Tuesday 7/10 (Revised):
Broke camp at Muncho Lake this cool and rainy morning and headed to Watson Lake. About 30 miles north we arrived at the Liard River. Some of you may know about this river, but we’d never heard of it and its huge and beautiful. The Laird defines the end of the Rockies (or the beginning depending on you point of view), but not the end of the mountains. Beyond the Laird are more mountains, and while we were in foothills most of the day, we were never more than a turn of two in the road from dramatic Alpian views. Right after as we crossed the Liard there are hot springs with the same name. These are a famous way-stop on the AKH and we couldn’t miss them. There’s a stream that forms several pools over about 50 yards. At one end a cold-water spring mixes with very hot water from an underground thermal. Water at the beginning of these pools is over 120 degrees—by the end of the pools maybe 100. Very clear water with a distinct sulfur smell, but a nice experience for us in nature’s hot tub. Particularly since we’ve been hoarding water and even when we have plenty, the RV shower’s about 1/3 the size of a phone booth (vertically not horizontally)—sort of like trying to take a shower in a sleeping bag.
En route today, in memory of the cottonwoods at Muncho Lake, I break into song and peel off the entirety of Tammy. Nancy is amazed. Can anyone out there duplicate this incredible feat?
Late this afternoon, we crossed into the Yukon Territory. Check it out on your atlas—The Yukon is about the size of California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington combined—population 30,000. They say there are more deer, moose, bears, or caribou than people. As we hit the BC/Yukon border, there was a RCMP checkpoint (Royal Canadian Mounted Police--without question the coolest law enforcement moniker!). They wanted to check our firearms registration, and I think they also were trying to set a new Guinness record for number of mosquitoes let into an RV while questioning the occupants (old record 27—new record 108).
We’ve had a wonderful time in British Columbia. Their license plate slogan is “Beautiful British Columbia”--it’s exquisitely appropriate.
Had a great wildlife day today: 4 Fannon Sheep just before the Liard. 3 separate Wood Bison sightings in the 50 miles or so beyond the Liard; in separate locations along the highway a large herd, a single bull, and then 3 on the bank of a stream. Grass-eating Black Bears twice. One new bird: Black Backed Woodpecker.
MIP 9 (Most Interesting Person) late today at the Watson Lake Info Center. Dalyce (pronounced daleece) was named for Dallas LNU (Last Name Unknown) who was Miss Canada in 1964. Dalyce’s mother (a pioneer lady who can hunt, fish, skin moose, and make a mean fish chowder using pickled Northern Pike) didn’t want Dalyce to be confused with the city Dallas (because of the Kennedy assassination) so she changed the spelling and pronunciation. Sort of defeats the purpose, but what the heck it’s a good story. All of the Info Center people we’ve met have been helpful and knowledgeable, but Dalyce was the best so far. Really knows her stuff particularly about fishing. Dalyce is also a PTM (Perpetual Talking Machine). We asked just one question and got an animated, non-stop, life-story, Yukon Territory travelogue, Orvis approved, monologue. A neat lady—knows just about everything except the age of her husband who’s 41 or 42, she thinks.
Adjacent to the Watson Lake Info Center, is the Sign Post Forest. It’s a “must-see” tourist hot spot—the kind of thing that Nancy and I usually strive to ignore, but we wandered through it, and it’s really interesting. Started during the construction of the highway when a soldier from Danville, IL put up a sign indicating direction and distance to Danville. Since then it’s grown to be a huge collection of signs, license plates, and memorabilia left by passers-through from all over the world. Sounds hokey, but is not. We got pictures of signs from Schaumburg, Rolling Meadows, Evanston and Galesburg, IL…Archbold and Oxford Ohio…Smyrna and Alpharetta, GA plus a Georgia Bulldogs license plate, a Penn State 1982 National Champions license plate…Minnetonka and St. Thomas, MN…a sign from the audience entrance from the Oprah Winfrey show…Schmuckstadt Germany (got a love a town with a sense of humor)…Santa Cruz, CA…and absolutely amazingly a Plum Grove Road sign (the street where Nancy grew up). We have often walked down this street before, but when we saw this sign our jaws just hit the floor…
Tonight we’re spending our first night of the trip at an actual RV Park—a capitulation warranted by our need to load and off load fluids, and have Internet connectivity. Since we’re connected to external power and water, we both shower--very luxurious.
Now I’m sitting in the RV Park store tapped into a v-e-r-y slow Internet connection, but hey, time is my friend, so if it takes a couple of hours, it takes a couple of hours. Meanwhile Nancy is competing with all 30,000 Yukon residents over what appears to be the only washing machine and dryer in the territory.
