Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Sunday, July 31, 2016

61 Day Alaska Caravan: Day 15-20

July 26-

Day 15


Another early morning on the road, we had 279 miles of single lane highway to cover so we were on the road by 7:15 and finally arrived in at Triple G Hideway Campground in Ft Nelson BC about 1pm. Not too much construction but plenty of road bumps and not many passing areas. We ended up stopping for a moment about 45 miles from our destination to let the auxiliary tank start feeding our fuel tank. Gas mileage was terrible, lots of down hills into river valleys then steep climbs back out.

Next to the campground is the Ft Nelson Heritage Museum, lots of old stuff and lots of machinery from when the Alaskan Highway was built. 









 A travel meeting for the next 2 travel days rounded out the afternoon.

Day 16

Today's travel was just 187 miles to Liard River BC, a beautiful ride around Muncho Lake with Dave stopping to drop a line in the water.




Our campground was at Liard Hot Springs Lodge. just across the street from Liard Provincial Park where the Liard Hot Springs are located.






Day 17


Another short travel day with only 129 miles to cover on the way to Watson Lake YT. No early start this morning since we only had a few hours of driving. We timed it just right and arrived just after the wagon masters. Our campground is the Downtown RV Park and the big draw here is the Signpost Forest.






We have a few VT licenses with us, not only from our vehicles but from our good friends Les & Deb Hunton. Since we doubt they'll never make it to the Signpost Forest we chose one of their license plates to hang in the forest.



Day 18

Our travel today was 266 miles, due to incorrectly set clocks we were on the road at 7:15am, we had planned to leave about 8:00am. We took our time, Dave dipped a line in a few places but no fish were biting.



           Rancheria Falls




Nisutlin Bay Bridge on the way into Teslin, longest water span on the Alaskan Highway




     Totems at the Tlingit Heritage Center


Our site at Pioneer RV Park in Whitehorse YT, we were lucky to get an end site. Sites are really tight, with slides out no room to walk between the rigs. Our day ended with a travel meeting covering our Whitehorse YT stay and our upcoming drive to Dawson City YT.
Day 19

Our day started with a visit to the SS Klondike National Historic Park, she is a stern-wheeler paddle boat. She was the largest boat on the Yukon River and made runs between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek between 1926-1955, the original SS Klondike ran aground but salvaged parts were used to build the SS Klondike II. Currently the bow is undergoing renovations so is closed off to the public.






 After our trip a group of us got together to celebrate a birthday, good food and lots of laughter made for a long lunch.

The birthday boy...
We rounded out the evening with a visit to the Frantic Follies Vaudeville Stage Show. What a hoot it was.




This gentleman is from our group, for the rest of the trip he will be known as Pokey. What a great sport he was. 





 Day 20

Today was a free day, after our late night at the vaudeville show that was much appreciated. For our free day all we knew is we wanted to get out and walk around. We headed to the Yukon Wildlife Preserve and Game Farm. You can either walk, bike or take a bus tour, their road through the preserve is 5K so Dave and I decided to walk around the preserve. A beautiful day, rescued wildlife and a walk...doesn't get better than that.












After our wonderful outing it was back home to get the blog caught up and ready to roll early tomorrow morning. It'll be an early evening since we have to be on the road between 6:30 to 7:30 and have a 335 mile ride all on two lane roads with construction thrown in for good measure.

After posting the blog a neighbor asked if we had checked out Miles Canyon yet, he thought the scenery was spectacular. Since we had all our chores done we thought we'd check it out. A very pretty place and with this walk I had over 13k in steps for the day, much better than many of the recent days.








Until next time...