2004/07 Yukon trip - Trek to the Arctic - |
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At the end of our last letter, part 1, we had just made it to Watson Lake in the Yukon and were about to set off north for Inuvik in the Northwest Territory. We also expected to make some side trips to interesting places along the way. Although most of our traveling would be in the Yukon, the roads don’t pay much attention to borders, so we were going to be spending some time in British Columbia, Alaska and the North West Territory.
Wednesday 21st July
I took an early run from the campground back to the main road. I don’t much like running in grizzly bear territory, as running can trigger the hunting instinct (theirs, not mine), but campground roads see enough traffic to mostly keep the bears away in the daytime.
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We stayed in Watson Lake until mid afternoon, dealing with the post office, last minute food, emptying sewer, loading up with water, and all that fun camping stuff. Then we were off west on the Alaska Highway, hoping to get to Teslin Lake, the next town on the road, about 200 miles away.
At first the road did not look too interesting, just miles of forest, mainly short and thin spruce and lodgepole pine, 
very much a northern boreal forest. After an hour or so we started to see some lakes and some major mountains. Also, the road cut is very wide with large sloping shoulders and in many places these was a mass of pinky-purple fireweed. Fireweed succeeds wherever the ground had been disturbed by fire or construction so it tends to do very well around roads.
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Alaska Highway fireweed (0.55) |
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Most of the traffic on the Alaska Highway is recreational, mainly big fifth wheel trailers and bus-like motor homes. There are a few pickup campers about our size, but it’s mainly the big stuff up here. There are plenty of places to pull off the road, some rest areas, and some just abandoned businesses. We stopped at one of these, thinking that it would give us access to Rancheria Falls, and after bushwhacking my way to the river I found a forest of very old abandoned cars and trucks, presumably the remains of a gas station and repair business from 30 years ago. The next pull-off did give access to the falls, but they were a non-event.
The road then swung back into British Columbia for a few miles. With lots of stops and photo opportunities, we weren’t going to make Teslin at a reasonable hour so we pulled off onto a track that led down to Morley Lake. The view was great and the sunset was pretty and the price was right. It looked a good spot for the phone to work too, but I quickly lost the signal. Too many mosquitoes between me and the satellite, I think.
I woke up at about 2 am and got up to look for the Northern Lights, but it wasn’t even dark! The lights are up there in the summer, but there’s so little darkness that they are rarely seen.