Driving back up highway 37A today from Stewart to Meziadin Junction the same caterpillar loader was still clearing snow debris from the roadway. It must be a big and costly job keeping that road open during winter.

Back on 37 we continued north. There are very few townships along this part of the highway and because of the deep snow very few places even to get off the highway. It feels a bit like being on a treadmill or train that won't stop. One break during the morning was at Bell II, a small lodge and gas station that provides a heli-skiing base during the winter. I bought coffee. We had hoped to find internet, but they only had dial-up.

We stopped for lunch in a roadside pullout which was, believe it or not, beside an airstrip. Apparently the Canadian government built this strip so that miners and prospectors could get in and out of the area easily to find and exploit the mineral wealth of this part of BC.

Early afternoon we saw a transition in the vegetation from the large trees of the Hemlock forests of coastal BC to the spruce forests more representative of the drier colder climate we were heading into. After a while this was accompanied by a lesser amount of snow on the ground.

We had passed a lot of Provincial Parks during the day and all of them were not only closed but inaccessible as not even the entry roads had been plowed. So it was with some surprise and relief that mid afternoon we came to the entrance of Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park and noticed that the entry road had been plowed. Mind you the rest of the park was under several feet of snow but as we had done before we parked in the parking lot for the night

We did not have evening cocktails on a picnic table this evening as the picnic tables were also inaccessible, or at least too difficult to get to. We went for a walk around the park, but could only move by either following in the tracks of snow machines that had been there before us, or punching 3-feet deep steps. We played in the snow to amuse ourselves for an hour or so.