June 30, 2014 Dawson City, Yukon Territory, Canada

Yahoo!!! We have finally reached the Klondike in the Yukon River valley!!!!

We had a great day. We left Whitehorse at 7:30 AM for our 320 mile drive to Dawson City. The scenery along the way reminded us of several areas of Idaho including the Silver Valley, Elk River, and the Elk City area. We had assumed the road would follow along the Yukon River. WRONG!! We actually only saw the Yukon three times. The road is routed over and around the mountains and valleys. The vegetation was so heavy and tall, for a good share of the trip, we could only see the road in front of us. Pictures are of the Dawson Range and the Yukon River.

As we drove along, we came upon a roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere. However, Gayle had read that they are famous for their cinnamon rolls. No more needed to be said. This roll measures 8” across and is 3½” thick!!

The road was fairly good the first 100 miles, but then we saw this sign:

Having been in the transportation engineering business for the bigger portion of my career, I was not familiar with nor had I ever had seen a sign with this warning. Gayle and I discussed what it may mean. Then we figured it out. ROLLER COASTER ROAD AHEAD. These were actually frost heaves and sags in the roadway. Unfortunately, we did not slow enough for a pickup pulling a 31' travel trailer.

At first it was like a porpoise landing in an airplane – that is where the nose gear touches down first and bounces the nose up, then down, then up, then down before making the final landing!!

Then, it was like a motorcycle moto-cross track. You know the double jump...and the rider doesn't make it to the second hump and lands short, smashing the front wheel into the mound???? Well, we are sure that all 8 of our tires were off the ground about the time we hit the second frost heave. Hell, when you are in mid air you can't slow down!!! Our necks still hurt!!!

We stopped down the road a bit to re-arrange the stuff in the trailer – some of the stuff actually landed in places you would never believe!!

Even after all of that, we arrived in Dawson at 4:30. That is only 36 mph average speed.

Perhaps tomorrow we will get out the gold pans and try our luck??? You never know!!

June 29, 2014 – Whitehorse, Yukon Terr.

We left Watson Lake around 9:00 AM for our 240 mile drive to Whitehorse. We were on Canadian Rt 2 which is similar to our US Highways. US 2 north of Spokane and west of Airway Heights would be a good comparison. The drive was easy and the scenery was great, but not as pectacular as the Cassiar/Stewart highway.

We arrived in Whitehorse around 2:30, set up the trailer at the High Country RV Park. We were a little low on supplies, so we found the Wal-Mart and re-stocked.

Just a side note: The exchange rate from CA is favorable as $.92 US = $1.00 CA. That being said, EVERYTHING costs more than the US. Gasoline has ranged from $4.50 to $5.60/US gal. Fresh food costs a bunch more too. Min price of beef is around $8.00/lb; pork is around $6.00, and chicken is $5.00. Produce is also higher. We bought ice cream bars for $4.60 each (and yes they were hard to swallow!!)

Tomorrow, we have a bit longer day. 320 mile drive from Whitehorse to Dawson City on the Yukon River. We will stay two nights there before moving on.

Having a great time!!

June 28, 2014 – Watson Lake

Well, the temp this AM inside is 60. Very comfortable!! Since we are not traveling today, we have had a leisurely morning.

We went into Watson Lake (15 mi) to get on wifi at the library – wifi is out until next week!! So we did some sight seeing.

Sign Post Forest: We had heard of this lace before leaving Spokane...but we never expected to find what we saw!! This was started in 1942 while the US/Canada were building the AlCan Highway. They estimate there are over 80,000 signs nailed up. We wandered around for over an hour and did not see them all. We did, however, see some from: CDA, Orofino, Mead, Garfield, and Brewster.

Northern Lights Centre: We visited this center to view a video of the aurora borealis. What we found was a 360 degree theater. The film was spectacular. Unfortunately for us, it is daylight for 22 hrs and dusky for 2 hours each day – no northern lights for us!!

To date, we have driven approximately 1750 miles. Tomorrow we drive to Whitehorse, YT and then on to Dawson City, Chicken, AK, and Fairbanks.

June 27, 2014 – Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Since we only had a 150 mile drive today, we didn't leave Dease Lake until 10:00. Only a three hour drive – Right?? The first 15 miles wasn't bad, but the next 100 miles was frost heaved, chuckholes, and maintenance crews patching the potholes!! Our arrival time was about 2:30. We stopped several times to check the trailer and re-secure our stuff. We were glad that portion of the trip was over.

On the brighter side, though, the scenery was spectacular. The forests are pristine and have never been logged. Portions reminded us of the Lochsa River. There was a huge expanse of Lodge Pole pine forest and also sub-alpine spruce forests. All we can say is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!

Upon arrival at the Baby Nugget RV Park, we found that their WiFi was out of service and the cell phone service was about 5 miles away. Oh well...this is a remote part of the North America continent!! The park is well maintained and has all the amenities you may need: showers, laundry, car/rv wash, gift store, fuel, and a restaurant. All of the sites are pull-thru, which makes access easier.

When we left Dease Lake, the temp was 50 degrees. Baby Nugget: 80 degrees. We set up the trailer and hooked up the water and power. But...when we turned on the A/C, nothing!!! We suspect the rough road took its toll. We will have to get it fixed – probably in Whitehorse or Fairbanks (next week). At 10:30 PM it was still 84 degrees inside the trailer, but cooler outside. We left the windows and vents open all night.

June 26, 2014

We left Stewart at 8:45. The sky was clear, but because Stewart sits in a deep, narrow fjord, the sunshine had not yet reached the RV park. Being at sea level, the dew was very heavy and the mosquitoes were fierce!!

On the road to Meziadin, we could not help but to marvel at the spectacular mountains, for the last time.

 

Of course, the scenery along Cassiar Highway 37 ain't too shabby either. Neither are the bears!! We saw 3 as we drove along...

For a 100 mile stretch, the road was frost-heaved, settled, and broken up. This made for a long, bumpy ride. We have noticed that the signing in Canada is a lot different that in the US. This picture is the typical signing for the rough road. No other warnings!!

We arrived at the Dease lake RV park about 2:30 and 74 degrees. Hmmm... Maybe we should have checked for other parks here. Lets see: no phone service, limited wifi, no tv, and the RV's are stacked side by side within 7 ft of one another.. Oh well. We will just have to suffer one night!!

Tomorrow, we will head for Waston Lake, Yukon Terr. We plan to stay two nights and get caught up on groceries, laundry, etc.

June 25, 2014

This our second day in Stewart, BC. We just cannot say how magnificently beautiful this area of BC is.

We had a bit of a slow start this AM and left the RV park at 11:00. Our sightseeing today was to the Salmon River Glacier. This glacier is located approximately 30 miles north of the towns of Stewart/Hyder

The road to the glacier started as a 2-lane paved road (30 mph), the to a 1½ lane gravel surfaced road, to a one lane semi-surfaced road with periodic turnouts. Since we are early in the tourist season the traffic was very light.

Our first stop was at the Fish Creek wildlife viewing area. This area is actually in Alaska and is a USFS facility. This is the place where visitors can safely watch black and grizzly bears catch salmon. Unfortunately for us, the salmon run doesn't start until the 3^rd week of July. Oh well!! There was a creek on each side of of the walkway. Very pretty!!

From the viewing area we traveled on to the Salmon River Glacier. I previously mentioned that
the road had turned into a one lane with turnouts. Well...the further we climbed in elevation the more snow we found. In places, the road was only one lane with a huge snow drift towards the inside of the lane.

Not only was there the enormous Salmon glacier (1/2 mile wide by 6 miles long), there was also the Berdon Glacier about 5 miles north of the Salmon. We were not only impressed with the larger glaciers, we were astonished by the number of smaller glaciers tucked away in the upper snow chutes. We have no idea how many glaciers we were able to see, perhaps 15-20. We took over 50 photos today.

Tomorrow, we will continue our journey north towards the Yukon Territory with an over night stop at Dease Lake, BC.

All is well here, we hope it is the same for you!!

June 24, 2014 – Tuesday

We left Hazelton for Stewart at 9:20. It was raining lightly and the temp was about 54. The drive was a bit mundane as we saw about the same types of scenery as yesterday. The road was in much better shape than we expected and we were able to roll right along.

The road from the Ksan Campground crossed a 300' deep river ravine. The bridge was a one-lane suspension bridge. Traffic was to yield to the oncoming cars. Gayle wasn't too sure of taking the pickup/trailer across it – but we made it.

As I said, the trip north was mundane. In ways, the scenery reminded us a bit of the N Idaho area, except more birch trees and large lakes and rivers. This was true until we got to the Mezladin Junction and headed west towards Stewart.

In a matter of minutes, we went from N Idaho to the Swiss Alps. Glaciers, water falls, lakes, etc, etc, etc. The valley walls were extremely steep. Avalanche chutes were evident everywhere and huge mounds of snow laid at the bottoms of the chutes. With the warmer weather, the avalanche chutes have been transformed into water ways and water falls. Words cannot describe the views and our photos certainly do not do justice to the actual views.

We arrived at the Bear River RV Park at about 2:30. The campground is very nice and very well maintained. The view in every direction is supreme.

We set up the trailer and then took a short drive to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. These communities are located at the confluence of the Bear and Salmon Rivers. This is also the location of the Portland Canal which connects these communities to the Pacific Ocean. The main exports are logs and mining ore (copper maybe??).

While we were at the confluence dock, we got to see our first of real wildlife of our trip – 2 black bears. We suspect that is why they call it the “Bear” river.

We returned to the campground, had dinner, and had a relaxing evening.

June 23, 2014

Hello to all!!

Sorry this is late. The campground where we were staying has WiFi but not very far from the modem. So this post is a bit late. This is being sent form Stewart, BC.

We went to bed last night at 10:00 PM. It was still daylight outside. I awoke at 3:45 AM. It was daylight outside. We are not sure what happened between 10 PM and 3:45 PM????

We left Vanderhoof at 9:15 and drove the 230 miles to Hazelton. Our path took us through Fraser Lake, Burns Lake and Smithers. We arrived at Hazelton around 4:00 PM.

We have traveled approximately 1,000 miles and have not seen much in the way of wildfife- a few deer and a dead raccoon. However, we did see several moose crossing signs. Where are the moose??

Smithers is an Alpine-themed city of about 12,500. We decided to stop there a bit, buy some staples (food), and walk Main Street. We were a bit disappointed in the retail area but the mountains to the south and west of the city were really dynamic. Snow peaked with a glacier near the top of one of the peaks. We addressed our disappointment with a stop at Diary Queen - all is good now!!

We stopped at a Chevron station in Hazelton to fuel up. I swiped my card but had to check in with the attendant – apparently, Chevron doesn't accept American credit cards??? Glad to know that now - so we found a station near our RV park. Gas is still running $4.80/gal.

The Ksan Campground is a “village-owned” facility. We have come to understand that “village-owned” in Canadian lingo can be translated to American as tribally-owned. The campground is immaculate and the backdrop is two large peaks, one with a glacier. This place is absolutely amazing.

When we arrived, it was cloudy, the temp was about 80, and the humidity was a little muggy. It started raining lightly around 5:30.and the temp dropped to 69. How nice.

Tomorrow, we will drive about 150 miles to Stewart, BC. As we travel further north, we will likely see more spectacular scenery. Also, the spring salmon run has begun and we are hopeful we will see a few bears in the rivers and streams

June 22, 2014 Vanderhoof, BC, Canada

Well.... We are still having problems with our Blog. Since we are in Canada, we cannot access the blog to create new posts. Big thanks to Jeremy – he can access the blog. We will send the info and Jeremy will create the post. Thanks again Jerm for your help!!

Today was an uneventful day – which is not necessarily a bad thing!!

We left the RV Park in Lac le Hache at about 8:15. We drove to Vanderhoof and arrived at 3:15 – about 240 miles. The road was great and we were running at about 60 mph, except on the hills where we could only get up to 50. Not bad though. (On the hills, I was wishing we has a diesel engine!!) We had a little problem too keeping up to the posted speed limit.

We drove through Williams Lake, Quesnel, and Prince George. The only exciting thing today was in Williams Lake. As we pulled in to a quick stop get gas, there were 2 women (an older and a younger – mom and daughter??) filling BMW motorcycles. We couldn't get far enough ahead to reach our tank, but that was no big deal. I washed about 2.3 million bugs off the windshield while we waited.

The women were trying to hurry in order to let us pull forward. In their rush the younger woman's mc tipped over. Another fellow and I helped pick it up – man are those things heavy!!

The terrain along the way was forested with aspen/birch and some evergreens. There are several log home “factories” and one specialized in cedar logs – very magnificent!! There are also many, many lakes and meadows. A lot of cattle, too.

We stop frequently at the Rest Areas. They are not quite the same as the ones in the “States”. We use the bathroom in the trailer. It is nice to be able to stop whenever you want and have a clean restroom!!

Below is a photo of our trailer and the RV park.

June 21, 2014 Lac la Hache, BC, Canada

Greetings once again!! We have been having problems with our Blogspot. Apparently, when you enter another country, the url changes. Sorry this is late getting out.

We left Oroville at 8:30 this morning. We drove to Lac la Hache via Keremeos, Princeton, Merritt, and Cache Creek. We arrived at 4:30.

Our first challenge (minor) was gaining permission to enter Canada. We both got Washington Enhanced Drivers Licenses a few months back. So you would think answer a few questions (cash over $10k, long guns, hand guns, ammunition, etc) and be on our way. Not quite. Among other things, we were asked where we lived previously to Spokane for 20 yrs, if we own any hand guns, how many, and if our handguns are locked up at home. All in all it took about 45 mins to get across. Oh well, we will know what to expect on the way back.

We then drove through the mountains, along the Similkameen River to Keremoes. The mountains and river were gorgeous. We kind of understand why they call it Beautiful British Columbia. We drive on to Princeton (another beautiful region).

We stopped in Merritt for gas ($5.34/ US gal) and onto Spence Bridge. That 36 miles of road was windy, twisty, rough and took about an hour. We stopped along the Thompson River at Spence for lunch. A little R&R helped and the river was running a good pace and a bit larger than the Snake River.

We are staying at the Big Country RV park near Lac la Hache, BC. A comparison of the Oroville park to this one would be the Sahara Desert to the Lochsa River. This is a really nice park.

One other thing!! Jack Kidd and I have been talking about getting a backhoe attachment for our tractor. I think I found it. I tried it out and it works perfectly!! I plan to make an offer – hope it works out.

We will post our next adventure as we can.

Having a great time - but haven't seen any animals yet - only 2 deer, a dead racoon, and one drunk Indian!!. 

Oroville, WA

We left Spokane this morning at 9;30 and arrived in Oroville at 3:45.  We travelled through Coulee Dam, Bridgeport, and Omak.

The top gates of Coulee Dam were open which allows the water to cascade down the face of the dam.  Quite beautiful.

Below is a picture of our pickup and trailer.  The backdrop is Lake Osoyoos and the Okanogan Range.

Tomorrow we will travel into BC and stay in the Lac la Hache area. 

Good evening to all!!

June 19, 2014 - Ready to go

We have the trailer loaded (all but our final things in the morning).  We plan to get up, get ready, hook up the trailer and pull away around 8:00 AM.

We plan to drive to an RV Park near the Canadian border just north of Oroville, WA.  The drive will be about 6 hrs. 

We can't wait to get started.  More blog tomorrow night!!