We were quick to depart the clouds of mosquitos at Beaver Lake, but pulled into a clearing not far up the Liard Hwy to spend a couple of hours sorting through photos and composing some web entries.

The highway became gravel at the BC / Northwest Territory border, 30 km before the turn to Fort Liard, which was 6 kms west of the highway. Fort Liard is a small community of one general store, one gas station, 3 municipal buildings and a scattering of houses on the banks of the Liard River. We had lunch on the banks of the Liard near a boat ramp that was nothing more than a dirt/mud cutting in the high bank of the river. I would not want to launch a boat down one of these ramps.

We continued another 120 kms along good gravel road. In fact this was one of the best gravel roads I have ever travelled. We could easily maintain 50 mph, there where few pot holes and only the occasional soft patch reminded us we were on gravel. In many ways the road was boring as it travelled down a 100 yard wide corridor through the forest and did not afford much in the way of scenic views. The only scenic interests were the occasional crossings of big rivers.

We stopped late in the afternoon at Blackstone Territorial Park, a boat ramp, picnic area, kids playground, and camping ground and found ourselves a nice spot next to the Liard River.

You might recall that we started following the Liard River as we left Watson Lake 2 days ago, we are still following this river, and will continue with it through much of tomorrow. They certainly have some big rivers in this part of the country.

There was plenty of fire wood so we decided to make a beef and vegetable casserole, enough for 3 days or more. With cutting the ingredients and slowly simmering the pot this took a couple of hours, and a few beers - at least for me. It seems to be the case that it always takes longer to prepare a meal than eat it.

Before turning in for the night I decided to move the Tiger a little to make our beds more level. As I moved the vehicle, I heard behind me in the house, a loud crash. Turning around I saw tomato red casserole all over the floor and kitchen sink. We had placed, what was left of the casserole after dinner, into plastic seal-top containers and stored them in the microwave oven to cool down. The movement of the vehicle had dislodged these containers out of the oven onto - the floor and almost everything else.

Clean up took over an hour, and I am sure that will continue off and on for some weeks. The carpet may never recover.