Day 11- Whitehorse

We woke up to more rain and more mosquitoes! It rained the whole time as we walked the dog, ate breakfast, and packed up. We were killing mosquitoes the whole time inside and out.

The rain finally cleared up after about 100 miles.

We were still killing mosquitoes in the truck and in the trailer when we stopped for lunch.

The roads were pretty good except for some construction. We came by a bad motorcycle accident in the gravel section of the construction area.

We made it to Whitehorse early and found campsites with hook-ups.

We are still fighting the mosquitoes that we brought with from last night. It may take a few days to get rid of all of them. Of course we may find some more along the way.

We are going to take a day off tomorrow to clean up, dry out, and explore Whitehorse.

I put some more stickers on the trailer. Thanks to Cathy for thinking of us when she was in the visitor’s center.

Aris asked about the trees around here he said that they didn’t seem to grow to really big trees and that a lot of them are about the same size. I explained that in the winter when the snow gets really deep the rabbits walk on top of snow and nibble off the tops of the trees. He said something else was getting pretty deep too!

We did not see any wildlife today, so no pictures except for the elk I saw yesterday.

Bill figured out the lantern just in time for 24 hours of daylight!

Day - 10

They were large and hungry. They flocked around the window looking at any bare skin like the menu at McDonalds. I thought that these were real Yukon mosquitoes! It was pouring rain. The rain intensified just as we pulled into the campground. Bill and I walked around and we found a spot where we could park the trailers side by side. We set up fast in the rain and only got wet where the disposable rain coats didn’t cover which when you think about it was quite a bit.

Four people going in and out of the door, even doing as fast as we can let in a bunch of those blood thirsty monsters.

Dinner consisted of BBQ’d teriyaki steaks, baked potatoes, baked beans, and salad. While I was BBQing the rest of the crew was attacking the hungry hordes that had invaded our sanctuary. Here it is hours later and we are still killing them!

I think it will be bug spray and sheets over our heads when we go to bed tonight.

These Canadian vampires seem to prefer the Dutch blood to mine, a fact that I enjoy, but feel guilty about.

I have heard rumors that the Canadian Government pays a bounty for dead bugs, and we have thousands of dollars worth on the front of our truck and trailer. I just haven’t found out where to collect it.

We left Toad River this morning in sunshine and warm temps. We started seeing black bears and bison almost right away. We saw a good herd of bison with calves in the middle of a (and I quote the warning sign) “Extreme dust” so we couldn’t stop and take pictures.

I finally told Cathy not to bother stopping for bears and bison anymore, we have enough pictures. We will make exceptions for grizzlies and baby bison.

The rain started about the time we stopped for $4 gas at small out of the way lodge. It kept raining harder and harder until we stopped to buy groceries. Milk was more expensive than gas by about $2 per gallon.

We bought two new batteries for the trailer a few days ago, so we will see how they work as we camp without hook ups.

Day 9 - Toad River

We blew right by Fort Nelson (after filling up with gas) and ended up at Toad River Lodge about mile 422.

It was a great day for seeing wildlife. There was a deer crossing the road right in front of us as we left Fort St. John. We saw some more deer, and while Aris and I were watching a red tail hawk dive towards some unsuspecting victim the girls shouted “There is a moose! And her calf!”

After that we saw at least 5 black bears and some big horn sheep.

Toad River is a small store/campground.  It is set in a small valley with beaver ponds and surrounded by forest covered mountains.  The full hook-ups were cheap and big enough for us to leave the pick-ups hooked up.  Around 10:00 I saw a cow elk cross the road and the traffic dropped off to nothing.

We got settled in at Toad River and had a great dinner that Aris cooked that was an onion stuffed with meatball and wrapped in bacon. Topped off with a salad and stuffing thanks to the girls, we ate our fill, but still had room to walk up to the store for soft served ice cream.

We made our way down to the beaver pond and watched (and photographed) a couple of beavers as the had their evening meal.

One of the bears we saw had a close shave. We saw two black bears. One was close to the road the other was back towards the woods about 50 yards from the road. We stopped to watch and the one close to the road stood up on his hind legs and was looking at the other one. All of a sudden he dropped down and ran out into the road right in front of us. A pick-up and trailer was flying by us and the bear ran out in front of him. The truck veered left and slammed on the brakes, and the bear hit the brakes too. The bear glanced off of the right front corner of the trailer. The bear jumped up and ran off, so we don’t think he was hurt too bad. He did leave a pile of bear poop in the middle of the road!

Day 8 - Fort St. John

We took a short detour through Chetwynd to see some chainsaw carving. They are having a competition and the had chainsawers from England, Japan, Australia, America, and from as far away as Canada. They had just started so it was interesting to see how they work on them.

 The Peace River valley will be flooded sometime in the future as a damn dam plan has been approved. I really don’t know if it is a damn dam, but they were lots of protest signs along the way.

So we traveled far but did not make much progress North. We spent the night in Fort St. John and we will head out towards Fort Nelson. It’s about 240 miles away so we might get there or not. We will see what the day brings.

Day - 7 Dawson Creek

“Scenic route to Alaska” is what the sign said as we left Hinton. It was beautiful, but after a while every tree looks the same. There were plenty of signs warning us about caribou crossing, but we didn’t have much luck spotting any wildlife until after Grande Cache. As we crossed the bridge leaving town we saw a small herd of elk. Later we startled a cow moose as she stood beside the road. Maybe it was all of us shouting “moose!” that scared her. She left the area fast before Bill and Cathy could see her.

After we got to where the oil fields were, the traffic got heavy. There were soooo many trucks! We made it to Dawson Creek and found camping with hook ups and Bill and Cathy got their laundry done. 

We went to Mister Mikes for dinner to celebrate Aris and Bertha’s 48^th anniversary. Great food and great company!

It was in the 80’s and hot. We even ran the AC for awhile!

We are actually on the Alaskan Highway now. My dad’s cousin Monty worked on the highway when it was being built. Dawson Creek is the start of the Alcan.  It is mile post "0" and it is quite a big deal.

Day 6 Hinton

Bill banged on our door about 7:30 in the morning and said you better bring Molly inside, there is a grizzly walking down the road. Sure enough, here he came right by our campsite and then over to Bill and Cathy’s. He was checking out their bikes and then moved on down the road.

We left Mosquito Creek. There were not any mosquitoes in camp, but there was snow around and the morning temperature was 28F/-2C so they were probably frozen out.

The views on the Icefields Parkway were unbelievable! We stopped at the Icefeilds Center for coffee and picture taking.

We fought construction all the way to Hinton KOA . There was also a minor traffic jam when a few big horn sheep took there sweet time crossing the highway.

The KOA was nice, but some of the laundry was closed because of a plumbing problem so our clothes washing was delayed which also affected the timing of dinner, so my BBQ chicken was more like chicken jerky.

They had a K9 playground which Molly loved. She could climb and jump through all of the obstacles with ease.

Now I said that there were no mosquitoes at mosquito creek, but that is not the story for the rest of our trip. We have been eaten up anytime we sit outside. Our little bug screen tent sure comes in handy. Thanks Derek for finding it for us!

Day 5 Mosquito creek

They have eco bridges here in Banff national park. They the roadways with 8 foot fences that guide the wildlife to bridges with grass and trees to keep the interaction between animals and vehicles to a minimum. So when Aris jumped out to get pictures of mama bear and her two babies the question was if she could climb the fence faster than he could get back into the truck. I promised him I would put the video on you tube if it happened.

Luckily we just got pictures and no action shots.

We set up camp in Mosquito Creek camp ground just North of Lake Louise. There were no hook ups, but we found nice camp sites and headed off to Banff for the day. We had some navigation problems, but we managed to find the HooDoos on Tunnel Mountain.

I remember my dad and us playing:

You look like the man with the HooDoo!

HooDoo?

You do .

Do what?

Look like the man with the HooDoo,

HooDoo?

You do.

And it would go on until Mom finally said “That’s enough!”

Hoo Doos are types of rock formations that look like they are giving you the finger.

We have a problem when I am leading and we are trying to find our way in town. I do fine out in the woods. My map readers are not much help.

We finally made it to Sulfur Mountain Gondola and I sent my camera up with Bertha and the crew while Hedda, Molly and I sat down on the picnic table and had Starbuck’s.

The ride home was uneventful except for the above mentioned grizzly and cubs. Bill also had an adventure with a gas pump and a credit card, but that is a story for him to tell.

We were surprised to find the campground full. We also continuously find other Dutchies who are vacationing in Canada.