July 2 -- Fort Nelson and Beyond

 

July 1 – Happy Canada Day

The day started off sunny and bright and pretty much stayed that way.  A nice change from the drizzle and rain we’ve been having along the way. 

The highlight of my day was discovering that my VISA had been jacked.  Damn! I called them and they had noticed two suspicious charges. So they shut it down.  Fortunately, I have another credit card with me, but my auto-pay stuff is on that card.  I’ll worry about that when I get back to Alaska.  It was hard to convince the customer service gal that there wasn’t much I could do about the fraud survey within five days of receiving it.

From Watson Lake to Fort Nelson is downhill almost all the way, about 200 miles of downhill.  Makes for good gas mileage, but in the back of my mind the thought of driving UP that 200 miles of hill keeps rattling around.  That’s a lot of hill.

It was a good wildlife-spotting day.  The bear count is up to 8: two brown ones and 6 black ones.  The sheep count is one – and it ran off before I cold take a picture – thank you Zelda and Zorro.  Too many wood bison to count, but I did get pictures. The baby bison are as cute as baby moose. I stayed BEHIND my car while photographing them just in case they were as jittery as moose.  Mostly they just kept sleeping and chewing their cuds.

We are getting into a pretty good camping rhythm. If I can find a pull out quite a way from the road with no one else, the poodz get to run around.  Otherwise, it’s “drag Ellen day.” 

This campground is right next to the Fort Nelson Historical Museum, and the stuff that’s outside is very interesting, especially the old construction equipment and old vehicles.  That’s definitely on the agenda for tomorrow before we head out toward Dawson Creek.

Some observations about Yukon Territory and British Columbia in no particular order.

The Yukon’s roads are wavy, but they have good signage and lots of restrooms and pullouts. 

BC roads are slightly better, but you better be willing to pee behind a bush.  If you do run across a restroom, you still might want to pee behind a bush. As for signs – fuggit aboud it.

Who knew Laird Hot Springs had become a Provincial Park and now charges? I didn’t.  They did it for their 50^th anniversary of the Alaska Highway.  That was in 1992 – two years after I drove the highway.

And finally – 200 miles uphill all the way?  That’s gonna hurt!