June
10, Tuesday
Left Sikani River RV, rain stopped so far, the sky’s beautiful to start
our trip to Fort Nelson.
Probably would have been a nice park, but the rain and cold made us just
stay in the RV all night.
Will be heading on to Fort Nelson, only a 150 mile drive, but we want to
spend the afternoon exploring the Fort, learning a bit of history. Had to stop at the famous, “Ye Olde Quilt
Shoppe” which is dubbed, “the biggest little quilt shoppe it the North”. They don’t have shop hops here as the quilt
shops are over 250-300 miles apart!
Signed the guest book and had a great conversation with the owner on
things to see in town.
A
quaint stop a few “clicks” up the street was a native lady in her 80’s still
beading and making moccasins by hand in her home.
The next stop was Trapper’s Den, owned by a local trapping family. Interesting items, native crafts, moccasins,
furs, lots of backpacking equipment and the normal “touristy” items. I resisted on buying anything so far.
The real treat for Lin was the Fort Nelson Heritage Museum, the outside
had so many old tractors, antique cars, tools plus all the inside of the museum
that was packed with “stuff” as the locals like to say. Lin was in heaven and thought I had lost him
a few times. A movie over the building
of the Alaska Highway that was filmed in the 40s was amazing.
Dinner with our traveling friends and to bed early at the Triple G
Hideaway RV park. It’s a wonderful park,
but glad we stopped early, we are finding that if you drive too late, there’s
not any spaces left. The sun is still
shining, mid sky and will be still there when we awake in the am at 5am. With the time change in British Columbia and
the sun in your face, it’s even hard for me to sleep late.
June
11, Wednesday
On the road again, North to Liard Hot Springs today. Hoping to see wildlife on the road, as
everyone says the Moose, Bear and Bison are physically on the road and you have
to watch where you’re driving.
Well, we didn’t get too far out of town before the Bears are a roaming!! 4 Black bears and 1 cub before we were 20 miles on the road. Lin says we have driven 3348 miles so far on this trip and I have lost track of the number of wildlife we have seen.
Rest area, Milepost 335 (that’s the Alaska Highway from Mile 0) Pics here of the Steamboat Mt & Muskwa River Valley with Lin and I. I’m really liking this Milepost book that tells what is at every milepost or historical site. It really helps to keep up with where you are and what is up ahead. It also tells a bit of the road conditions, so that is nice, eh?
Milepost 341: Pics of Indian Head Mt, supposed to look like Indian Head
profile? Do you see it?
We had to stop at Tetsa River Campstore, and have their famous Cinnamon
Buns. Everyone loved them and said they
were the best ever! They must have been as Lin bought a few for the road. I’ll
have to take their word as they didn’t have anything gluten free, so I’ll have
to have ice cream later for my snack.
Milepost
373, Summit Lake, highest point on the AH, Roadside turnout says, “Caution, Stone
Sheep…in road” and they were!! They are
indigenous to the mountains of northern BC and had lots of info at the site on
them, but we were too busy taking pics to read anything.
Just as we got on the other side, there was our first Moose on the road, but she ran into the woods before either of us could snap her photo. We think she was camera shy because her fur was a muss. And it’s not official, unless we got the photo! So we have to keep looking for Moose.
Milepost 422: Toad River Lodge, a fixture since 1940 with a collection of hats on the ceiling that numbers 8900 last year. We didn’t add a hat as Lin says he only brought enough for the trip and couldn’t give any up. But I did get their pic in the store.
Milepost 495: decided to pull off the side
of the road and check out the turnout which happens to be right on the Smith
River. We stayed the night, had a fire and loved the river right at the back of
the RV in the morning.
June
12, Thursday
Started the day off with a Bear!!, then
another, then another, then Bison resting on the road, then more black bear.
Then a crazy guy out of his truck taking pics of the bear! I still want the one where the bear is
chasing the guy and I can video that one.
More Bison just before stopping at Contact Creek. Mile 579, contact
creek. named by the soldiers from the south & north who met here in Sept
1942, completing the southern sector of the AH. There is just a store here, no
marker any longer. The cold doesn’t seem
to bother the flowers in bloom.
SignPost Forest is amazing, started by
Carl Lindley of IL. US army soldier working on the AH in 1942. He was homesick and took a home sign, posted
it and it has become a tradition now over72 years and last year the counted
signs are 78,000! Amazing. He and his wife came back to visit in 1992
and they were astounded how it how grown.
Grizzly bear alert and then Moose scat on the roadside park that we decided to stop at for the night, Rancheria Falls.
We saw a fox today carrying off a rabbit, but neither of us got our cameras out fast enough.
Texas Blue bonnets at the rest stop in the Yukon
No comments:
Post a Comment