Friday 7/6:
This morning we start at 9:16. This is our earliest start of the trip (superlative). We’re at Milepost 80 of the 1,500 mile long AKH. In the early part of the day we’re still in northern-Wisconsin terrain. Surprisingly at MP 185 or so, in the middle of nowhere, we pass two fir trees along the side of the road that are decorated for Christmas including ornaments and tinsel. We also pass a parade of about 10 Model T Fords heading south. We assume its some odyssey of like-minded antique car owners. We get no pictures because stuff like this just happens along the way, and by the time you realize its momentous, its gone. We need a spy-plane-like camera mounted on the RV so that when we see this spontaneous stuff, we can capture it. I’ll work on it.
Our first big day for wildlife: 1 deer, 2 moose, and 8 black bears. Unfortunately one of the moose (meese?) is a road kill. I take this opportunity to pose as “the great white hunter” (see picture). With the RV parked just beyond the carcass passersby are surely thinking we just hit the thing and are facing a big collision damage claim. All of the bears we see are eating grass. Sure, we know they’re omnivorous, but you just don’t picture them munching away at the grass like a cow. For lunch we stop at the Profit River Provincial Park. When we get there, its deserted, but several other people pull in while we’re eating lunch. One is MIP 5, Mr. Depression. He’s from southeastern Arkansas, traveling with his two dogs, tent-camping out of his Toyota Corolla. He ambles over while I’m washing the windshield. Nancy and I are trying to escape from civilization, but it’s hard to truncate these AKH encounters because most people are social animals, and they want to talk as long as possible. This guy is on his way back from the same artic circle destination (Inuvik) to which we’re headed. A synopsis of his commentary on his trip, “not what I expected”, “too many bugs”, “mosquitoes are driving me crazy”, “I really don’t like Arkansas—living in a pod of rednecks”, (turns out Mr. D is originally from, you guessed it! Northern Wisconsin.), “didn’t see much wildlife on the road to Inuvik”, “guess it was good news that I didn’t have a flat tire—was kind of expecting it”, “I worry about camping in these Provincial Parks, lots of riff raff. I asked a Mounty about it, and he said not to worry, but I know some of these people are dangerous”, “looks like you’re busy, guess I’ll go back and finish setting up my tent, sure are a lot of mosquitoes, looks like rain, could be a flash flood, lots of volcanoes in this area, could happen any time…” and he ambles off. We use the RV to shield us from his view while we practice using our pepper spray bear repellant. Wouldn’t want Mr. D to think there are possibly bears in the area. Earlier in the day, at the Jack Fish River, we tested another of our anti-bear weapons, our Bear Bangers. These are kind of like cherry bombs combined with a rocket launcher. The idea is to shoot them in front of the bear. They explode, and the bear runs off. As they were explained to us, its VERY important to have them land in front of the bear. If they land behind the bear, the frightened bear will run toward you—that’s generally not a good thing. At the Jack Fish River we also had our first encounter with the native horse flies. They are roughly the size of sparrows and travel in flocks. We used our head nets to keep them out of our faces, but we’ve discovered that our fall-back insect repellant works very well on all of the bugs we’ve encountered so far. We’ve got a huge supply of DEET on board (in a 55 gallon drum), but we also bought some Repel Lemon Eucalyptus repellent. Seems to be less caustic than DEET and smells much better. Also seems to work great on the local insects. The key is to slather this stuff on every exposed part of your body. Yesterday Nancy missed a little spot on her earlobe and the mosquitoes attacked that little spot like kamakazi pilots.
Early this afternoon we stopped in Ft. Nelson, MP 300-very helpful ladies at the Info Center. We get more information on our new route along the Campbell Highway and the Yukon. Outside we see the Hopscotch Guy. This guy is driving a big diesel RV, towing a car, and with a motorbike hanging on the back of the car. Neat setup. He first passed us on the freeway in southern Washington, then again in Dawson Creek. Now he reappears in Ft. Nelson. I think he was in the Info Center with us, but I don’t really want to know who he is, I like the mystery of it. We get postcards at the Info Center but have to go to the museum to get stamps. Most of these towns have museums. This one has a lot of antique machinery. Interesting. We’re also looking for WiFi in Ft. Nelson so that we can update the blog. We ask the 20-something young lady in the museum if there’s a WiFi spot in town. She does not know what Wifi is! There are not many places in the world where a 20-something person has not heard of Wifi, but Ft. Nelson is one of them. In Ft. Nelson, we also fuel up. Gas is now $1.26 Canadian per liter. Some of you can do the math in your head(Devon), but for the rest of you, this is $4.98/gallon US! This is the most (superlative) we’ve ever paid for gas. As we drive north from Ft. Nelson, the trees here are stunted and there are miles of Queen Anne’s Lace. We turn west toward the Rockies where we can see some snow at the upper elevations. As we begin to enter the mountains, there are vast forests of quaking aspens. Their tall white trunks look like cliffs along the highway. The road is more narrow and the ups and downs steeper--some grades of 10%. We come across a stranded car and stop to ask if the driver needs help. There’s a sense of community along the highway—we’re all in this together. We meet MIP 6. He’s from Tennessee. “We was thinkin’ ‘bout buying one of them RVs to do this trip, that’s what the little woman wanted, but I decided to come in the ol’ minivan instead…had transmission trouble a couple hun’red miles back, had it fixed in Ft. Nelson, but headin’ up the big ol’ mountain, started acting up ag’in. Got back this far and it jus’ gave out. Road gets rougher as you get up into the mountains…lots a gravel…and lots a animals…moose and sheep…right smack dab in the middle of the road! You got to wa’ch out. I’m fine. A right nice lady from the lodge up the road stopped a couple of hours ago and took the little woman into town. I’m just waiting for the dang tow truck. Thanks a heap for stopping…”We’re following the Tetsa River. It is the quintessential mountain stream (well deserved superlative). Sparkling clean, rushing white water in a flat valley sliced between steep cliffs. We spent last night in a thicket a couple hundred yards from the highway right on the river. The cascading water lulled us to sleep; Nancy by 11 PM and me at about 2. We find that our sleeping habits have changed. In part because we can wake up more of less any time we want, so there’s less urgency to go to bed, but mostly because the farther north we go, the lighter it is. Last night at 11 PM it looked like dusk (see picture I took at midnight). Last night we also found what we think is grizzly bear scat. For you Hyatt Regency folks, scat is a synonym for another 4-letter word, both of which mean defecation. Our daughter gave us a great book on animal tracks and scat. We’ve had the book for years, but expect that on this trip it will be really helpful because there are so many animals around.
