Tripping with MikenJudy 2012: Whistler, British Columbia to Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Since leaving Whistler we have camped at McLeese Lake, Prince George, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Muncho Lake (all in British Columbia and Watson Lake in the Yukon Territories). Tiny little towns with large mosquito populations that are very hungry. It’s amazing how effective a softener sheet is in repelling the critters.

Traveling was pretty uneventful as we went from an extremely curvy and hilly road for a long distance (one of the inside cabinets opened and there were pens and pencils and paper and more all over the floor), to fairly flat and straight roads where the trees really thinned out! We saw cattle and horses and not much of anything else. The next day we saw signs for moose, but we never did see any, nor did we see deer. What we did see most of this morning and early afternoon were lakes and trees on both sides of the highway. We are still on highway 97, which most of the time is just a two lane highway, in very good condition. On both sides of the road are orange and purple flowers. We’ll have to check to find what they are.

Dawson Creek is Milepost 0 of the Alaska Highway which was the engineering marvel of World War II. 2012 marks the 70^th anniversary of its construction. It is 1,422 miles, ending at Delta Junction, Alaska. The bombing of Pearl Harbor spurred it’s construction. The US Military considered Alaska to be a vulnerable target to a Japanese invasion. It was completed in an amazing eight short months.

We dry camped (no hookups) at Muncho Lake known for its jade green color that is attributed to the presence of copper oxide leached from the bedrock below. Our campsite was adjacent to the water providing us with another $Million Dollar$ view. It was cool by the lake so we had to break out the comforter to throw on top of the blanket.

After leaving Muncho Lake we saw a sign warning about buffalo on the road for 90 km. After we traveled about 30 we finally saw a large herd of them walking on the grassy area next to the road. There were many adults in the dark coats of fur, and quite a few young ones with a much lighter colored coat. We watched them for quite a while as they were walking the same direction we were going. Bears were few and far between, but we did see them. They seem to travel alone. Sometimes they were quicker than we were, so some didn’t get photographed. Good-bye British Columbia and……………….hello Yukon! Here we also saw bear.

We arrived at Watson Lake, Yukon Territory, and visited the Sign Post Forest, where we put up a sign from Bakersfield. Before we left home, Mike went to the Bakersfield Public Works Department and they gave him an old sign that he could hang up. The ‘forest’ was started in 1942 by a homesick U.S. Army G.I., while working on the Alaska Highway. He erected a sign here pointing the way and stating the mileage to his hometown of Danville, Illinois. The forest is world famous, and there are many, many, many signs from all over the world.