June 27 The Alaska Highway

The Kiskatinaw Curved Bridge

A Lttle "Soak" in Laird Hot Springs

A Little "Float" in the Laird Hot Springs Pool

Beautiful Muncho Lake

We have been enjoying a lovely drive along the Alaska Hwy from Dawson Creek, BC on the way to Delta Junction, AK. In total the highway is about a 1500 mi drive. After 2 days we are about 1/4 way there. Last night we stayed in a private campground in Fort Nelson. The campground was so-so as campgrounds go, but we did enjoy a nice dinner at Dan’s Pub in town! We just had to go there for all the great Dan’s in our lives! Unfortunately they didn’t have t-shirts with the pub name on them so no souvenir tees for all our Dans! Dan’s Pub was the first restaurant we’ve come across that offered fresh wild Alaskan salmon & we’ve both been dying to get some ever since leaving VA. Here it was & by gosh! it was DELICIOUS & perfectly prepared. What a treat & & we’re looking forward to finding much more up the road. After we broke camp this morning we stopped by the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum to check out the large collection of antiquities that had been collected from along the Alaska Hwy. The museum is truly a labor of love by the town’s people. We continued along the AK Hwy keeping in mind that this was a national holiday weekend (Canada Day July 1^st) & with the concern as to whether we would be able to locate a campsite for the evening. Our cell phones haven’t worked in days so calling ahead was not an option.

The Alaska Hwy is a 2 lane road & 97% paved & relatively smooth but there are areas that work & repairs are being made & some areas are just gravelly. After leaving Dawson Creek we did get off the current hwy & travel along the Old Alaska Hwy for awhile to see what it would have been like to travel on the dirt road all the way to Alaska. The old road led us across the Kiskatinaw River & over an historic wooden truss bridge built by the builders of the highway. It is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Hwy that is still in use today. It was very impressive. We can basically drive along the highway at about 55 mi per hour which is not too bad. It is easy to pass other vehicles & to be passed as few cars are ever in line or close to one another. Sometimes we can see the road ahead for about 10 miles but when we’d reach that point another 10 miles at least would appear ahead. Both yesterday & today we have had the best fortune of seeing so much wild life! Yesterday crossing the road right in front of our BF, but at a distance for which we could easily slow down, was a huge grizzly bear & he crossed the road to join another grizzly! Imagine 2 grizzly bears so close to our vehicle! We stopped the BF & snapped lots of pictures. It was most exciting! We also saw & stopped for a large group of stone sheep & their baby white kids. Today we have seen lots of stone sheep all along the side & on the roadway. Our treasure today has been viewing several moose & at one point we stopped to view a bull moose & a cow moose wading in a creek & each ducking his/her head beneath the water searching for food. They were so beautiful! The bull had a huge antler rack & it was still covered in its velvet. What a thrill! Steve is so good at spotting all this wildlife well in advance so we can slow down & stop to enjoy it for a few minutes. He is also very good at spotting birds of prey all along our routes of travel. Fortunately, Bennie is oblivious to what’s going on outside the car most of the time. Otherwise, his barking could be dangerous to us, as in the case of the grizzlies, & would definitely frighten the animals away.

We were nearing the Muncho Lake area along the highway & even though it was early in the day we decided we’d better start the hunt for a campsite. Our books indicated there is limited camping in the area & we really didn’t want to make a long haul to a large town. So we pulled into a small provincial (That’s the Canadian terminology for a US state park.) camping area. It is by the beautiful glacier fed Muncho Lake & it has only 15 campsites. What were the chances? We drove by all 15 sites which had vehicles in them or an occupied sign on it when suddenly a man came out of his site & beckoned for us to stop. He told us he was just getting ready to move his site to one where his friend had vacated & that we could have his current site! Wow! What great fortune! Another fortunate aspect of our camp site is that both the families on each side of us have young children the ages of our dearly missed grandchildren & one of the young (12 mo) boy’s name is Cooper! Big darling eyes & a great big smile just like our Cooper. Once again, we’re having the best time, the people are ever so nice & kind & friendly & the environment couldn’t be more beautiful. Oh! That’s right! Alaska is much more beautiful than anything we’ve seen so far! TBD

After having a lovely evening in our Strawberry Flats Campsite right next to Muncho Lake & having enjoyed a wonderful dinner of hotdogs cooked over our campfire, we decided the smart thing to do would be to stay an extra day & night. When the camp manager came around again we antied up for a 2^nd night & purchased another bin of firewood for our extended stay. Imagine! Right on the beautiful turquoise blue (another glacier fed lake) lake and surrounded by young families enjoying their long holiday weekend. The following day we drove farther north on the hwy to the Laird Hot Springs. You’re beginning to note that we seek out those hot springs! Our camp neighbor offered for us to take his truck instead of us having to move our BF the next day. We respectfully declined his generous offer, so in place of our borrowing his truck he parked it in our space so no one would come along & execute squatters’ rights. The Laird Hot Springs was totally different from the other 2 hot spring pools we have been to. This hot springs was totally natural & not defined by a structured pool. They are ALL natural & you can see where they are fed by the springs. We took a 10 minute walk along a boardwalk that crossed a beautiful wetland environment to the pools. There were 2 hot springs pools with water temps ranging from 100 degrees to 125 degrees. We thoroughly enjoyed our “soaks” in both pools as well as visiting with other “soakers” who were traveling both north and south. After a few hours at the hot springs we returned to the BF to say “Hey” to Bennie & give him a little break. Then we drove across THE highway & across from the park to a restaurant (??) & ordered a couple of sandwiches for lunch ($35.00) Prices are a lot higher here in Canada & quality is lower. Along the Alaska Hwy & also in Alaska we are prepared (not really!) that businesses will be making their year’s income during the tourist season. After the hotsprings we returned to our lovely campsite & enjoyed a great chili dinner & a little more knitting!

June 29, 2008

We reluctantly left the beautiful Muncho Lake this morning & motored north to Watson Lake. We’re now in the Yukon Territory! We found a small grocery store, gas, & a campground with wireless (doesn’t seem to work well!), a laundry, & a place to wash to BF. We’ll stay here a couple of days to “clean up.” Still no cell connection & iffy on the email & internet.