Catching Up - Part 2

 Day 10 – Muncho Lake to Liard Hot Springs

Talk about a stressful day of driving. It was a whole 40 miles from Muncho to Liard. Checkout was at 11 a.m. and check-in was supposed to be 1 p.m. so we had all of two hours to make the trip.  We spent some time at an overlook where we got our last view of lovely Muncho Lake.  

The stone sheep were in hiding today, but there was one lone bison posing at the side of the road.

We got to the campground at Liard early, but they let us in anyway,

so we got set up and then went to boil ourselves in the hot spring. We learned that the boiling hot water floats on the top so if we stirred the water, the cool water would well up, which made it much more tolerable. We floated until none of us could stand it any more, went back to our rigs and had naps, dinner and then went to bubble again. There were signs warning us of wild animals, but they were all in hiding.

 Day 11 – Liard – Watson Lake – Rancheria

Today was the day Gerry has waited for since our last road trip up here. We posted our sign in the Watson Lake sign forest. During the construction of the Alaska highway, Watson Lake was one of the construction camps. Homesick soldiers posted mile signs to their home towns. Somehow, as time went on, it became a tradition that people passing through Watson Lake would nail up a sign about their names or home towns. Now there are acres of signs like a maze. We found a good spot very close to the entrance to the forest and Gerry proudly fastened our sign to the post for all to see for years to come.

 

Gerry wants it known that the sign is near the big green machine, which looks to be a landmark for years to come.

We also went to the planetarium show about the northern lights. Beautiful photgraphy, and I am pretty sure it's the only way we'll ever see the lights. Certainly they won't be visible any time during this trip, since even at this latitude it never gets fully dark. It's twilight at 3 in the morning and bright enough to be really annoying by 4:00.

Our night's stop is the Rancheria, the place where we broke down on our last trip up here and had excellent pie while waiting for the tractor-trailer to take the motorhome to Whitehorse. I'm happy to say that the pie is still excellent.

Day 12 – Rancheria to to Whitehorse

It was a beautiful blue sky day for driving. In the distance we could see the spectacular Dawson Mountains, all covered with snow. These are the views we've been looking for! We stopped at the overlook for Teslin to get a photo of the the Nisutlin Bay and the metal bridge crossing it.

We got into Whitehorse in the middle of the afternoon. The first touristy spot was the Transportation Museum that covers everything from dog sleds to airplanes, including the DC-3 mounted on a pedestal that is so perfectly balanced that the slightest breeze turns it without a sound. I think it's Gerry's favorite thing of all on this trip.

Dinner was at the Ribs and Salmon place in town, which still has the best ever fish and chips and bread pudding.

 Day 13 – Whitehorse

We were going to do all sorts of things today, but then we decided to do non-exciting things like go grocery shopping in the Real Canadian grocery, where we had to be taught how to retrieve a shopping cart. You put a dollar coin, called a loonie, in a slot in the cart to unlock it from the fleet of carts. When you bring it back, you lock it back to the next cart and get your loonie back. Mark found some mechanical things he needed for his trailer, and Dave bugged the glass repair guy until he finally agreed to come out and fix his windshield. So, today is a down day. Tomorrow we will do some more sightseeing in Whitehorse before departing from the Alaska Highway to go to Dawson City and the Top of the World highway.