Tripping with MikenJudy 2012: One Night Stands

Since leaving Kennicott, AK we have made one night stands at the tiny towns of Beaver Creek, Haines Junction, and Teslin, all in the Yukon. We then spent the next two nights at two of the most beautiful Provincial Parks in British Columbia.

Because of the drop in temperatures lately we saw the beginning of fall colors. The fireweed in many places has turned red, especially the leaves, with many of the flowers falling off. There were trees, and some grasses and bushes that had turned yellow, a few turning orange. It looked very pretty, but gave a warning of what’s ahead!

Now that we are heading south we are seeing a lot less changing colors. It was in the forties when we started out and climbed to the low sixties. We traveled the rough and tumblin’ road (a 200 mile section affected by PERMA-FROST) where there were many loose-gravel signs, dips, roller coaster highs and lows, with only one area where there was a pilot car and two where we had to wait a short while for construction vehicles to do their thing! The cabinets in the trailer stayed closed because we secured them with Velcro straps early in the trip after our first incident with things all over the floor. Today the boxes inside those cabinets opened and spilled the contents in the cabinets. Even the clock came off the wall and the glass shelf at the bottom of the refrigerator broke into zillions of pieces! That was a first. Where we were waiting for the construction equipment to finish we were told we had a 15 minute wait, which was nice to know ahead of time. Judy used the trailer bathroom and Mike talked with the young gal (18 years old who just graduated from high school). She was working as a flag gal and getting paid $28/hr for 8 hrs plus 4 hrs @ time and a half each day. The workers stay in a camp where all their meals are provided. Unfortunately they didn’t need any additional flaggers. After one more vehicle pulled up behind us a motorcycle pulled up in the line. The biker walked to where we were talking with the ‘flag girl’ and he was outfitted in leather pants, jacket, helmet, and face -protector. Judy turned to her and said he looked like something from outer space because of the way he walked with the boots and leather pants. She was talking with him and noticed his jacket was covered with bugs, just like our truck and trailer fronts. He was quick, and asked if she wanted a hug. Funny! Yuck, although he was good looking!!!! We had a delicious dinner that night of salad and halibut cheeks which you just boil in water for 5 minutes. As suggested, we dipped them in melted butter and, yes, they taste like lobster. YUM!

When we stopped at Boya Lake Provincial Park, a sign was posted on a piece of corrugated cardboard, “fire camp!” As we drove through looking for a site, we saw many small tents with lots of camping equipment in the sites. This is where the fire fighters stay when off duty. We lucked out and found a drive-through site along the lake…..and across the lake we could still see the smoke from a fire that has been burning for ten days. Even the clouds were encircled with brown from the smoke.

Next day’s stop was Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park. We were having a slight problem backing into the site and the camper next to us asked Judy if Mike would want him to help. She responded that he should ask Mike!

After finally setting up we met the whole family who are from Prince George. They were at the same campground we were in last night, but a different part of the park. His name is Godfried, and with his wife, they have two teenage daughters and a seven year old son. He is from Austria and she is from Germany. In the afternoon the kids and their dad went out in kayaks, three inflatable ones and one regular one. They had an extra that they offered to Mike, which he quickly accepted. He changed into swim trunks because his bum would get wet; put on his Tilley hat, and off he went. The hardest thing for Mike was getting out after finishing his afternoon surprise exercise. We joined our neighbors around their campfire after dinner, with the campground host and her husband. They all spoke English beautifully.