Online Learning from the Road: Great migration: Day 4

It's stupidly early and the flash is ridiculously bright, but we are still in good spirits.

As we left the campsite in Watson Lake at a very early 6:30AM, which means we were up around 5:45 or 6:00, we saw a female black bear and her cub standing on the side of the road. At the sound of our engine, the female sent the cub scrambling back up the hill behind them and into the trees while she watched attentively. Once we were safely away, she and the cub crossed the road, headed right into the campsite we had vacated. It was quite polite of them to wait for us to be away.

We didn't do coffee in the hopes that we might find a coffeeshop, but no such luck. We were on the road for a while, terribly tired and keeping each other awake. We were finally able to stop in Teslin because we needed fuel and decided this was the stop for coffee and breakfast--a surprisingly delicious breakfast at that. See, here's where things get kind of crazy: We fueled up the moving truck and then pulled around for breakfast, completely forgetting to pay for fuel. It was only when we were paying for breakfast did we realize that we needed to settle for the earlier purchase, to which the cashier (politely) replied, "Oh, I wondered whose that was!" No hassle at all, just a happy cashier that we paid the bill. It was also at this stop that we realized that in our tired stupor, we drove off without the lock for the moving truck. Every stop meant we were checking up on the truck to be sure it hadn't popped open on the rough roads.

It should be noted that I tried to buy post cards here, but the only ones I could find were horrifying: a moose and her calf being attacked by all manner of predators--wolves, bear, eagles. A bear fighting an eagle. The others were no better (and so unrealistic).

A very large (like crazy, trophy sized) moose also ambled along the road for a while with us, and I made Scott stop so I could snap a photo. Unfortunately, it's not he best since he was over the hill and we were a ways away before we finally came to a full stop. I am sorry for the quality and the fact that you cannot see the rack on this beast.

Besides the bull moose and the bears, our animal sightings included fox, beavers, and swans. We did not, however, and much to my disappointment, see grizzlies, as the milepost book said we might on the White River. I was practically standing in my seat trying to spot these bears, and every time we stopped for breaks, we were on the lookout both for safety and curiosity.

We also had a run-in with the CMP. We were pulled over for speeding (and we were definitely speeding in the moving truck) and the guy was so very polite and nice and let us go with only an informal warning and a cheery, "You've got a lot of stuff behind you that you want to get there in one piece. Drive safely now!"

We stopped in Whitehorse for a few hours to regroup, drink a lot of coffee and check out Yukon Brewing. We had hoped that this was a pub, but that wasn't the case, so we bought some beer, talked to the locals a bit about the trip and about Canadian beer laws, and made sandwiches in the truck to take on the road. By the by, we make banging sandwiches and on-the-go road food when we road trip. We also acquired some Dare maple cookies, which happen to be some of the best cookies out there and that we've found only in Canada.

Day 4 was the longest day we've had as we pushed on through to Tok. The roads were terrible, and in the photos you see where we lose the paved roads for just graded, gravel ones. The permafrost causes too much damage to keep the roads paved as it freezes and melts, and this is especially true as the average temperatures continue to rise with climate change and warming. There is actually some fascinating research being done to try to figure out how much the permafrost moves the ground around and the extent of the damage that this causes to the road. The NY Times has an interesting article about the history of the highway and these current issues it faces, and you can read that here. You can see the experiments and engineering near Beaver Creek.

We were stopped at the border for a bit longer than expected, not because there were any issues, but because the people working were fascinated by the car wrap Scott had done. They had a number of questions and even called over the others in the back to look at it and commend him for his creativity. Well done, Scott!

From the Yukon Territory, we crossed back into the 49th State to land in Tok, Alaska in the latter part of the day. The RV park's office had already closed, so we went ahead and set up the tent, made the necessary phone calls and texts to let the families know we were alive and well, and had not been eaten by bears. We had to get creative to get into the restrooms to be able to shower since these were code protected. Scott managed to drive a guy crazy enough by just pushing the buttons that the guy opened the door and gave him the passcode. Persistence and a little aggravation paid off and we were able to get clean after a few days on the road. We made a quick dinner of ramen, finished off with some lovely suds courtesy of Yukon Brewing. At 11:00PM, we settled down in the tent, the light still quite twilight rather than full dark, to the sounds of creatures howling in the far distance.

And now, for the photo album: