Hike Into Willmore Wilderness Part One

Our original intention had been to hike from Rock Lake to Grande Cache but we had been informed by Parks services that some of the trails were washed out and we were concerned about high rivers. We decided to modify our plan and work mainly in the southern end of the park.
I left from Grande Prairie at about 7:30am to drive down to the Rock Lake Staging Area where I would meet up with Harold. We departed the trailhead at approximately 12:30pm following what is called the Mountain Trail. This is basically an old logging road from way back. Willmore is a protected area that it is off limits to vehicles. The only way to travel is by foot or on horseback.
The weather was quite hot (high 20's). The hike in was uneventful. There was the crossing of the Wildhay River which would have been mainly straight forward apart from when Harold's blind dog walked off the edge of the steep bank and ended up in the river. He had to perform a quick rescue and the dog ended up a little cold and wet but other than that she was unharmed.
At Seep Creek we again removed our hiking boots and donned sandals to wade across the shin high water. We were planning to stay at the outfitter's camp at Carson Creek for the night, approximately 12km down the Mountain Trail.  When we arrived, however it was occupied by a large group of trail riders
and there were about 25 or so horses grazing in the surrounding meadows. We found a previously occupied campsite on the other side of the trail and set up a camp there.
The night was clear and cold. Harold slept in his bivy bag under the stars but I was eager to try out my tarp and so set up a shelter and slept under that. We had no fire that night as we were pretty beat from the walk and I had been tired all week as it was. I fell asleep to the sound of horse bells clinking in the night. Woke up once in terror as the dog was poking its head around me. I was still a little edgy after my previous experience with the Grizzly bear. The thoughts of bears were still pretty dominant in my mind. It didn't help that we encountered several piles of bear scat within the first kilometre of hiking that day, but the further we went along the signs disappeared. The only tracks I saw on the trail were from horses.
I was disapponted the next morning to find my tarp had failed to keep the moisture off me as I had hoped. In fact I became concerned that maybe this tarp method may not work out. If it had rained I would have been in big trouble.
As it was, the tarp I had bought was 5 ft by 8 ft which sounds good on paper but in reality is just large enough to cover you. It doesn't leave much room for error if your foot is sticking out and so on. Moisture builds up on the inside of the tarp regardless due to body heat. I had pitched it too low and therefore my bivy bag and exposed parts of my sleeping bag rubbed into the moisture. I would need to rethink how to set this up for better protection.