Day 15 Many Miles to Go

Moon Lake morning

409 miles today! Cantwell RV Park to Whitehorse Walmart. The most I’ve driven in a day since starting the journey and, I might add, too many miles. I ended up driving at dusk which is pretty tough in a landscape full of critters. Let me start at the beginning.

This morning was the coldest so far. I used the propane Mr. Heater briefly last night to take the chill off and this morning while making tea and breakfast. This was the first time on the trip I’ve seen Templeton shivering.

Kluane National Park

I overestimated my next camp site because I forgot I lost an hour when I left Alaska (they have their own time zone) and the 80+ miles of horrible road construction. Yukon road construction is NOT like Washington road construction. The road is torn up, washboards, potholes, and if it’s wet you might slip and slide if you go too fast. Sometimes there’s a pilot car, flagger, and/or a random traffic light on a box. My biggest problem is that when I put the truck in 4wd to gain better traction it won’t go back to 2wd. The little light flashes endlessly which meant driving 20 miles at 40mph tonight hoping it would shut off. It’s been doing this on the trip lately and I don’t know why.

80 miles of rough road

The drive past Kluane National Park was pretty much every superlative you can think of- pretty, beautiful, fantastic, spectacular- you get the point. The Autumn colors were at their peak. The area did not look like this a week or so ago. Wow, just wow. The yellows were fluorescent as were the pinks which brought out any greens still left. They were like stands of lights amongst the deep forest green of the spruces. There was also fresh snow on the tops of the mountains. Made for a lovely day with blue sky as the background.

Autumn colors with windshield bug 

I had planned to camp at Wolf Creek just outside of Whitehorse but then realized that was too far since I didn’t get on the road until 11am (Christmas and birthday shopping in Tok). My back up was Pine Lake just the other side of Haines Junction which is a good 2 hours or so from Whitehorse. Who knew that Canadians also celebrate Labour Day? For the first time I encountered a full campground. There were no others between Haines Junction and Whitehorse! And the Yukon doesn’t have a bunch of litter bin pull offs that one can slip into for the night, at least not in this section. I drove until 9:30pm to Whitehorse; yes to the Walmart parking lot. I knew I could find a free spot there and didn’t want to find out the Wolf Creek campground was full and then turn around.

View along the way

Part of the reason for stopping was the wildlife I was encountering on the road. First some elk cows were on the side of the road trying to cross. Fortunately, I was watching for just such an encounter and stopped to let them cross. The bull didn’t cross with them so I moved on in case I was intimidating him. Not far down the road, I saw one of the Yukon Territory’s wild horses munching on the side of the road. I stopped long enough for a couple of photos and moved on. It’s true, you never have the correct lens on the camera when you need it.

Fortunately for a red fox, as I was entering Whitehorse, my 4wd was stuck and I was only going 40 mph when it ran in front of me. It was pretty dark but I got a great look at it. Again, avoid driving at dusk. It explains so much of the roadkill and signs of roadkill I’ve been seeing along the road, plus the fact that people drive extremely fast.

Random stuff- there are Thai “restaurants” at every little stop in Alaska. I use the term restaurant loosely because most are a hut or a trailer. The pad thai I had at Glennallen was okay. There’s rarely Mexican or Chinese but Thai and American, everywhere.

In the Yukon Territory it’s the law that you drive with your lights on. Must be because of all the construction. LOL

Clouds and blue sky

Wildlife- elk, wild horse, ptarmigan, red fox, black-capped chickadees (while waiting for the pilot car), northern harrier (male), northern goshawk, merlin, gray jay, flicker, bald eagle, red-tail hawk, and a lovely family of Trumpeter swans- parents and 3 juveniles.

Lesson #15 Sometimes you have to push yourself way beyond your bounds- be cautious, be mindful, and be good to yourself.