We woke up in Watson Lake which is famous for the sign post forest. The story goes - back when the Alaska Highway was being built (1942) a homesick soldier stationed here and working on the highway posted a sign saying how far it was to his home in Illinois....it caught on and now it is a tradition for folks traveling thru to post their sign. We didn't come prepared (didn't make a sign before leaving home) but like many others we improvised. I took the Speedway Ford, Griffin Georgia tag off the front of our truck. We cleaned the bugs off it and used a smartie marker to record the distance to our home and our names on it. It was a fun thing to do before hitting the road this morning. There must be thousands of signs there. We sent a text to our friends Jim and Sheila who are a day or two behind and challenged them to find the sign we posted......fat chance :-)
Ready to nail it up!
Sign Post Forest
Pointing to our sign (look up)
Our plan for the day is to get to Whitehorse, Yukon - the Capital and it is about 275 miles away. Soon after getting on the road we encounter serious/long distance road construction zones. It was heavy gravel roads for estimated 10 (or more) miles. Being in no hurry we slow to approximately 15-20 miles per hour and begin to wonder if we will make Whitehorse today. Amazingly, several folks come flying around us and I radioed to Dodge-Pepper "they must be the folks that need to hurry so they can get back to work". We continue to move slowly and eventually better roads ahead where we can resume a good traveling speed.
We pulled into an area called Teslin around noon time and pull over at an overlook of the bridge/lake and prepare some lunch in the RVs. We also went to a roadside store/gas station there for fuel. Diesel fuel there (remote area) was around $3.15 per gallon (converted liters and Canadian Dollars)....not bad for the remote area. Gas has been slightly higher than diesel at all stations so far. There was also a group of bikers there that were doing the Alaska highway....many Harleys and some other bikes that were loaded like mules. As we left the temp dropped a bit and it was raining lightly - glad we were in a truck/RV.
Think this guy was loaded down?
Not a Harley but there were many out there!
Teslin Overlook
The road between Watson Lake and Whitehorse offered nice views of mountains, valleys, rivers, forests, and wildflowers. No wildlife at all this day though. We have laughed several times....a lot of Caribou signs but not many signs of Caribou. Kathy and I have still not seen a Moose or Caribou.
We pulled into Whitehorse around 5:00 and were glad to be here.....tired and hungry. Kathy and I were cooking tonight and after a run to town for some needed supplies we enjoyed a nice spaghetti dinner with Ed and Kay before calling it a night. We plan to spend three nights here...some sights to see, maybe some golf (hopefully), rest and replenishing some supplies before moving on.
Alaska Highway Scenery
Alaska Highway Scenery
