RV Date 120799
Happy Birthday to me! Left Dawson Creek this morning headed for Fort Nelson. Along the way passed lots of forests. The trees here are mostly black spruce. This tall and narrow tree has little foliage and a black trunk - thus the name. Lots and lots of road construction which made traveling muddy and miserable. It started raining in the afternoon so we pulled into a campground, jumped into the trailer and stayed snuggled up for the rest of the night. Not a bad way to spend a birthday.
RV Date 130799
Slept in late. The sun doesn't set here until after 11:30 or so and is up again at about 3:30. It has effected our ability to sleep more than we thought. We have heard all kinds of remedies from blackout curtains to sleeping pills. Since it rained last night it got dark early and stayed dark this morning.
Headed for Liard River and passed through some of the most spectacular country we have seen yet. The roads were steep and curved (8 and 9% grades) - sort of like driving Loveland Pass all day long. The Pac Brake has more than paid for itself already. Most of the day we were crossing the Canadian Rockies. Snow covered mountains while we traveled along the rivers.
We stopped to take pictures of one of the rivers. We were walking back along the roadway, came over a hill and there was a bear! We both thought it was a big dog and it dawned on both of us at the same moment that it was something else. We quickly changed lenses to get the picture of the bear and took off. We're not sure if we got the picture of the river or not. This is the first wildlife we've seen here. We keep seeing signs saying watch out for moose or caribou. Mack says they put those up for the tourists so they won't get discouraged. Oh yes, we also saw one lonely deer. We think he was chained there by the side of the road for us to take pictures of.
Went by Muncho Lake. This lake is a dark turquoise color because there is copper leaching into it from the surrounding mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking. Then we drove alongside the Trout River. It's color is the same as the Caribbean - a light turquoise. We have never seen anything like it.
This evening we camped by the Liard (pronounced leerd) River Hotsprings. These natural springs have been dammed by the BC government to form pools. Admittance is free. Here we were sitting in this hot pool surrounded by forest. It was quite a treat.
Raining again this evening so hopefully another good night to sleep. Tomorrow we leave for the Yukon.
RV Date 150799
Drove yesterday from Liard Hotsprings to Teslin Lake, Yukon. Stopped along the way in Watson Lake to see the sign forest. They have over 50,000 signs here that people have left - everything to street signs to license plates to homemade signs - all with hometowns, names and sometimes distances. While we were there a couple was putting their names and hometown on their spare tire to leave ( they said they had three). The guide told us that someone was prying a hubcap off one of the posts. When asked what he was doing he said he had left it a couple of weeks before on his way up, then found out it would cost $180 to replace it so he was taking it back.
Also saw an interesting movie about how the Alaska Highway was constructed. It was actually built three times - in 1942 as a Pioneer Road, just graded dirt through wilderness. In 1943 the PRA rebuilt it using gravel and removing many of the curves and hills. It stayed this way for many years until the Canadian government was able to rebuild it again using blacktop materials. They are still working on it. There are many places along the way where you can see the original road. Now there was a REAL adventure. This road went up and down, around curves and up and down again. In one stretch they hae replaced 152 curves already with more to come. We would not have liked to travel it then.
The area consists of miles and miles of black spruce forest - as far as the eye can see. What a natural resource. We have seen many, many logging trucks on this trip and have seen areas that have been clear cut. We have also seen many signs telling when the trees were cut and when they were replanted. We also saw these signs in Washington and Oregon. Obviously the loggers are trying to let the public know about their conservation efforts. It is amazing to us how long it takes these trees to grow back. Trees that were replanted 10 years ago are only 8 to 10 feet tall now.
We have also seen many, many people biking on this highway. They all either have small trailers behind the bikes or lots of knapsack like items draped over the bikes. We would not like to be biking here. It is very steep, very curvy and would be dangerous we think. More power to these guys.
Today we hired a guide to fish in Teslin Lake. He took us out for a half day. Mack caught the first fish - a big whitefish. Then Andi caught the next two northern pike and Mack caught all the rest - about 14 or 15 in all. Kept a 32 inch northern pike and the whitefish as that's all the room we have in the freezer. We had a great time and saw a moose! The guide took us as close as the moose would let us get and we got some great pictures. Mack can't deny this one!
Tomorrow we're off to Whitehorse.
RV Date 160799
Oops! Change of plans. Got to Whitehorse and decided to take the RV on down to Skagway as we decided we wanted to spend more time here than originally planned.
Down we came on the Klondike Highway which goes over White Pass. The goldminers walked over this pass on their way to Dawson City - with a ton of provisions on their backs. The mountains still have glaciers on the tops and the route is wild and rugged. We are amazed by the size of the waters in this area. Each river seems to be at least a mile wide and all the lakes are miles and miles long.
Today we ate lunch beside Emerald Lake. It has the most beautiful colors from white to a dark green depending on how the sun hits it. We eat lunch most days beside a lake or river or in some other scenic spot. We just pull over, fix a sandwich and enjoy the view.
Had trouble with the truck coming down White Pass so we'll wait to see what needs to be done to it. Have to be towed back to Whitehorse which won't happen until Monday. Looking forward to a great weekend in Skagway!