Guided by a Raven, I discover a Hot Spring in Canadas Remote North | S1E32

That raven up there is checking me out. Which is the best hot spring, Mr. Raven? That one? What do you want to show me now? Is this the one, Mr. Raven? My journey begins at North America's most northern drivable point. The plan is to ride through Canada and America before crossing over to Europe. From there, I'll make my way across Asia and down to Australia. New Zealand's southern most drivable point will mark the end of my journey. I'm calling it the big spiral, and this is act three across North America. All right, good morning. As you can see, I'm no longer Dawson anymore. I took a bit of a sick day yesterday. Here, let me explain as I'm leaving Dawson. All right, so unfortunately I have to leave Dawson a little earlier than expected. After that sour toe I had, the cocktail with the human toe in it, I'm not sure, I don't think it's because of that, but I've been quite sick, and just like a really bad, like one of the worst colds I've had in a long time. So I tried to stay in Dawson as long as I could, but all the hotels are booked up. So I'm gonna start to head south towards Carmax. Yeah, it's a little bit sad because I really like Dawson, and I did have a whole second video planned here, but unfortunately, yeah, it's just a bit of bad luck with the illness, so. So I'm still actually feeling sick, but I'm, sorry. So I'm actually still feeling sick, but I think I've recovered enough that I can make a video today. But a bit more about yesterday. So from Dawson, I started to head south, and I actually met a really interesting person. I feel lucky to have met him. Here's a clip. So I just met Helga Peterson. He's in that BMW, the sidecar, and he's been all over the world. He's crossed the dairying gap, just dragging his motorbike through it. And actually, I've seen a video about him talking about doing that. And I don't know, I just feel very fortunate that I just happened to bump into him at this rest stop, so. You know, when I meet people like that, it really feels like I'm doing the right thing. You know, like, it just feels like, I don't know, it just feels like, the random chance of that is just so fortunate. That it feels like fate or destiny, a little bit. Maybe it's a bit too superstitious, or I'm not sure what word to use, but I don't know, it just feels, feels here, like, just really feels in my chest, you know, that it's the right thing. So, but now you still don't really know where I am. So I'm gonna try to stop somewhere along the road here, and I'll show you exactly what I've been up to. I think this will be a good spot right here. All right, so I found a nice bit of rock on the ground that I can draw on. So last time I updated the map, I was in Prudhoe Bay. So after Prudhoe Bay, backtracked back down to Fairbanks, did my clutch in Fairbanks, and then backtracked to Tok. And then from Tok, I drove up to Chicken, and then from Chicken, drove up to Eagle, drove Top of the World Highway to Dawson. After Dawson, I drove all the way down this way to Carmax. And then from Carmax, I'm deciding to do the Campbell Highway and up until Little Salmon Lake. And then from Little Salmon Lake, I'm planning to go to Watson Lake, which is here, and then I'll continue down through to BC. Now this highway that I'm on right now is actually paved, but it's going to turn to gravel, and that'll slow me down a bit, but I'm kind of happy to ride gravel. But it's actually about 500K to Watson Lake. But in Watson Lake, there's a pretty cool sight to see. It was started by an American army engineer when they were building the Alaska Highway. And it's really cool, I can't wait to show you that. And then after that, we're heading back down into BC. I think there's a very good chance we'll be able to see some buffalo. And actually, there might even be a secret hot spring that I might try to go find as well. But this might happen over two days. But I think I'm going to combine it all into one video because I'm just a little tired right now, and I also feel the need to keep moving at the same time. So, yeah. Okay, let's get going. But yeah, I haven't been sick like this in a long time, actually. My theory is that I've just, because I haven't been mountain biking, I'm not as healthy, I guess, I'm not as fit. Because I was always the kind of guy that people around me would get sick, but I would just never really catch it. Or if I did catch it, it would be very mild. But this one knocked me out pretty good. Hopefully, it's just a one-off thing. But I'm sure as I make my way through this journey, I'm gonna, I'll get food poisoning and all the things that come along with international travel. I think the most annoying part is maybe just having to move from hotel to hotel while you're sick, and you don't want to book them for too long, just in case you get better. Anyways. Okay, he's on the road. Do you need help? Lost my cell phone. A phone? Oh no. Oh, it's gonna be hard to find. I don't expect to find it. Yeah. I think I'll do the motions. Yeah, will do. Simpson Lake Campground. How about this one? Well, I've got my dinner ready. A bit of curry and rice. But what's even better is one of my neighbors brought this over. It's those guys over there. He said, well, since you don't have a fridge on your motorbike, I thought I'd give you a beer. Which is really kind of him, to be honest. I'm probably gonna have it, but after my experience with the sour toe and then having a few beers at the same time, the morning after I felt absolutely horrible, just because I was sick plus a bit hungover. But it's cold, and I'll at least crack it and have a sip. But maybe I won't have it all. And though it may not seem like in the video, today was actually just a really long, hot day. It's funny, because I kind of wanted to go south, because at night it was freezing up in Chicken. Now it's just like, I think it must be 28 out here. So it's quite warm, actually, still. But tomorrow's gonna be awesome, because as we go south, there's gonna be a lot more interesting things to do. Good chance of seeing some buffalo. And then I'm gonna try to visit a new hot spring I've never been to before, because I love hot springs. And it should help me feel a little better, too, I think. So anyways, I'll see you in the morning. Listen, listen to this, listen to this. They were going off all morning, and now they just don't wanna say anything. It's the loons. It's, I don't know, it's like the most Canadian sound ever, the sound of the loon. It's a very kind of ghostly sound. And they're quite loud, and it really travels a long distance over the water, especially today, because there's no wind at all. They're really cool. I can't find my spoon this morning. This morning there was a raven poking around my tent site, and I just had, I left my spoon out. So now I'm using my lens from my sunglasses to eat my oatmeal. It works. It's not perfect, though. All right. Well, I incorrectly blamed the raven for taking my spoon. It was not the raven. I had just misplaced it, which is pretty typical, actually. Anyways, let's make our way to Watson Lake. A bit smoky today. Apparently down south, there's been a ton of forest fires this year, and it looks like I'm riding right into it. Yeah, look how smoky it got. That was not like that yesterday. Everything's on fire these days. All right, entering Watson Lake. It's been a while since I've seen a town like this. Oh, yes, this is, it's the, what are they calling it? The License Plate Forest? Kind of crazy. So it's called the Signpost Forest. So the story goes is that when they were building the Alaska Highway, they asked a soldier to repair a sign. Well, he was a bit homesick, apparently, and he decided to personalize the sign. So he added his hometown along with the distance away from his hometown. And then I guess other people decided, hey, that's a pretty good idea. And it just started multiplying, multiplying, multiplying. And to this day, people are still adding their own signs and license plates to the License Plate Forest. But a lot of Europeans come here and they ship their big vehicles over. And so I guess they know they're coming here. So they steal some sign off the street from where they live and they post them here. And there's a surprising number of European signs here. And of course, there's plenty of American signs because you have to drive through Canada to get to Alaska. I thought the Germans were good at following the rules, but clearly a few rebels in that country. Oh, this is a good one, Tanzania. That's the most exotic one I've seen so far. But I've been here before and I'm pretty sure I've seen either a Japanese or Chinese license plate here. I'm trying to find it, but it's, this is actually such a massive place that it's, yeah, it's hard to navigate, actually. They've even got some old equipment from the Alaska Highway here. I hear some nailing and we're going to see one go up. Dig a little step ladder. With my microphone troubles returning, I must speak to you from the ether. As I returned to British Columbia, warnings of bison on the highway have me intrigued. In fact, this sign is telling me exactly where they are. But first, a grazing animal of the teddy kind. At exactly kilometer 485, we've arrived at the herd we'd been warned about. So cool. Big ones too. So apparently these guys were reintroduced. I'm not sure when, but they're reintroduced because the North American bison basically went extinct and for terrible reasons. So a lot of them were down in the States and the American army went ahead and tried to kill them all. And there's some crazy pictures of just people standing in front of stacks and stacks of these bison skulls. And apparently a big reason they did this was to remove the food supply from the First Nation population. And so as a result, the First Nation population often ended up starving because these herds of bison were their food supply. So it's really cool to see them coming back. I know like in Yellowstone, Wyoming, they've brought a lot of them, but they're back there too. So all of these babies getting a drink. Mom's like, okay, you've had enough. Yeah, some of them have like these locator tags. Not all of them though. You know, there's another one over there too, I think. Oh yeah, that big guy has one. But yeah. The final stop of the day is a hot spring with a French name, Portage Brulee. Portage, because those coming down the Liard must walk their canoes around the rapids. And Brulee, presumably due to the burnt nature of the earth here. With rough instructions written by a man named Dan, I give myself a small headstart. Like the paddlers, I must find my way along the river and around the rapids. Okay. All right, I packed some essentials, wrapped up the bike. Let's go on a bit of adventure. Yeah, first things first, follow the culvert down to the river. I'm really kind of curious to find this one. And it's pretty close to the highway, so. But I am starting a little late. It's already after four o'clock, 4.17. So the instructions say follow the culvert down and then go upstream, which is to the right. The light is kind of surreal right now because it's, because of all the smoke. You can see people are walking down here. Yeah, I got a ways to go. This slope looks pretty sheer over there. Not sure how that'll go. Now we're starting to get this sheer. Sheer slope here, but so far it's not too bad. Wow, this is so pretty here. So the cliffs out there, so the trail should be right here somewhere. I imagine. Looking at this here, but it looks really steep. It does look like someone's been scrambling up this or down it. Oh yeah. This looks like a very old trail. Oh, I think I found it, yes. Oh yeah. Oh, blue flagging tape here. Just broke it. Oh yeah. Definitely getting around the rapids. Instructions say to keep looking down for Tufa, which is basically like a mineral deposit that the springs, the springs will leave behind. It is pretty here. I don't know if you can see it, but there's definitely kind of a trail here. I can't imagine doing this as a portage though, like dragging your canoe through this. I'd be, I'd be tempted to just go through the rapids. Okay, so there's this weird tree here. I have no idea what that means. That's human or, or natural? Like, how does a tree even do this? It's been scraped around the whole side. So does that mean I'm here? Oh, there's definitely a beach now. So I may have passed it already, but there is this kind of trail here. I just don't want to tumble all the way down. Oh, I see some stuff over there. I see some weird pools. Okay. I hope this is it. Okay, yes. There's definitely some weird pool there. Yeah, like this pool here, there's a couple of them actually. Pretty scummy. Let's feel. Okay, that's just, just slightly warm. You can see, I don't know if it's stalactites or stalagmites, but yeah, basically those cone shaped things are formed as the minerals are left as the water flows through. But actually there's lots more stuff to explore here. Yeah, this is, seems like the flow is higher here cause it's protruding quite a bit out of the river. So, oh, there's bigger pools here. Yep. Oh, there's even, I see bubbles coming out of that one. Definitely a bit more flow here, but it's not, not what you would expect. Oh, I see more stuff over there. Wow, there's lots of, lots of tufa here, which is actually kind of cool. Look at those beautiful colors. Well, even if I don't get a dip out of the deal, it's still pretty cool. So, that Raven up there is checking me out. I don't know. I feel like it, it must have a meaning. Maybe he's like, get out of here. Or maybe he's like, I want some food. Is this the one, Mr. Raven? Lots of flow here. Oh, this one's deep. Oh, this is quite nice, actually. Maybe the Raven was trying to tell me something. Hi. Is that one good too? The Raven was there. Maybe he's trying to tell me. Is this a good one? Oh, there's a fire. Someone's had a fire here. Or this one's not as good, Raven. Is that one, is that good over there, Raven? How are you? What do you want to show me now? Which is the best hot spring, Mr. Raven? That one? Definitely knows I'm a being. I'm trying to, which way now? Am I just following an animal that doesn't know what I want? What is it, Mr. Raven? What do you want me to do? There is a bit more of a seep over there, but I have a feeling this might be it. The best one is definitely the warmest and the deepest. But it's also very scummy. And I think this one was the best. Yeah, this is by far the nicest one. Just noticed there's a whole bunch of tools here, including an ax. But maybe people are raking this stuff off and that's maybe why all that stuff's there. All right, well, I think I improved it a fair bit. I think I'm about to go in now. All right, let's see how this goes. Bottom's hard, a little bit slimy. Oh, and the middle's good. Oh, there's maybe gravel in the middle. Not bad. It smells a little sulfur, but not too bad. Anyways, I don't mind the sulfur smell. In fact, I've come to enjoy it, even though it smells like rotten eggs, most people aren't into it. But for me, it just means hot springs. So, yeah. Oh, here's the raven. Oh, there's more of it. There's three. Oh, he brought some friends. Anyways, yeah, this is quite awesome, to be honest. I was, at first I was thinking, well, this is not happening, you know? Like the first ones over there were just cold or really gross. But actually this one, I think it must be somewhat human made because the sides have been built up and things like this. I guess it's not that popular for a reason just because it's, you know, it's not super hot. I don't even know. I would guess it's, I don't know, maybe 34, I guess. It's a hike to get to. And you gotta scrape off the scum. I'd say, for me, it was worth my time, I'd say. I just have to do the walk back, I guess. Well, that was an excellent soak. But it's seven o'clock already and it's about two hours to get back to the bike. So I better get moving. But anyways, I think I'll end this video here because it's probably gonna be dark by the time I get to camp. If you're into it, maybe hit subscribe. That always really helps. It's very much appreciated. And if not, well then, I hope to see you in the next video. But anyways, thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.