Kluane Lake reprise

Kluane Lake, 78 miles from end to end, and all frozen.

It’s a big Big, BIG land. To imagine the Native People living here, following the seasons. Fishing, hunting, berrying.

Sophie Watt, Tschone, in her warm, gopher skin coat.

Boondocking in Whitehorse

Boondocking in Whitehorse at the Walmart. We saw many Filipinos working there and found there is an authentic Filipino Restaurant in town!

Asian Central, Oppan Filipino style!

Full Pinoy menu. I had my favorite, Kare Kare, De had Sisig.

Karaoke in the dining room, just like back home!

Every store must have some groceries, like pancit noodles and bagoong.

Franciana from WalMart stopped in to make sure we found the place.

Generous portions, dinner is served.

After dinner with full stomachs we took our doggie bags back to the WalMart for an evening camping in the parking lot.

ego shot

coming into Teslin

closed but I walked around anyway

canoe thru window

Liard Hotsprings

Big Buffalo herd lining the highway to Watson Lake

Sparring

Smith River Falls 1/2 mile up gravel road off highway

The highway weaves back and forth across the British Columbia/Yukon border seven times.

Signpost Forest, Watson Lake Yukon

From one posted by a homesick soldier working on the Highway to 75000 today!

Make that 75001!

some pics from Mixed day beautiful Yukon

Must stop on the Alaskan Highway

About 1/3 mile thru a marsh. Nice boardwalk

Mixed weather, beautiful Yukon

I have noticed they don’t say “the Yukon” but simply Yukon. We left the Downtown RV at 8am, our latest start to date. But then we were only going to Whitehorse, Yukon about 250 miles away.
A bit about the Downtown RV. It’s a gravel parking lot and it’s right in the middle of town, near the Signpost Forest, grocery and across the street from the Northern Lights Theatre. What it lacks in ambiance it makes up in service. The park has full hookups, good cable, internet sewer, water and 30/15 amp electric. Adjacent to the office is a coin laundry and clean men and womens showers with plenty of hot water. Archie, the owner, runs a tight ship and will treat you right. He charged us $36.50 for the night and got us a 3% discount on a gas fill up at the FasGas just down the street. Every little bit helps.
How do you know when you are suffering from “scenic beauty burnout”? When you don’t take so many pictures. Snow covered mountains rose into view, ho hum, another day on the Alaska Highway.
We were climbing through a forested valley towards a pass when I noticed the lowering clouds hade cut off the mountaintops and were dropping something ahead. It wasn’t rain but snow. Starting just after Swift River we entered about 5 miles of almost whitout conditions. Eventually the snow gave way to scattered sunshine.
We stopped to make a sandwich at a rest area next to a frozen lake. I didn’t realize until we were ready to leave WE DIDN’T EVEN RAISE THE SHADE while eating. Now THAT’S scenic burnout.
Before starting back on the road another RV pulled in and a couple got out to beat snow out of the wheel wells. They explained they had come from Alaska where it’s snowing. The man said he had driven through a 450 mile snowstorm. Great, that’s where we are headed.
The nearest Government campground that was open was Squanga. It was pretty but too far from Whitehorse. I decided to continue into town and boondock at the Walmart lot. Just to say we did.

more from outstanding day

climbing into the mountains

‘boo

Browsing ‘boo

‘Boo Buddies

Into the “Hall of the Mountains”

Close encounter

Historic Toad River Lodge and truckers motel. From a sign in the hall, “Rooms with open doors are vacant. Take one and pay in the morning. $78. Dbl/sgl”

“World Famous hat collection” Four rooms, hats displayed hanging from the ceiling.

Mama Toad

Frozen Muncho Lake, Strawberry Flats Campground

Stone sheep running from honking truckers

McDonald Camp at top of frozen Muncho Lake, every site a winner

more to come…

010 outstanding day continued

Summit Lake, Alaskan Highway. Frozen campsite

010 Saturday, May 18 Outstanding day!

Woke early as usual. Took an early walk around the now full campground. Someone had come in the middle of the night and taken the site next to us. A pickup truck with a camptop pulling a brand new galvanized bear trap.The pickup had a sign that read they were welders and fabricators. I didn’t hear any disturbance from inside the trap so assumed they were delivering the trap somewhere in Canada.

On the road we slowly climbed out of the Peace River district and into the mountains. A lone caribou on the road was a harbinger of things to come. Before long we saw a small herd browsing at the side of the road. I stopped to snap a few pictures.

The scenery became more mountainous, with views of the snow covered peaks.

We turned a corner and saw a beautiful river valley with the water crashing down rapids and mountains framing the scene. I stopped again and walked over to frame the picture.

After snapping a few I peeked over the side and was surprised to see a brown bear not 10 feet down the embankment having breakfast. After making sure it wasn’t a grizzly, I immediately started taking pictures.

An exciting encounter.

Further up the mountain we came to Summit Lake, an empty high alpine campground next the still frozen lake. Victoria Day campers hadn’t yet made it up there. Last night if I had known such beauty was only 2 hours away I would have held out for this spot.

Further on we saw a black bear running away from the road. He was only a blur and I didn’t get a good picture but coming up to the place he was running from We see an old carcass with Raven pecking at it. We scared the bear while scavenging road kill and now old Raven was having his fill.

to be continued…

009 Friday, May 17, Fort Nelson and more Soul Sistas!

Ready to roll at 6am but the campground gate was locked until 7! Fe and I killed time by reading and listening to rocnroll on the radio. The Alaskan Highway north of Charlie Lake runs through the Peace River District. Long and straight cutting through spruce and poplar forest, we saw no wildlife, just “miles and miles of miles and miles.” The occasional river offered some topographical relief.

Reaching Fort Nelson at 11 we saw the local visitor center, and it’s a fine one with helpful staff, exhibits, pamphlets, free computers to use and wifi. We spent an hour or so on the net and while there our co adventurers from Harlowton stopped in.

Before leaving town we picked up a few things at the local IGA and found several Filipinas working there. I had learned talking with two ladies at the Community Center that there are many Filipinos in the area even though there isn’t a Tim Hortons (coming soon!) they find employment working in the service industry. CANADA needs workers, and I guess Filipinos are happy to come here, regardless of the harsh winters.
One of the Canadian ladies told me her favorite friend is a Filipina who has lived here many years. Seems when she first came to the area she was a nanny, but in a short time was working three additional jobs! Now that she has become established (I assumed that meant she has resident status) she has brought her children here and cut back to only two jobs. The industriousness of the Filipino people impresses the Canadians. The “Pioneer Spirit” is now coming from the Far East.
I can’t help but draw correlations with the US and Mexican immigrants, who also work multiple jobs to support their families. Whereas Canada welcomes foreign labor, US borders are closed, and many people in the US denigrate Hispanics.
After having lunch in the RV (tuna salad sandwiches, chips and cole slaw) and topping off the gas tank we continued 80 miles down the road to the Tetsa River Regional Campground. One and a half miles down a gravel road to the camp on the banks of the Tetsa River. Seventeen bucks gets you no services, just a flat spot, picnic table and firepit. I took a walk and the camp was almost full. We were lucky to find a spot. Many sites were reserved in advance but no campers, just a “reserved” sign.

While exploring I found a hand well pump near the river with a sign that read boil water 15 minutes before using. That’s OK, we have 3/4 tank of water in the RV and our grey and black water are not yet 1/2 full. We’ll be OK boondocking.

This is the start of Victoria Day, a three day weekend for Canadians.
Tomorrow we see the Laird Hot Springs, Muncho Lake and the Signpost Forest at Watson Lake.