Liard Hot Springs to Dawson Peaks
Putting aside any plans for an early morning hot springs bath, we awoke moderately late. We’re never awake when it’s dark, in these parts, so there’s the illusion of perpetual daylight, which gets you out of bed quite early. Still, it was 9:30 before we went to the campsite’s restaurant for breakfast. I had ham and eggs, Debbie had pancakes, and it was a nice hearty change from peanut butter on toast.
I did the morning driving. As usual, there was scenery, and we were treated to a herd of buffalo.
Stopped in front of us, to view the buffalo, was an RV with a charming portrait of two corgis in the window. It’s license number was “CORGI”, and there was also a picture of a corgi on the spare wheel cover. Delightful.
We stopped occasionally for views (and “comfort”).
On one such stop, I returned, bladder empty, to the RV, to find Debbie excited. “John, I’ve learned something about our van!”. It was that we had central locking after all. We just hadn’t noticed because the icon on the switch looks like a window. This is a Good Discovery, because it was really a stretch leaning over to open the passenger door from the driving seat.
We crossed the border into Yukon, and at Watson Lake, we stopped to buy groceries, and ended up with some basics, and a load of junk food. To be fair, there is some salad in there.
Watson Lake has a “Signpost Forest”. Started by a homesick serviceman during the war effort to build the Alaska Highway, now there are thousands of signs from around the world. If we’d known before we left home, we too could have stolen a sign from our own locale, taken it to a remote part of Yukon Territory, and nailed it to a post.
The info centre in Watson Lake shows a video about the building of the Alaska Highway. We should probably have known all this before coming, but it was very informative. In reaction to the Pearl Harbor, the US government suddenly decided that a land route to Alaska was a priority - so much so that troops began work on the road weeks before the Canadians actually agreed to it. A vast amount or resource was thrown at it, and just 9 months after it was ordered, the road was usable: not a good road, to be sure, but suitable for military use. One voice over noted that the surveyors had no time to choose the perfect route, because workers were felling trees faster than they could survey.
The only other people watching the film with us was a family of Germans. When, towards the start of the film, it used a graphic of a map of Europe with a big swastika overlaid upon it, there was a nervous intake of breath from behind us.
We could have eaten in Watson Lake. It was the right time, but our guidebook told us that just 30 miles ahead was “The best coffee shop on the Alaska Highway”. Either we passed it without noticing, or it doesn’t exist. We ended up stopping at a pleasant but deserted Territorial Park (not a Provincial Park, since we were now in Yukon Terrirory, not British Columbia Province), heated a can of chilli, and ate it with bread and tortilla chips. Many places seem terribly quiet — not that I’m complaining — perhaps it’s to do with high fuel prices?
Moving on, the scenery continued to impress.
We finished the day’s driving just East of Teslin, at the Dawson Peak resort. Our host is friendly, and persuaded us to join the “Good Sam” club, for discounts on future RV camps. The food here was recommended in a guidebook, so we went to the restaurant. There were three dishes on the menu - chilli, stew or bolognese (that is to say: three kinds of slop). We both opted for our second chilli of the day, and it was good - served with garlic bread. We had our first wine since leaving Vancouver, to accompany it. We left room for ‘bumbleberry’ pie - that’s a mixture of berries - and took a sixpack of beer back to the RV, to enjoy after a brief stroll to the lakeside and back.