On July 8th we traveled about 300 miles from Fort Nelson, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory. We had traveled only about 50 miles before the "Nutella Incident". Nutella is a chocolate hazelnut butter that you can put on toast, etc. That day the girls decided we were going to have Nutella and Ritz crackers for our afternoon snack, so they packed it in the truck. Katy took the seal off the Nutella before she put it in the truck to make it easier when snack time came around. She then put the Nutella on the back seat console. About 50 miles down the road, Katy discovered some Nutella on her hand and thought she must have gotten it on herself when she had removed the seal. No one thought any more about it until a very quiet Sophie was discovered sitting in a puddle of Nutella. Apparently the lid wasn't on well and Sophie had started snacking on it as it leaked from the jar. By the time we figured out what was going on, Sophie was sitting in a pretty large, sticky puddle. She must have though it was her fault, she looked quite embarrassed. After a roadside clean up of both the truck and the dog, we were back on the road again.
The rest of the day went well, we saw a number of big horn sheep, a moose, some buffalo, and a black bear along the road.
At the Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, the girls put up the sign Katy had made. The collection was started in 1942 and by 2002 over 49,000 signs had been placed by people traveling through the area. It was fun looking for signs from Texas. We even found one placed by some fellow Texans, Billy & Mona Nelson, we had met at the campground in Cochrane, Alberta.
On July 9th, we traveled from Watson Lake to Whitehorse. As you can see from the photo, all did not go well that day. We pulled off the road as best we could, onto the soft shoulder. You can't see from the picture, but there was a drop off of about 8 feet just beyond the shoulder. Some nice folks from Mississippi, Vic & Faye Ellis, stopped to help us. How thankful we were for their assistance. We hope they're having a safe trip.
We spent a day in Whitehorse stocking up and getting tires. We also visited the Whitehorse Fishway/Fish Ladder. ( http://www.yukonenergy.ca/services/facilities/fishway/) The fish ladder was built so that Chinook salmon could make their way up the Yukon River to spawn.
July 11th we drove from Whitehorse to Dawson City, near the Alaskan border. This part of the journey was not on the Alaskan Highway but rather the Klondike Highway. We chose this route in order to see Dawson City, the site of the world famous Klondike Gold Rush, and to cross over into Alaska via the Top of the World Highway which stretches from Dawson City, Yukon to Tok, Alaska.
Another blow out today. Getting good at changing tires is not a skill I was looking to develop.
Dawson City (http://www.dawsoncity.ca/) was a boom town during the Klondike Gold Rush, then nearly dried up until the Canada Parks Department started restoring a lot of the historic building in town during the 1980s. It has a very colorful history and lots to see in a little place. Dawson City is also home of the sour toe cocktail (http://www.sourtoecocktailclub.com/sourtoe.html), which we did not try. Just didn't sound good.
We did visit the Jack London Museum in Dawson City and enjoyed Dawn's very educational program about Jack London's life and literature.(http://www.yukoninfo.com/dawson/info/jacklondon.htm) Jack London, who wrote The Call of the Wild and White Fang, came to the Klondike Gold Rush in 1897 to search for gold. A replica of his cabin stands in Dawson City.
Mickey took this picture from outside our RV at midnight in Dawson City, Yukon.
July 13th. The plan was to catch the ferry and go into Alaska along the Top of the World Highway. However, the road near Chicken, Alaska washed out and we've been waiting to hear how long it will take to get fixed. The word is "maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day." With that in mind, we decided to not wait any longer. So, we traveled back to Whitehorse. There aren't exactly alternate routes in this part of the world. If a road washes out, you either wait or go back the way you came in.
Kluane Lake
We spent the night of the 13th parked in a turnout along the highway with several other RVs on the shore of Kluane Lake in Yukon Territory. Boondocking (dry camping for free) is really popular in Canada and Alaska. There are so many pretty locations to just pull over and camp beside lakes, rivers, and mountains.
July 14th. We made it to Alaska at last. It's so nice to be back on American soil.
Here are some of our first glimpses of Alaska:
The weather is cool, in the 40s - 50s at night and usually not warmer than 70 during the day. Right now there is roughly 2 hours of dark, really it's more like twilight.
Something I haven't told you about is permafrost. Permafrost is land or ground that remains frozen all year round. It causes heaves in the ground which make for really rough road conditions. The highway buckles and cracks forming large holes and crevasses. It feels a lot like riding a roller coaster, except it can go on for miles and miles. Not to mention being really hard on your rig. This site has some good pics of permafrost and the problems it can cause ( http://www.alaskastock.com/resultsframe.asp?txtkeys1=permafrost ).
We spent one night in Anchorage at Elmendorf AFB then came to Seward where we'll be for a week. We're staying at Seward Military Resort (http://www.sewardresort.com/). The facilities are very nice and such a refreshing change from camping in Canada.
Mickey spent today doing some repairs to the rig, while I got caught up on household chores. The girls had some down time to watch TV and relax. They don't get much time for that on the road. Tomorrow, provided the weather holds out, we're planning to fish and hopefully see some whales.
We love and miss you all.
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