Well the day started with a steady downpour. As we suited up and got ready, everyone at the hotel looked at us as if we were crazy. Maybe we are, just a little.
We left Dease lake and headed North. This was to be our most northern day of the trip as we would cross into the Yukon territory before hitting the Alaska Hwy and heading SE.
We made it all of about 20 miles before we had to stop and add more clothes. It was cold!
We made it about an hour out before our second stop at a Jade store of all places, Out in the middle of no where is a place called Cassiar Mountain Jade store. The only real reason we stopped was we were all cold and they had a sign out for free coffee. We relaxed and BS’d with the locals for a bit before we started out again.
A little further up the road we ran into a motorhome stopped in the middle of the road. John pulled up to the drivers window and asked if everything was ok. The driver just pointed over John’s shoulder where there was a momma bear and two cubs about 25 feet behind him. Gina, and Lori and I had stopped by this time and I hurried to get the camera out. Just as I got it out John revved his bike to scare the bears away. I missed the picture of the mom but I did manage to get a fuzzy picture of one of the cubs panicking and climbing a tree.
This was not to be our last sighting of the day as we say quite a few more spaced out during the day.
We made it into Watson Lake and stopped at the visitors center where they have a forest of road signs and home made signs. Over 74,000 of them to date. It was quite a sight.
By this time we were hungry wet and cold. We stopped for lunch and then hit a local department store that was about the size of a 7-11. The biggest store in town… We had to get better gloves and warmer socks. It was just too much to be that wet and cold.
With full belly’s and warm hands and toes we headed East towards tonight destination, Liard Hotsprings!
We arrived about 4:30 and immediately changed and hit the hot springs and relaxed and warmed up. For about 4 hours.
We got back to the resort to find the store and the restaurant both had closed at 8pm. Good thing we had the ice chest with us. We snacked on Boiled eggs, cheese and a package of little weenies that we warmed up in the community microwave. Add in a few bottles of water and we are good. Time for bed. It was an exhausting day.
After a relaxing breakfast in the morning we took off SE along the Alcan Hwy. After finding that the Cassiar Hwy was better than we expected, we found the Alcan was MUCH worse than we expected. There were ruts and bumps and gravel and contruction. After seeing and going by over 100 traffic cones with a "slow" sign stuck in it and having just a little bump we got a little complacent about them. What a mistake.
We came up on another that looked like all the others and suddenly we were airborn. With a resounding thump we touched down about 10 feet further up the road. I think that instead of a small traffic cone with a "slow sign stuck in it, this bump should have a big reader board that says;
1. Launching pad ahead, please slow down and then accelerate hard for smoothest landing.
2. Do not use brakes when in mid air.
3. Make sure brakes are released before touching down
4. long wheelbase rigs might have clearance issues.
5. motorcyclists should sit back in seat as far as possible away from the gas tank if you wish to have any more kids.
Yah, it was that bad. LOL
We did see a lot of animals today. Lots of elk, a cariboo, mountain sheep, a bison, and most of these were in the road, or right on the edge.
We did go by Muncho Lake and get a couple of pictures.
And got to see Folded mountain
We found that fuel was nut a real issue as long as you traveled during business hours. We were never more than 130 miles away from fuel. We found however that we came at the last of the season. Lots of the smaller places were clearing everything out and getting ready to close for the season and head south. Labor day weekend is it.
Most of the rest of the day was dodging gravel patches and marauding semi's on a mission and generally getting covered with dirt. By the time we got to Dawson Creek we were all filthy with dirt and mud.
Well, time for bed. Tomorrow we go to Valemount and then into Banff on Sunday to relax for a couple of days.
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