The Yukon Territory

Our journey today was from Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon. Watson Lake had been so rainy it was not a fun visit. Also the internet in the campground did not work well at all. We drove pretty much straight through. No photo ops as the weather was overcast and rainy all the way. We did stop for lunch in a rest area and our traveling companions told us a story about that stop. They were parked behind us and the rest area did have toilets (washrooms in this part of the world). As we were eating, a semi pulled up on the road next to our friends, not in the rest area. The driver got out and took a leak on the side of the road, in full view of their window. He did not walk the short distance to the washroom. The main question is, why didn’t he stop just anywhere along side the road to do this? Why right at the rest stop and in view of someone eating their lunch?

When we got into Whitehorse, it was not raining and we almost through we saw some blue sky showing through the clouds. We got park, Geoff went and washed the car, and then we all went out for dinner. It was a celebration for our friends, who are marking their 42nd Wedding Anniversary. We went to a popular salmon and ribs place downtown and, at first, it looked like we would have a long wait, but we got in reasonable quickly. We stuffed ourselves, and then took a short driving tour of the downtown area before heading back to try to catch the Daily Show on the campground cable. Sadly, it was not on when we expected, but a later checking of the schedule shows it to be on an hour later. We miss it, since none of us can get a TV satellite signal any longer.

We will probably be here for 4 nights and it looks like there is a lot to do in the area. I will probably only make a single update to the blog for the whole time in White Horse.

From Lake to Lake

Today was not a good day. Rain, rain ,rain. We were hoping for some clearing so Geoff could try to get a picture of the transit of Venus across the Sun, but no such luck. Actually the rain did not start in earnest until the end of the day, but it was pretty much socked in the entire time. We took some pictures of the RVs on the stretch of highway that runs along Muncho Lake but the conditions were not favorable.

Along the way to Watson Lake in Yukon, we saw lots of wildlife. We saw black bears numerous times and some buffalo.

We made one extended stop on the way at Liard Hot Springs. Here we walked about 1/4 mile on a boardwalk to the hot spring pool. It was a cool day, but the water was very warm and felt good. The water comes out of the round at about 120 degrees and it was not comfortable too close to the source, but the water went over a spill into a lower area where it was more tolerable. There was even a family with kids playing in that end. It is probably the only place in this part of the continent where you will find orchids growing wild.

When we got into Watson Lake and into a campsite, it started raining and has not let up yet. We still walked over to the local planetarium and watched a show on the Aurora Borealis. They also have a huge “sign post forest” here, started in 1942 when the Alaska Highway was being built and it now has over 71,000 signs.

Tomorrow, we are going to see if we can get internet access at the local library. If this makes it to the blog on 6/6, then it worked.