Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

Mile 914 

June 9-11, 2016

water and bear spray

We are staying for 3 days in Whitehorse, which is a lovely city that is settled right on the shores of the Yukon River.  It seems like a big deal to us, as it is the first real “city” for such a very long time.  A real grocery store, hardware store, car wash, etc. etc.!  It has 29,000 people that live in the vicinity with 2 small colleges.  An absolutely cool trail system of hiking, mtn. biking, running and cross country skiing  that travels all through the forests and along the Yukon River.

Miles Canyon - great hiking and exploring

Kevin continues to ride his 30 miles daily as he has had good traction on the highway here (no loose gravel).  There is also a bike path through the town, but to get some good miles in, he is still on the Alaska Highway :)

I would have to say that the highlight of our visit here is when I took the WP&YR train into Skagway.

What a treat that was. This 27 mile train journey takes you back in time to the Klondike Gold Rush years and the legendary construction of this railway.  A photographers dream and we just timed it perfectly with a very nice day.  The old train cars were all restored to their original condition and each car had a wood burning stove in them.  Pretty cool.  If you wanted you could stand outside between the train cars as we dropped down 3000 ft through an amazing rock canyon to Skagway.  What a history this train has for the Klondike Gold Rush.  Waterfall ran along side of the train, went underneath the rails and came out the other side.  So cool.  Wooden bridges, lakes, big meadows, Dahl Sheep, Black

 bears and BIG mountains.

We were able to meet some friends of Susan and John.  They were a lovely couple that have lived in the bush for the last 15 years!  They built their log cabin from the start, by cutting, peeling and building their walls.  Their closest neighbor is 16 miles away and they come into “town” with a boat up the Teslin River about once every other month for supplies, except from mid September through February.  Then the river freezes enough for him to take the snowmobile down the river to Teslin, where he keeps a car.  Teslin is small, so he drives into Whitehorse. Pretty amazing couple, such great stories over Sushi in Whitehorse.  I will always remember them.

Klondike

wrapped and ready for the Top of the World Highway (100miles of unpaved road)

So the Airstream is all taped up with Yoga matts and ready for our Klondike loop north to Dawson City and then to the Top of the World Highway (100 miles of gravel way, way, way up there).  We hear if everything is right - the weather, the road - you can see for miles and it’s well worth it.  So we shall see.  Big Adventure coming up???

The Little Double Red Flags

Mile 813 - Teslin Lake, Yukon, Canada

From Watson Lake we traveled just a few hundred Km to Teslin Lake, home of the Tlingit First Nation tribe.  The population of Teslin is 450.  Nice little town with a couple of very nice museums that are worth stopping at.  Teslin sits along the Teslin Lake and Nisutlin Bay.  Absolutely beautiful spot.  The Tlingits ((Klink-it) residents are extremely helpful and want to educate visitors of their heritage as traders, trappers, and wood carvers.  We had a nice day walking around the village, taking Bodie for a walk in which he fell off a pier into a beaver damn and was schooled by the beaver!  He was scared…..

Today’s drive was what we though the Alaska Highway would be all about.  We began with a grizzly sighting along the road, then the ongoing road construction (they just cover the signs when they are not doing construction - permanent road signs) and the endless, endless FROST HEAVES!  Well, they do have the little double red triangle flags, but they are right when the heave happens…no warning, most of the time.  Sometimes you must wait for the construction for a while and people get out and write with rocks along the side of the highway.  Interesting??  This goes on for km’s.  

We crossed 7 times from the Yukon into BC and back.  No Cell service for 200 km. No RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) anywhere on the highway.  Since we entered Canada we have NOT seen 1 RCMP on the highway.  It’s a lonely highway with nothing but trees, frost heaves, gravel and more trees than anyone can ever imagine (no wonder the U.S. lumbar industry has collapsed).

We traveled north with the Cassiar Mtn range in the distance.  Beautiful scenery indeed.  Keeps getting better.  

Similar to the BC Provintial Parks, the Yukon Territory has the Government camps which are $12 Canadian dollars (not alot American $).  They all have free wood in storage containers, fire pits, lakeside campsites and potties!  and bears.

free wood!

nice Yukon Territory campsite

The Sign Forest

 

Mile 635 - Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada

Welcome to the Yukon - the land of the midnight Sun.  And boy oh boy, they are not joking.  Sunrise seems to NEVER happen and then the next thing you know it 4am and its light again!!

Traveling from Liard to Watson Lake to stay for an overnight before we start our way North to Whitehorse, where we will be staying for 3 days.  In Watson Lake, one must visit the Signpost Forest, which is the only thing in Watson Lake. Well, there is an Interpretive Center and the Northern Lights Museum.  That’s it.  The Sign Forest takes up 1/2 the town of a whopping 1,500, mostly First Nation people.  Big town so far.  During the construction of the Alaska Highway, a young, homesick soldier put up a sign from his hometown.  Since then, the sign forest has grown to over 75,000 signs!  It’s really rather amazing to see in person.  We had made our sign at home and spent at least 45 minutes looking for a free space to put our sign in.  Kept walking up and down the various isles of thousands of signs from all over the world and finally came upon a small empty space at the very bottom of a post.  The sign directly above the space was from a couple from the very small village that my German grandparents lived in.  My mom grew up here and I spent many a summers visiting.  WOW!  What kind of karma is that??  This little village.

        

NO KEVIN!

From Liard to Watson Lake there is a massive herd of Buffalo that wander out and about.  Roll around in big sand pits along the highway, stand in the middle of the highway and just are around.  We came across 6 at one time just hanging out on the side of the road.  

We traveled for a few hours and stayed in a campground outside of Watson Lake, not anything special to write home about.  Just an overnight.  It did have some excitement though!  The night before we arrived, a juvenile Grizzly decided to eat trash and try and get into an employee outhouse by shaking the door with the employee inside!  Not that would be something.  So when we arrived the “Animal Conflict Officer” was there with his big barrel cage to trap the bear.  Most of these campground owners have Bear Tags and do shoot the bears that come into human contact.  It’s the way its done here.  No relocating.

The old church that remains from the building of the Highway

Bodie unfortunately lost his favorite ball in the forest that evening.  He always brings his ball back but shortly after he went into the woods, he came back with no ball and neither of us was going in to look for it!

 Momma and her 2 cubs on the side of the highway

ALASKA HIGHWAY - As Advertised (with gravel!)

Mile 496 - Liard Hot Springs, Liard Provincial Park, British Columbia, Canada

June 4 - June 6, 2016

Alaska Highway here you are.  In all your full glory.

Starting a Mile 0 (Dawson Creek) until Mile 300 (Fort Nelson) - you just got to suck it up and drive.  It’s long, winding, never ending road of a lot of trees and bears.  But then…….wake up because you have a treat ahead for the next 200 miles until Liard Hot Springs. (and rumor has it, this just keeps getting better?) 

The Alaska highway - which is STILL in Canada - begins to wind its way through the Northern Rocky Mountain range.  Every turn is full of surprises.  Lakes appear, waterfalls, creeks, swamps and marshes along with birch, aspen, cottonwood and conifer forests.  But the most amazing part of this 200 miles is the animals! We saw it all.  Bears with their cubs, Moose Elk, Momma Elk and baby, and then there was the, “What the heck is that????” Stone Sheep.  Pretty cool animals that have adapted to this environment very well.  All these animals are so close and many times we have to wait for them to cross the street before heading onward North.   The scenery is still jaw dropping. Scenic vistas seemed to stretch for 100 miles in the distant.  I took 158 pictures in less than 4 hours.  Hah!  and that’s after I deleted lots.  

Stone Sheep

Every now and then the Milepost alerts you to “a must stop,” so we do.  And this didn’t disappoint in any way.  The Tetsa River Service and Campground.  We were just coming down from a wild, extremely high climb to summit and  and dropping into the the Tetsa River Valley.  We have seen no one for at least 40 miles.  Just nothing but mountains and trees.  and the here it comes.  Home of the Cinnamon Bun!  Really?  Apparently, World Famous Cinnamon Buns.  Well, darn we couldn’t pass that up. And there was no Sharing involved here.  WOW.

At Muncho Lake we began our “real Alaska Highway” experience.  The road now became loose gravel and big construction trucks.

This is when you just cover your eyes and hope that big rock doesn’t hit your windshield.  Dirty is the name of the game here.  Trucks are so dirty you can barely tell what color they are…and you should see our Airstream.  Well, we’re doing it Man!!! (PCT shout out).  So far we are doing fairly well, a couple of small rocks in the truck windshield, some little dings on the Stream.  I did take the time to start with my Yoga Mats.  They are going to be used to cover front and street side windows.

Now for Liard Hot Springs.  We are staying at Liard Provincial Park for 3 nights. This is the ONE PP that you should have a reservation at.  Another WOW factor here.  Definitely a favorite stop along the Alaska Highway.  Right outside of the camping area is a boardwalk that crosses a wetland which brings you through a really cool forest and then fern wonderland and ultimately you arrive at Nirvana!  I thought it would be similar to our hot springs out of Mammoth.  Oh No.  Canada!!!, once again you amaze me.  Needless to say, our days are spent soaking in the pools, reading and watching for bear, moose and buffalo. 

u

Kevin has decided that he needs to get some long bike rides in, so off he ventured on the only road there is - The Alaska Highway.  Well, 2 hours later he came back a bit terrified as he told us that seeing Bears on your bike is a lot different than the truck window!!  He is equipped with Bear Spray and going to head off again today for another ride????  The rangers here encourage you to carry Bear spray at ALL times, as the bears are quite active within this campground.  This is where the Buffalo also hang for the next 60 miles.  Michael got a really great picture of this big guy rolling away in the dirt as he was exploring on his bike.  

There is absolutely NO cell service since we left Fort Nelson in this 200 mile stretch.  It is nice to know that there are 7 of us spread across this stretch for Emergency purposes.  We all have our radio’s and that seems to be helpful when we are in line of sight.  But, boy oh boy, if you have a breakdown, it could be a long wait before you get help.  

We are now light past 11pm and light beginning at 4:15am.  It’s weird.

I am worried about Shane.  I know he’s on a fire in the Sequoias, but not happy that I can’t find out how he is.  

Okay.  so this little blog took me almost 2 hours to download just this....it's not going to happen very often in the next week.  No internet, no cell, just a lot of trees and mountains and lakes and wildlife.  Can't beat that.

Oh TOTO, We are NOT in Kansas!

June 2-3

Mile 283 - Alaska Highway
Fort Nelson, Canada

So everything we read went on and on about the Alaska Highway being a bit of a stretch from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson.  When we left Dawson City we drove over the Historic Kiskastinaw Bridge.

It is the original timber curved bridge from 1942 when they began building the highway.  Really a whole lot of the same thing.  You can see for miles in front of you as the Alaska Highway just goes up and down and up and down.  Millions and thousands of trees.  I've would have never believed there are so many trees.  Not a whole lot of choices to stay, which we knew ahead of time.  Hence the long day (283 miles) to Ft. Nelson.  We are staying one night at a funkly little RV park.  It's not bad, pretty interesting to say the least.  Mosquitos are out, not too bad.  They are big and hungry.
 The manager told us it snowed 2 nights ago.  ???  June mind you.

Sleeping is becoming somewhat of an issue.  Falling asleep is not to bad...around 10ish it begins to get a bit dark...a bit.  Then BAM 4:15 it was light this morning. I really worked on this issue before we left.  I made all new black out curtains, vent covers, etc.  BUT still, that sun just blares through any cracks you may have.  Some of us have resorted to eye masks, but I think this may bug me even more???  who knows?  So by 6am we already had coffee, breakfast, hooked up and ready to roll??

The road was endless.  BUT, lots of animals.  We have a "Ladies Group Text," which was so fun today.

Wireless is challenging, so this may be my last blog for a while.  We are really entering the Wild Frontier now.  So far, the roads have been ok..today's was a bit challenging.  One of our doors came off, thank goodness it didn't break (good to stop every now and then and go into Airstream to check everything).  The frost heaves were minimal, but there.  Basically, there is no one on the highway.  Everynow and then you pass a big truck which is how we got our first rock in the windshield.  You only have 2 lanes, so there isn't a lot of room to move over when they pass you going South.  Biggest problem so far.  Lots of gas exploration and timber trucks.  Towns are becoming less and less.

It was nice meeting up with all 7 of us last night.  We are together again this evening, and then off on our own until our June 20 meet up in Denali!  It is so nice to know that there is someone on this lonely road

City Park in Dawson Creek

It’s a REAL Bear! and It’s the REAL Frontier! and It’s the Ultimate Adult Summer Camp!

Dawson Creek, Canada 

Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway (ALCAN)

June 1 - June 2, 2016

Left Crooked Creek PP this morning to start our drive to Dawson Creek, BC. We had a wonderful evening of potluck, fresh fish from Michael and John's big catches of the day and dancing from the 80's!!! 

Again, another stunning day of driving.  It’s hard to take a nap or read because you just don’t want to miss anything.  As was the case today.  We were the only ones for miles on the 97, which is now a 2

lane highway.  Kevin spotted him first, “there’s a big bear!”, I thought it was fake?  We had just passed a little town that did major chainsaw carvings and had seen many wooden carved bears, so I didn’t really believe it at first.  But sure enough, it was a BIG black bear standing on his hind legs just

staring at us.  Unbelievable.  (sorry no picture as it was so quick and so cool)

Forests are as thick and far as one can see.  Forests, rivers, lakes, creeks and beautiful green everywhere.  It will be hard to come back home in August to see brown everywhere.  Kevin was saying how wonderful it would be to be able to just use a tiny portion of one of the million rivers and fill up the Santa Ynez, just for 1 day!  Oh well.  

Logging trucks, a few really dirty pickup trucks and some campers are the only vehicles you see up this far north.  It’s still early for the Alaska travelers so we really are alone on the roads.  

I have found it very interesting how strong our olfactory sense is connected to our memories.  The smells of the wet forests and the damp earth bring me right back to my years growing up in Germany.  Riding through the forests on my horse, walking with my mom through the small Bavarian villages, visiting my Oma and Opa in the country and going with my Tanta Klara to her little garden plot to harvest vegetables.  It all comes back in a flash when we are hiking or riding our bikes thru these Northern Lands.  

Driving is never dull and the Milepost (the Bible for traveling to Alaska and thru Canada) has been more than entertaining.  Everything is so different.  We get a mile by mile dialogue which not only details various geography, but also history.  We sort of feel like we are living a documentary of the Great Northern Frontier.  Seems like we are trapped in time with the early expeditions of the famous explorers, John Jacob Aster and Sir Alexander MacKenzie in their epic journeys to the Pacific in the late 1700’s.  

Early afternoon we arrived at Dawson Creek, BC.  This is where the road ended until 1942, when the Alaska highway was started. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the construction of the highway was deemed a military necessity as a supply road to defend North America agains the Japanese.  If you are at all interested in this amazing event, check out the PBS documentary on the Building of the Alaska Highway.  

Day 2 of Dawson Creek we spent like complete tourists!  Had our photo taken at the O MlLE marker by our lovely guide, Austin, who then took us into the "Alaska House" and gave us a personal tour with bits of History of the construction of the Alaska Highway.  Walked the little town, bought more rain and mud gear, took a great walk through the city park that went through a forest with moose tracks and beaver damns.

Enough of that.  So we will stay here for 2 days and stock up on groceries, truck maintenance, airstream cleaning, laundry and all the conveniences of modern life.  Then we head off for the remaining 1523 miles of the Alaska Highway.  Here we come Land of the Midnight Sun and gold rush fever……..