Tuesday 7/10:
Broke camp at Muncho Lake this 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 we crossed the Laird 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. 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. Tonight we’re trying to get the blog uploaded and catch up on emails. I’m sitting in an RV campground 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 30,000 Yukon residents over what appears to be the only washing machine and dryer in the territory.
