Day 5 Life's Journey and the Alaska Highway

MacDonald River? Huge alluvial fan

(Stay tuned for more and hopefully photos to fill up the other posts. Wifi in Toad River is $1CDN and too slow for downloading photos plus I only get the secret code for 1 device (the young woman was so afraid I would see her put it in she kinda hid my keyboard-weird). Well Wifi at this RV park also can't seem to handle photo upload. Damn.)

254 miles today (ran out of time due to all of the cool critter sightings and scenic drive)- Tetsa River RV Park to Downtown RV Park/Watson Lake.

Stone Mountain Provincial Park

Traveling the Alaska Highway is an adventure in all of its aspects but it’s also a journey. It’s a journey metaphor (or is that simile?) for life. Some died building the highway so that others could enjoy it. New generations change it, maybe improve some places and worsen others. Every corner and every hill and dip bring some new experience (good? bad?) and scenic view. You keep an eye on what’s behind you, always at the moment, watching the road ahead. You observe things you love and that pain you to see. You find yourself, your confidence in driving difficult roads and long days, and you lose yourself and become a part of the landscape.  After all, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

Stone Mountain- appropriate name

The tough part of being a naturalist and towing a trailer is the inability to stop quickly for the action and finding a place to stop. I again saw so many incredible places to stop but nowhere safe to do it. The new parts of the highway allow for more opportunities to pull over. I may have stopped in the middle of the road a few times this morning (LOL) but there are very few folks on the road. According to the RV park folks last night this is an excellent time to travel because there are less people on the road.

MacDonald River

Gail the co-owner of the Tetsa RV Park was delight to talk to. We have much in common. Apparently, when her mother died she left behind 6 large garbage bags of unopened shampoos, conditioners, toothpaste, deodorant, etc. Many were high priced brands. Gail donated them to the local women’s shelter. So Gail and I work hard to declutter and not let it get past the pack rat point! 

I thank my paternal grandma and mom for the gift of talk. My word for the year is “connection” and hanging and talking to people and making those connections- person to person- is an important part of this trip. Besides, talking to the dog all day gets a little old (and odd).

The really hot pool. The background shrubs is where the bear showed up.

Warm for the feet, too hot for me.

Lovely wet areas along the walk.

Black bear chowing down.

I’m past the halfway point now! It was a long wonderful experience today. The scenery was just amazing. Stone Mountain is big and wild and barren. It’s a big giant stone that seems to jut from behind the forest. Around one corner this morning a stone sheep ram feeding on the shoulder. They are relatives of bighorn sheep and indigenous to northern B.C. and southern Yukon. Around another a woodland caribou traipsing down the side of the road!  I'm glad I'm the only one on the road so I can slow for them. 

A walk to the Liard Hot Springs brings another black bear above the hot springs. That may not end well as I don’t think the park has any patience for black bears near people there since one killed two people a few years ago. This one was gorging on berries and leaves and ignoring the humans gawking at it. I only waded in the hot springs, partly because of the bear partly because they were hot. I missed the mama bear and cubs on the boardwalk to the hot springs. The park rangers were working on scaring them back into the woods. I did a lot of clapping when walking alone back to the truck. Total today- I saw 6 bears including two babies.

Templeton didn't bark!

The threatened wood bison made a showing along the road.  I was wondering if they would since I’ve seen many a warning sign to watch for them. Those moments observing them reminded me of being in Yellowstone. These may be cousins but they act the same- I own the road, I grunt, I wander and graze, I roll in the dust, I have cute kids. They were reintroduced to the area in the 1990s and seem to be making a good comeback.

A vehicle got too close.

Unfortunately, I also saw a dead bison, porcupine, and raven (never assume birds are going to fly up when you’re driving towards them).

Stone sheep

Woodland caribou

Out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of life and death as I believe a sharp-shinned hawk was right on a small bird. Pretty cool couple of seconds. Sometimes that’s all you get!

Vast views along this part of the highway

Downtown RV Park Watson Lake Yukon

Ahhh more massive road construction

Wildlife seen- sharp-shinned hawk, black bears, stone sheep, woodland caribou, wood bison.

Lesson #5 Never eat guacamole after it’s been in an ice chest for 5 days- not even two bites (enough said).