Day 32 - Moving Day

Golden, BC – Blaeberry Lodge, 45 miles total and 26.4 mpg. Totals for the trip, 5287 miles, 27.5* mpg. Those are the stats.


Today is a timeout day. We move from the Sportsman Inn in Golden to the Blaeberry Lodge about 20km north of Golden. First order of business is breakfast, however, and we head back to the Deli for a repeat of yesterdays great breaky. And it is – this time we met the owner, a very nice guy indeed. Then back to pack and load.

We headed out to find the Blaeberry Lodge. After a wonderful drive (it included some true dumps, but the forest and mountains are always there), we found it – another Wow! But of course we are too early to check in, so we continue exploring – and discovered the Wolf Centre. If you don’t support reintroduction of wolves, skip the next paragraph or two.


If you’re really interested in this global problem we’ve all helped to create, go to http://www.northernlightswildlife.com. The brief story is this. By destroying the wolves we have created an ecological unbalance of nature. This has been proven in Yellowstone National Park. The same conditions exist throughout the world, not just in Canada and the USA. Wolves are an essential part of the environment, and eliminating them results directly in the decay of that environment. Ranchers, I’m sorry, but you need to figure out a way to coexist with wolves. I won’t preach anymore – these folks do it much better than I ever could.

We stayed for the tour and talk, and looked around for a while. The place is small, and it doesn’t take long to look around. There are wolves to be observed. There are Bear Dogs – dogs crossbred with wolves that do an incredible job – they educate bears! These dogs are trained to encourage bears to leave an area, usually an area inhabited by humans. I didn’t know there was a way, other than physically relocating the bear (or killing it) to convince a bear to stay away from humans, but there is. If this method was used globally, thousands of bear lives would be saved. I hope that is important to you. It is to us.

Okay, tree hugging over, maybe. From there we head back into town for lunch and laundry and gas. We got all that taken care of, and it’s check-in time! So back to the lodge we go. I’ve gotta tell you, I’m one lucky SOB. This place is great. We’re in one of the cabins (I think there are 3). It has a kitchen, and since it is very remote, Sally-Heath is planning to fix a few breakfasts and dinners for us here.

We’re moved in now, and just getting settled. There’s no internet or phone, but just a few kms away there is a pub with internet access. (too bad) So I’ll be doing things off line and having a JWB (I hope) while they upload.