Day 7, by Rita 120 miles (July 4)

Today we were up early, tent packed, bikes adjusted, everyone fed, and on the road by 9:30 am. It had rained during the night and the tent had to be packed still damp so we put it up as soon as we made camp here at Big Berland River camp ground. The lake next to our camp site last night had quite a few resident loons (the birds) that called back and forth during the wee hours of the morning. What an eerie sound they make as it echoes over the still water.
We had a great day of riding although Brett finished out the day by him as the roads got narrower and there were a lot of logging trucks traveling it. It was also very hilly (big hills), I don’t think there was any level portion, he was either going up and or down the whole last 46 miles. He finished strong and we were all happy to see the camp site was by the river. After starting the fire the boys all had to go down for a dunk in the glacier cold river. It was a daring thing to do and even Race could not be outdone. I will try to include a few pictures. Because of our position near the bride on a railroad track, during the night, the noise of a train crossing was deafening. What made it worse was that it traveled very slowly and it sounded as if it were rattling through our tent.
As we tooled along the Yellow Head Highway and then the Big Horn Highway all of us in the van were kept entertained looking for wild life and were rewarded by two new species to ad to the list. Although, the moose we saw was road kill. The bear we saw quite near the road we believed to be one of the mighty grizzly. We also saw a large bull elk and another big herd of cow elk. We also had to stop for some Big Horn Sheep crossing the road in the middle of the day.
Our day has had lots of giggles and laughs; we talked with several fellow travelers and covered lots of territory. We burned our baked potatoes in the camp fire but did salvage enough to eat with our meal. The kids have put there pocket knives to good use and are currently carving walking staffs out of the willow here around our camp. As we travel farther North the Mosquitoes are getting a bit thicker. We have not yet been chased into the tent but we have been warned that it could get that bad. My great plan of shaving the dog down before our trip did not work out so well. She is now a moving target for the every biting bug around. And also she gets to cold at night sleeping on top of the sleeping bags and seeks refuge in the bottom of some ones sleeping bag. She has been lucky to find a friend to share with her every night so far. Well Ta for now.