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| A still frozen landscape |
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| Our trek so far |
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| Fort Nelson BC to Whitehorse Yukon |
Date: 5/23/2013 Time
Zone: PDT
Location: Watson Lake, Yukon Territory [YT]
Travel Leg of journey: 12 Day
of journey: 17
Miles traveled today:
371 Miles
traveled since departure: 4103
Percentage of travel completed: 37.3%
U.S. states visited today: British Columbia, Yukon Territory
Critters observed today: bears, Dall [Big Horn] sheep,
bison, caribou, free range horses, mosquitos
North of Fort Nelson is where the real feel of the Alaska
Highway begins. From here on, the few “towns” are mere cross roads, the
landscape is free from farms, and you expect everything to be “wild”. It is. It
took us only a few miles to see our first Canadian critter, a mature black
bear. We saw 4 more bears before this ride was done, along with 5 caribou, 9
Big Horn sheep, 5 wild horses and countless bison. For the most part, the
critters were well off the roadway, grazing on the generous open space on
either side of the 2-lane road. This wide space offers a chance to see the
animals easily from a distance, and a chance for them to graze safely away from
the possible harm of speeding vehicles. But the horses, sheep and some bison
dared to venture very close to the roadway. One sign said to be careful of
bison for the next 90 km. We saw them for more kilometers than that. From the
endless distribution of buffalo chips along the right-of-way, they must use the
bison as the roadway mowing contractor. The landscape was heavily wooded all
day. We encountered more snow this day as we crossed the Cassiar Range of the
Rocky Mountains. From there you felt as if you were flying over a green carpet
with the endless expanse of treetops below and before you on the downhill
runs. As civil engineers usually
do, the road was designed to follow the rivers where possible, taking advantage
of the relatively flat areas carved eons before by the beautiful raging streams
and rivers flowing downward toward the Yukon River several hundred miles away
yet. We passed sheer rockwall cliffs hundreds of feet high and lakes still
frozen in the last grip of winter. Muncho Lake is huge, and a brilliant emerald
green from the minerals dissolved within its waters. Large, thick chunks of ice
around its edge were also deep green, resembling jagged gemstones. The roadways
up to this point have belied the stories we had heard about their rough
condition. Most were remarkably smooth and with very few road construction
sites. We were traveling early enough in the year to miss much of this
activity, which usually adds delay for travelers.
In the “town” of Watson Lake, we visited the popular Sign
Post Forest, an assembly of posts erected to house over 72,000 signs from all
over the world. This collection started in 1942 during the construction of the
Alaskan Highway by one of the enlisted soldiers with a single sign, and has
grown dramatically ever since. Street name signs, traffic signs, city limit
signs, and license tags are everywhere! Nancy even found a large sign “Radford
VA” that resembled those on our interstate highways, stolen no doubt. We took
several photos to give a sense of scale to this exhibit, and contributed an OBX
HOKIE sign of our own to the collection.
Baby Nugget campground was practically new, and well laid
out. Unfortunately, there is no cell phone coverage here, and the wifi left a
lot to be desired.
End of post
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Date: 5/24/2013 Time
Zone: PDT
Location: Whitehorse, Yukon Territory [YT]
Travel Leg of journey: 13 Day
of journey: 18
Miles traveled today:
270 Miles
traveled since departure: 4373
Percentage of travel completed: 39.7%
U.S. states visited today: Yukon Territory
Critters observed today: moose, caribou, eagle, bear
The weather here has been pretty consistent lately. Mid 30’s
to low 40’s in the mornings, mid to upper 60’s during the days. The amount of
usable daylight is amazing. Yesterday I awoke briefly at 3:40a and could easily
see the surroundings outside. I retired about midnight last night and could
still see well outside. The amount of usable daylight is far beyond the listed
sunrise/sunset times for the area.
Though the roads have been very good so far, I still expect
deteriorated road conditions as we move farther into the Yukon [this is code
for: the driver is anal]. So I have added some protection for the bus and the
car that we tow behind us[see photos]. For the car we have a commercially
available rock shield between the bus and car. I have added a super-sized yoga
mat cut to fit the car windshield and held in place with industrial grade
Velcro and by capturing the ends in the front doors. For headlight protection
on both vehicles I have taped military grade bubble wrap cut to fit the lamp
openings. Time will tell if this protection is needed at all, and if it works.
The ride today was similar to yesterday, but fewer critters
and more spectacular mountain views as we crossed a higher section of the Rocky
Mountains.
We encountered our first roadway frost heaves today. These
are caused when the frozen earth well below the surface begins to thaw with
seasonal warming. When frozen water [ice] warms and approaches the freezing
point, the ice expands. Since this expansion of the soil has nowhere to go
laterally, the roadway moves upward at this point. This upward swelling of pavement is insidiously perfectly
camouflaged to the eye of the average driver, and results in a pavement bulge
of about 6 feet long and a few inches high. The purpose of these frost heaves
is to launch the unsuspecting driver and his vehicle vertically upward as the
vehicle speeds along. The result is not a jolt, but a soft bump followed by
more, but smaller, bumps as the wheels contact the roadway again and again. For
the unsuspecting speeding breadbox, the frost heaves result in another surprise
inside the vehicle. Many of the
owners’ clothes, hanging peacefully in the closet by their hangers on their
clothes rods, are also launched vertically upward and actually clear the
supporting clothes rod. Unfortunately many of the clothes hangers miss catching
the rod on their way back to earth. And a mass of clothes ends up on the floor
of the closet.
As we pulled into town, we saw and heard the first airplane
since Calgary a week ago. We still have not seen a law enforcement officer
since then, but did hear the first siren since Calgary. Whitehorse is a
bustling town of about 27,000 people, which is 2/3 of the population of the
entire Territory. It sits along the bank of the Yukon River and still has many
of the buildings that were built in the 1890’s during and after the gold rush.
Here we see eagles sitting on street lamp poles near the river waiting to catch
their next meal. After settling in
at High Country RV park for a couple of days rest, a very large black
bear walked into camp just one row of campers in front of us. The bear sat down
in front of a picnic table [see photos] and made himself comfortable. The camp
managers tried chasing the bear with truck horn blasts, a portable air horn,
and even their dog, but the bear kept coming back twice before finally leaving.
Bears coming this close to humans are at risk of being put down by the game
resource professionals. Last year 40 bears were shot and killed by officers in
the immediate Whitehorse area.
We hope to reach Alaska on the next leg of our travel.
End of post
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| Big horn sheep |
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| Bison. Babies sucking at the the Mozzarella spigot |
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| Bullet-proof bubble wrap |
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| OBX Hokies in the sign post forest |
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| Camp at Ft. Nelson. Notice rifles as door handles on saloon door |
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| What's for dinner? |
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| Rock protection |
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| Sign post forest |
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| Radford sign in the forest |
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| Back again! |
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| First critter sighting, mature black bear |
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| Never sit at an unlicensed patio |
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