August 14

Today we traveled to a beautiful rest stop by Hodder Lake just a mile south of the whistle stop of Bell II. We found and picked another cup of wild raspberries at the rest area. We only made about one-hundred-fifty miles today because we traveled about forty miles per hour to drink in the beauty and stopped often even though the highway has improved considerably. It even started to have yellow and white lines. One stop was for a hike of a little over a half mile in to Natadesleen Lake. People have told us that until these past few days it has been very hot and dry further north but as we travel south it is getting noticeably greener and more lush. The weather continues to be rather cool in the sixties with cloudy skies but no rain. It sounds like a broken record to talk about the beautiful mountains, lakes, steams, lush vegetation, flowers and variety of colors but that’s how it goes. For some excitement today we saw one big black bear and got a couple of pictures but the mother black bear and two cubs that later scurried across the highway in front of us quickly disappeared in the thick undergrowth near the highway before we could get there to take a picture.