaska Highway: Fall color and lunch at Toad River
There was light rain throughout the night.

There was solid dull overcast when I got out of bed, but some nice low clouds mingling among the mountains. I got out a box of UHT milk and mixed it with the last 1/4 gallon of real milk before having my Post Raisin Bran. (You may read more about UHT milk on my blog entry for September 1, 2009.) I wish I would have mixed it last night so it would have had time to chill. Had a cup of LavAzza coffee. I cleaned the coffee grinder after using it because coffee grounds were starting to take over the corner cabinet on the counter where the coffee grinder lives. We prepped the RV to move, then moved the RV and Jeep into position to hook up the Jeep to tow. We photographed the low clouds mingling with the patches of fall color on the hillside across the road from where we were boondocking. Hooked up the Jeep to tow, then departed at 11:02.

We headed east/south along the Alaska Highway and into Muncho Lake Provincial Park. We stopped for a male and female woodland caribou by the road, but they were uncooperative and we didn't get any shots before they headed away into the brush. It was also extremely windy! We finally exited Muncho Lake Provincial Park at 12:32 — the border is way to the east of the eastern shore of Muncho Lake.

We stopped at the Toad River Lodge at 12:39 for lunch. The lodge is famous for the collection of (baseball) hats stapled to the ceiling of the restaurant and gift shop. There were 7722 hats when we were there. J ordered a BLT and I ordered a Grilled Ham & Cheese so that I'd have room for some blueberry pie. The service is shall we say relaxed at this establishment, and it took a long time for the food to arrive, but that gave us time to look through the gift shop before we ate. J liked the BLT, and the Grilled Ham & Cheese was good. We split a piece of blueberry pie, and it was one of the best blueberry pies I've ever had! There were lots of almost-whole berries left among the filling, and it was the perfect sweetness! We finished eating at 1:30.

We got our cameras out and photographed the wonderful fall color on the hillside on the other side of Reflection Lake right behind the lodge because the clouds were breaking up and the light was getting good. While the reflections were nice, my favorite compositions were of just the patterns in the fall color on the hillside.

I filled up the Jeep with the expensive ($1.349/l) gas so we'd be OK driving it around at our next stop — Stone Mountain Provincial Park. J went inside to pay, and she brought back "a surprise" for me. :) We left at 2:15.

We stopped at our favorite boondocking spot to the west of Stone Mountain Provincial Park at 2:48. We set up camp and I cleaned the Jeep windows. We left at 3:23 in the Jeep.

We drove into Stone Mountain Provincial Park in search of stone sheep. We didn't see any at their favorite cliffs, and we didn't see any woodland caribou or moose either. Was our stop here going to be a bust? The Summit Lake Campground was closed for the season. We turned around shortly after going over the pass, and headed back.

We returned to the RV at 4:16. I downloaded images from today and edited them in iView. Took a shower, then worked up a blog entry.

Had dinner at 6:38 of frozen leftover moose-meat chili, and it started raining. I enjoyed the chili, but J didn't like the strong (to her) game odor. I had a slice of blueberry pie from the Toad River Lodge — my surprise! It was delicious!

I did the dishes, then had some Bommerlunder Gold Jubiläums Akvavit while processing images for the next blog entry.