Watson Lake, Gateway to the Yukon

The guide book said to watch out for caribou, Stone sheep and bison along the road. And while we saw all three, mostly we saw bison.

There were 2 caribou crossing the road not far from Toad River, the only ones we saw in the several hundred kilometres we drove that day.

Stone sheep are a sub-species of Dall sheep and are named for the area where they're found.

There were lots of bison along the road and they munched away completely ignoring us. Must needs be focussed when you're ramping up your body weight preparing for winter.

We decided to motel it for our first evening in Watson Lake and not because it was our 6th day in the confined space of the A-liner and tempers were fraying. No, there was a much more important reason than that: the Roughriders were playing and we needed TV access. 

We did manage to catch the last half of the game (which the Riders won), then headed out to explore the town. First stop: the Visitor Centre and Signpost Forest. The latter was initiated by some poor, lonely sod during the building of the Alaska Highway who, slowly expiring from homesickness and loneliness, posted a signpost identifying his home town and the exact number of miles he was away from it. To date, there are roughly 75,000 signs and counting.

The Visitor Centre staff were very knowledgeable and helpful locals who directed us to the various activities and sights the town and district offers. One particularly outstanding one was the Northern Lights Centre (http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/) which offers a couple of informative and really beautiful films on the universe and on the aurora in particular. What makes these films unique is that the theatre is in the round, as it were, and the film plays all around and over you. 

It's the only place in North America (maybe the world) to offer this particular experience but unfortunately has seen attendance steadily decline for the past few years. So, what are you waiting for? Getcher sorry butt up there and buy a ticket to the show. Just saying...

We spent our second night at Watson Lake in the government campground down the road. Peaceful. Quiet. Some interesting folks. Oh, and bears. Actually, we didn't see any but a couple of guys camped down the way from us were cycling along the highway near the campground and noticed one. Kind of puts a damper on my own cycling plans. The little folding bike I bought just for this trip has yet to set its tires to pavement. Or anything else.

Cinnamon buns, Grizzly Adams and gas @ $1.79/litre

There are no typos in the title. I double-checked... We didn't buy any gas at Tetsa River Lodge, despite the enchantment of the place and our desire to support local businesses. We stopped there, on our way from Fort Nelson where we'd spent the night to Toad River, because the lodge bills itself as offering the best cinnamon buns in the galactic cluster. Who could resist that?

Entering the wee restaurant cum gift shop cum registration desk, we were greeted by Grizzly Adams, a friendly and energetic bear of a man who traps wolves as his winter occupation and (apparently) is proud owner of a fierce wolf-dog cross. Lucky for Uilleam, said pooch wasn't in evidence at the time. The coffee was great, the cinnamon buns.... well, not so much. Which is to say, they were ok, but I had many, many much better ones in the Old Caf at UBC.

The lodge sells gas at $1.79/litre and doesn't tolerate any whining about it:

And if you're staying in the campground, a shower will run you $5.00. Okay, then, moving right along....

At Toad River, we got our first inkling that the great frozen north is actually not that frozen for at least part of the year. Gardening is not only possible but can be highly productive. Much more productive than my puny Saskatchewan garden, apparently....

Huge -- and almost perfect -- cabbages









Pretty impressive all around. The photos just don't do it justice.

The first olio of the trip

As every crossword aficianado knows, an olio is a collection of unrelated things that might be of interest to someone, somewhere. Here's the first one of this trip:

• Despite the fact that Whitecourt, Alberta, is the site of a huge -- and hugely important -- meteor impact crater, the local museum has no reference to it anywhere. The explanation? It's on private land and letting people know where it is would only result in harassment of the land owner.
• The price of gas in Alberta (or at least the part we went through) ranges from 112.9 to 116.9 per litre. As soon as you cross into B.C., it jumps to 136.9 a litre. The further north you go, the more expensive it gets. We arrived in Fort Nelson to find ... get ready for it.... gas is 156.9/litre. It's entirely possible we'll have to wait for our next pension installment before we can afford to go any further.
• Northern B.C. and Alberta consist of miles and miles of miles and miles. We're ever grateful we didn't attempt the massive round trip we'd planned. From the navigator's seat, it looks a lot like this a lot of the time:

• Along the way, we've noticed quite a few, um, unique folk. This person came prepared for a great outdoor weekend: Camper, quad, boat and.... moss-covered moose antlers.

• Fort St. John, B.C., boasts such colourfully-named companies as Redneck Oil Services and Cancor Rathole Inc. 
• Temporary oil and gas field workers live in "open camps", small villages of trailers offering them miniscule accommodation "starting at $95.25 per day". 
• Never, ever plug your electric cooler into the 30-amp power source found in many campgrounds. RIP MobiCool.
• Besides being the location of Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway, Dawson Creek, B.C. boasts a unique feature in its street plantings: Swiss chard.

• 

  Uilleam guarding Mile 0 signpost

  
  

  

  Swiss chard and other yummies
  
  
  

Testing in production

Back in the day, when I worked as a software developer, we had a catchphrase: "Testing in production". When deadlines were looming, testing the software became, shall we say, somewhat less rigorous. Mostly, it worked. Nobody died, the software limped along pretty much doing what it was supposed to do and we were on to our next adventure.

When we bought our shiny new (to us) A-liner in June, we fully intended to take it out for a test run. Or two. Or more. But (see previous post) it's been a really busy summer and somehow we just didn't get around to it. It was, after all, in good condition. Mr. T did the requisite maintenance on both it and the van to ensure we'd be vehicularly top notch once we hit the road. So, what could go majorly wrong?

There was just one little (key) thing that didn't happen. Trying out the beds by actually sleeping on them would have been a really good idea. As it turns out, there was a little tweaking required. Not a lot, but some. Enough that there was some.... um.... crankiness until we got it sorted. Which we did, pretty much.

Here's what it looks like in production:

Riding shotgun, Uilleam-style

The kitchen, nice cosy bed @ side

I'm beginning to understand how the users of our (somewhat-to-mostly) tested software felt.

Nous sommes en route

It's been a really, no, I mean REALLY, busy summer. In a good way: lots of friends stopping by, some staying for a day or two, lots of travel here and there. So, when the big day arrived, neither of us felt really like we were ready to head north on this much anticipated, possibly once-in-a-lifetime trip.

Nevertheless, off we went. Heading down the lane raised the inevitable question: Wonder what we've forgotten this time. Halfway to Saskatoon, i.e., too late to return and collect it, I remembered that I'd intended to bring a tripod. You never know when a great Northern Lights display might just show up. Oh, and the bird book, the one we always forget. And, oh, right, I meant to throw some butter into the cooler, too.

No matter. They're all manageable, if slightly annoying. And/or expensive.

And 10 hours later, give or take, we arrived in Edmonton to a lovely dinner, good company and a comfortable bed. The adventure begins!