Liard Hotsprings, October 8-10th, 2005


It's been getting colder up here. The other morning as I was riding
to work I caught some flakes of snow on my chin, and as I typed this I
looked out the window and saw a truck with a plow on the front drive
past. Fort Nelson had a high of zero today, with snow.

Anyway, with all of that stress, Thanksgiving was a wonderful weekend to
get away and go up to the Liard hotsprings to relax. It was also a good
way to celebrate (a weekend early) the exact one-year anniversary of my
arrival in Fort St. John.

Anyways, on Saturday, October 8th Lorna and I loaded up my Rav and
headed out North on the highway, en route to the Liard Hotsprings
Provincial Park, for some long weekend vehicle-camping. About halfway up
the highway, Lorna said "I forgot my tent. Seriously, I forgot to pack
my tent", and so we went back down the highway to Fort St. John, grabbed
Lorna's tent, and headed out again. After a long drive, along which we
saw a couple of caribou and bison, we arrived at Liard, set up our
tents, grabbed some dinner, and went for a soak in the springs.

It was my very first time being in any hotspring, let alone this one, so
I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It didn't help that it was a
moonless night, and quite dark, so I wasn't doing too much wandering
around the spring. I managed to find one of the underwater benches and
floated around a little bit, although I felt pretty uncertain about
moving anywhere else. What this meant was that when there was an
unpleasantly loud, drunk person in the spring near me, I ended up
deciding it was time to get out and simply go to bed. Mind you, before
I left, I did hear an interesting story, from a couple who were there from
Houston, Alaska. They stated that just before coming here they had found
a small toy boat near their house, with a small brass plaque on it. The
boat was part of a project of some Quebec school-children, who had
launched the boats from the St. Laurence. This particular boat, they
noted, had travelled North up the Eastern coast, and managed to make
its way through the Arctic ocean, finally arriving on the shores of Alaska.
I had heard tales of the ice-flows receding in the North to the point where
there is actually a Northwest Passage, but this finally gave proof to that.
Global warming, proven by an elementary school project, provided they
were right about the route the little boat took.

On Sunday, we got out of our tents and went for a soak before breakfast.
I brought my camera along, glad of the light for the opportunity to get
some pictures, and finally see the spring itself, so that I would be
more comfortable in moving around it. Well, it was a wonderful chance
to soak, and better explore the hotsprings. It's quite a fascinating place,
with only a few alterations having been made by the US Military.

Okay, perhaps I should back up a little bit so that comment makes sense.
See, during World War II, the US military, along with a number of Canadian
engineers, built the Alaska Highway, as a way to easily move troops to
Alaska, should the need present itself. During the course of building the
highway they came across the hot springs just North of the Liard River.
It was the military road crew that built the original structures at the site,
to allow them to enjoy it, and harvest its heat in creating greenhouses
to grow food in. Anyways, they built some decks around the shore of the
spring, with steps leading down into the spring, as well as a couple of
small spillover dams, to deepen the pools and make them more
comfortable for people to use. One of these spillover dams has
created a mini-waterfall, beneath which was placed a bench, so
you can get a nice hotspring massage. :)

Well, I explored the two pools of the main spring and went to get my
camera to grab some pictures of the more natural appearing (and cooler)
lower pool. Well, I had forgotten one thing - my camera was chilled by the
air, and there was a lot of steam being kicked up by the hotspring. So, with
lens cleaning cloth in one hand and my automatic camera in the other I set
about trying to get some pictures. We'll see whether the pictures turned out
when I pick up the film later this week.

You can see the pictures here.

After that, it was time for breakfast, and then we realised there really is
not much of anything to do at the provincial park, with no developed trails
to hike on. So, we headed out towards the Liard River, to see if we could
find a trail or something to explore. Well, shortly before the Liard River we
saw the Muskwa-Kechika Designated Access Route for the Liard River
Corridor and, being curious, we decided to head down it.

Well, the trail was pretty wide, and looks like it had been a road at one
point, an impression furthered by finding an old hood of a car just off the
trail at one point. It was actually pretty nice, although once we returned
to the trailhead we saw that the length of it made assisted travel necessary
to really get anywhere, whether on a quad, bike, or horse. Apparently there
are a number of old airstrips along the route, but we didn't get to any of them,
and never really got close enough to the river to get a good look at it, and
eventually just arbitrarily chose a spot to turn back. Much as I like hiking,
I like there to be a destination, and without one my motivation to continue
was found to be waning.

Upon returning to camp, I went for another soak, while Lorna took a nap.
After dinner, another soak, then it was sleep time. You may be sensing a
theme here - there really was nothing else to do, and I had forgotten to
bring along something to read.

On Monday, we once more went for a soak before breakfast, and then we
slowly began packing up camp, waiting for the sun to rise and help burn
the frost off the windows of my Rav, and also burn the frost off the tents. :)

Anyways, on the drive home, between the Liard River and Fort Nelson, we
saw a full herd of Buffalo/Bison, a few herds of caribou, and a stone sheep
and her kid (with the cutest fluffy little face!). Past Fort Nelson all we saw
were a few live moose.

Although the hotsprings were pretty refreshing, after the long drive home,
I felt like I needed another hotspring to soak in. Also, the complete lack of
anything to really do up there makes it unlikely that I'll be heading up there
just to camp out at the hotsprings any time soon. I think the next time I go
up there, it will likely be en route to somewhere else, perhaps Whitehorse.



Back to Chris's Adventures in BC



Bonus story - I'm turning into my father.