We got up early on July 2nd, day 23 and took Regan and Gantt to the airport for their flight home. Then Dixie and I headed the Roadtrek east. Originally I had intended to stay a bit longer this trip but things had changed at home while we were gone. Linda's doctor had decided that she was going to have to have surgery. At the time we left Anchorage, he had not set a date and she was worried that it would be before we got back. We stopped in Palmer, the home of the Alaska State Fair, and filled up with gas and got breakfast at McDonalds. Then we pushed on to Glennallen and another fuel stop. We were not that low on fuel but it was my intent to top off in each town as we got closer to the Canadian border. I did this topping off instead of waiting until the last minute before crossing the border and being confronted with a station that was closed. Mid afternoon we made it to Tok. I went in the Three bears and got some things we would need on our trip home and we topped of the gas tank at the Shell station. Later that afternoon we stopped for the night at the Lakeview Campground in the Tetlin National Forest near the Canadian border. I snapped a couple of pictures of our campsite and the nearby lake but apparently there was a camera malfunction and only one of them took.
On my trip in 2008, I had laptop problems. This time I took a laptop and a tablet and did not have any computer problems but my camera malfunctioned. If I had realized it was not working I could have taken pictures with the tablet or with one of my phones, but I did not check the pictures until I got home.
After a peaceful night in Lakeview (Dixie and I were the only ones there) we woke up on July 3rd, day 24 and headed for the border. This is the sign at the foot of the hill after you pass US Customs, as I said before Canadian Customs is 32 km further down the road.
We passed through Canadian Customs with no problems and continued our homeward trip. Mid afternoon found us in Whitehorse. Regan had given me the names of two restaurants that her guide book recommended in Whitehorse. I went to one of them and had a smoked salmon wrap with fries and a coke. It was an excellent late lunch. I had used most of my Canadian cash on the trip up and as there were several banks within walking distance I decided that now would be a good time to get some cash from an ATM. On my trip in 2008 I had used Canadian ATMs on 2 or 3 occasions without problems. Since my experience with American credit cards and gas stations, I was a bit concerned about this time. In Canada the ATM machines seem to all be in a lobby inside the front doors of the bank but before you enter through another set of doors into the main area of the bank. I suspect it has something to do with the winter weather. I doubt that anyone would want to stand outside at - 40 degrees F or C to get money out of an ATM. Anyway, when I walked through the front doors of the bank there were 3 ATM machines sitting on the left wall. The one in the middle had an out of order sign on it. The other two had lines of people running all the way back to the other wall. I got into one of the lines. I quickly discovered that in addition to people waiting to do ATM transactions, there were bank employees standing there as well. Gradually I figured out that most of these people had received new ATM cards with chips in them and they were going through the process of activating them. The bank employees were there to assist them. A guy in the line next to me walked up to the machine on the right and a bank employee walked up with him. The bank employee turned and faced away from the ATM and told the guy to put his card in the ATM. Then he proceeded to talk the guy through the process that involved several steps which I remember included the guy entering his PIN several times. Finally the process was complete and someone else took their turn. When it came my time I was apprehensive. I knew my card did not have a chip. I put it in the slot as I would anywhere in the US, it asked me my PIN, I entered it, it asked me what I wanted to do, I entered that, it gave me my $CDN and I was on my way, very relieved. Later that day we made it to Squango Lake Campground and pulled in for the night.
The next day was July 4th, day 25 of our trip. I woke up, cleaned up, did our preflight (checked tires, water and oil on the Roadtrek) and took Dixie for a walk, not necessarily in that order. I had mentioned to someone during a phone conversation about the sign on the water pump at Squango Lake. I decided I would take a picture to prove that I wasn't kidding.
The first picture was taken so both the pump and sign were in the picture, the second was taken in case the sign in the first one was not readable. As it turns out, neither of them were readable. It was early in the morning and I believe that the low light caused the flash to go off. The sign apparently is reflecting the flash. Anyway, if you could read it, the sign would tell you that the water from the pump is not to be used for cooking or drinking without being first boiled for 10 minutes.
I also took a picture of the Roadtrek sitting in our camping space. It turned out better than the pump/sign pictures.
Around noon, we got to Watson Lake YT. Watson Lake is on the north edge of that stretch of wilderness that the Alaska Highway runs through north of Fort Nelson, BC. Making a fuel stop is a must on the way up and on the way back. On the way up I had stopped at the Watson Lake Motors, the pumps were convenient to get to, the price was not bad (for YT anyway) at $1.449 per liter and the guy inside was friendly. I decided it would be an appropriate place to stop on the way back. I had to wait in line for a few minutes because there were a couple of vehicles in front of me. Finally it was my turn, I pulled up to the pump and put in 70.12 liters, $101.60 CDN. When I finished pumping my fuel I pulled the Roadtrek up to clear the pumps and went inside to pay. There were 2 other people standing there and the guy who ran the place was on the phone. The lady standing nearest the counter said, I burned up his machine. Turns out that when he swiped her card, sparks flew out of his card reader. It was toast. After a few minutes the owner got off the phone and said that the company that he rented the reader from was sending him out a replacement. It would arrive by bus in 2 or 3 days. We had two options: (1) give him our card numbers and he would run our transaction when the new card reader came in or (2) if we preferred, pay with cash. Since I had been to the ATM the day before in Whitehorse, I had about $120 CDN so I opted to just pay him with cash. I think that he would have taken US currency as well, but to make it simple I just paid with my CDN $. There was a third guy standing over in the corner, a local not a customer. He said that there was a bank next door with an ATM machine so when I finished paying for my gas I drove over there and replaced the money I had just spent.
Just down the street from the Watson Lake Motors and the bank, there is a grocery store. I have stopped there before because it is handy and it has a payphone out in the front. Remember this is between Tok, AK and Fort St John BC so no cell phone coverage. I drove down to the grocery store and parked out on the side of the service road. Just inside the first set of doors is the payphone. I made the calls to everyone and let them know that we were OK. When I was talking to Regan she mentioned that they were about to eat. She said she supposed that I would not be getting a traditional July 4th meal up there in Canada. I acknowledged that I suspected that was the case but that every time the second set of doors behind me opened into the store, I was catching the aroma of something that smelled good. I told her that when I got off the phone I was going in and get some lunch. Just inside of the second set of doors on the left was the deli section. When I walked over to the counter the first thing I saw was several racks of BBQ spare ribs. In the cooler just around the corner they had homemade potato salad. I already had bread and potato chips in the truck. Needless to say, I got a rack of the ribs and a container of the potato salad and Dixie and I had a very traditional July 4th lunch sitting right there on the side of a service road in Watson Lake YT.
In Alaska and Canada, moose, bison, and sheep don't pay a road or vehicles any attention. They will walk right out in front of you, or if you come upon them standing in the road you may have to wait awhile for them to move out of the way. This is not the case with bears. When you see them out in the open, they are usually on the move. Because of this, bear pictures are hard to come by. I was a few miles south of Watson Lake when I say one crossing the road in front of me.
Don't see him? Click on the pictures to blow it up and then look for a little black speck in the middle of the road up where it curves around that little hill. By the time I got up to where he had crossed the road, he was down in the ditch. All you could see was his back and behind.
About 2 hours south of Watson Lake just south of Fireside, we came upon another herd of bison. I say another herd because I am under the impression that there are multiple herds and this one was about 50 miles north of where we had seen the previous herd on our way up. Also this one seemed to be a lot bigger.
There were sheep in the road near km 740
And some more down around km 600 near Summit Lake
At the end of the day we found ourselves near the Testa River Campground. I had not stayed there before but decided to give it a try. It was very nice, located right beside the Testa River. The camp hosts were exceptionally friendly. So were the mosquitoes. I really enjoyed talking to the camp hosts and avoided the mosquitoes as much as possible.
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