B.C. and Yukon

Western Canada – British Columbia and the Yukon Territory Travels:

July 14 – 24, 2013

Mile Marker # 0

Sunday, 7-14-13, was the 1^st official day on the Heart of Alaska Tour - 48 days of adventure. There are 22 other RVs that joined us on our trip. That afternoon we all met to get acquainted, had a brief presentation on the construction of the Alaska Hwy (1^st built in 1942, in 8 months by US/Canadian Troops, about 1500 miles from Dawson Creek, B.C. to Fairbanks, AK.)  and posed for a photo op at Mile Marker 0 of the Alaska Highway, and enjoyed a good send-off dinner.

Mile Zero

Day 2 of the tour: with our trip gauge set at zero we started off with enthusiasm, excitement and a few butterflies in our stomachs.  With about 4500 miles to go-would the old Safari make it?  Would these old people make it? Time will tell! The MoHo made the prescribed left turn out of the campground and north onto Hwy 97 – aka: The Alaska Highway.  The route took us out of Dawson Creek where 100,000+ plus vehicles pass every summer on their way to AK.  The local farms with their canola fields and the natural gas fields gave way to what we describe as the Dr. Seuss Forests – vast acres of green with many, many, many, skinny and relatively short white spruce trees.  The trees are not only spindly but have sort of bulbous tops, some bending over almost like they are wilted. Guess this will be the norm for the next few weeks travel. It is green and very rugged. We encountered several rivers today: the Kiskatinaw, Peace, Skiamni, Muskwa and an assorted number of unidentified creeks, lakes and other tributaries.  Amazing to us was the relatively few other RVs that we saw on the road.  We thought that with the number of other RV’s on the road from our group; another group of about the same size as ours and the solo and small group travelers that we would feel like the road was over crowded. The road conditions were very good, we had been told of a few grades, curves etc. but certainly nothing really challenging for Mike’s driving.  The navigation is great too – Karen is really pretty much off the hook, as each day is outlined with the destination, driving tips, mile markers of rest stops, fuel, view point, etc.  The only wild life we spotted today was TONS of BUGS, our windshield was plastered with them by the time we got to camp.

Miles for the day 284.

BUGS!

Alaska Highway scene

Day 3 today we headed toward Liard Hot Springs (pronounced Leerd). The roadside continued to be beautiful, more views of the rugged Rockies complete with the skinny forests. We were treated to our first real wildlife sightings. The count for the day was: 20+ stone sheep (look like mountain goats to us), 6 moose (one very sweet mama with baby, just in front of the MoHo at lunch break), and 1 deer.  Lake Muncho was a beautiful stop; it is big: 7 miles by 1 mile with very blue green water – caused by the copper oxide that leaches into the water from the local hillsides. The roads were good, but there was quite a bit of construction and areas of gravel (lots of DUST).  Our stop for the evening was a very primitive area with nice hot spring facilities.  The BC government has provided a boardwalk to the springs, great decks around the ponds and nice change area. Mike and I enjoyed the soothing waters although I found it a bit too warm – the challenge for the day was to place a stone at the HOT END of the spring (110+ degrees) – “mission accomplished”.

Miles for the day: 191.7 miles, total for the AK Adventure: 475.7.

Mother Moose and baby

Liard Hot Springs

DUST!!!

Stone Sheep

Day 4 saw these travelers continuing north into a new area of Canada. Shortly after leaving Liard Hot Springs we exited British Columbia and drove into the Yukon Territory; along this route we Zig zagged back and forth between B.C. and Y.T. 3 times.  The road provided Mike with a good game of “dodge the pot holes” for several miles today, -- always one for a challenge he enjoyed the sport. We got our first glimpse of the Yukon River (Yukon means big river) along our route. . The wild life count was 3-dozen or more big lumbering bison and once again, 1 deer.  We arrived in camp and enjoyed an afternoon in Watson Lake, visiting an interesting center that featured information on the Northern Lights (generally seen in the winter) and then we went to the Signpost Forest where since 1942 people have been posting signs from their home towns, their license plates, some very creative personal messages on cookie sheets, dust pans, gold pans, ice cube trays, Frisbees and my favorite was ours, on a plastic picnic plate.  At present count there are over 75,000 signs hung in the forest.

Miles for the day: 132, total for the AK Adventure: 607.7

Sign Post Forest

American Bison living in Canada

Day 5 along our Alaskan Highway route we saw more forests, mountains, rivers, and lakes.  There were definitely fewer conveniences along the road.  We enjoyed trying to read and make sense out of all the rock signs/messages that were formed along the roadside. There were a lot of love signs: like K+M, heart shape with initials, some cryptic phrases and my favorite was what looked like 2 martini glasses. These messages were apparently started by 1990 by a swim team from Fort Nelson, B.C.  The road condition was generally good with only a couple of games of “dodge the pot holes” and one game of “suck-it-in” – on a very narrow single lane bridge.  The highway Crossed the Continental Divide point where the rivers run to the Pacific Ocean or to the Artic Oceans.  No wildlife sightings today with the exception of maybe 24-30 bicyclists that were heading south, boy that looks like one tough peddle. Our stop for the night was in Teslin, Y.T., small little town, with 2 good museums: Teslin Wild Life Museum with amazing displays of taxidermied animals and the Teslin Tlingit Cultural Center – a great place with information on the Tlingit 1^st Nation Peoples.

Miles for the day: 163, total for the AK Adventure: 770.7

roads

Add caption