Day 20 - Towards Teslin and Yukon Territory

Travel   From: Liard Hot Springs PP, BC   To: Teslin, YT   Distance: 289 mi (457 km)   Travel time w/brks: 7 hr 17   Distance since start: 5,277 mi (8,485 km)

Monday 7/10/2006

We got up around 6:30 am this morning and started to get ready. While I was getting things organized outside trailer, I heard the neighbor by his truck. He was standing on the bed of his pickup, pumping fuel from a tank on his bed. He had a hose leading into the filler neck of his truck. You could hear him work the hand pump back and forth, swosh, swosh, swosh. And then, after a few moments, came this splashing sound. He had overfilled his tank and the fuel just spilled out on the campsite. Incredible. Moments later he left. I quickly asked Erik to check the site to see if this was a real spill; I was sure it was diesel on the ground. Wrong. It was gasoline, and at least two quarts of it. First, how could someone bring an aux tank of gas on the back of their pickup? Talk about a fire bomb. Next, they did not even bother to clean up the mess. And this is a campground that does not even have a shared dumpstation because they want to have things completely natural. I then sent Erik down to the office to report this. When he came back, he sounded like they had not taken him too seriously. By the time we pulled out from our campsite, nobody had come over from the office to check it out. And, it reeked of gasoline around the campsite. When we drove by the office on our way out I stopped by and talked with the attendant. It turns out that a park ranger was going to look at it shortly and that they had the name and license plate number of the person that had used the site.

After a few hours of driving, we crossed over into Yukon Territory from British Columbia. Soon thereafter, we arrived in the town of Watson Lake which is the home to the famous Sign Post Forest. We had read about this place but did not quite know what to expect. And, without forewarning, it appeared beside the road in Watson Lake.

Entrance to Sign Post Forest in Watson Lake, Yukon Territory

Signs and more signs

Erik strolling the Sign Post Forest

Thousands of signs, some hand made, some clearly ripped off from posts..

After walking around for a bit, we wondered if we should not put up a sign for Merrimack. We had thought about asking our town to make a sign for us, but we ran out of time. And now we were here. The kids improvised a bit with a piece of wood we found in Liard Hot Springs. I took out the ladder, which we had dragged with us for over 5,000 miles, and finally found a purpose for it: to put up a sign for Merrimack. And, better yet, we bump into two Airstreams from Long Island that lent us a power screw driver.

Isabella gives our tiny sign a manicure, to protect the ink on the letters (not all letters have dried in picture)

Can you see it? Erik poses next to our tiny sign for "Merrimack NH"

Our challenge to the next person from Merrimack, New Hampshire, visiting Watson Lake in Yukon: put up a much better sign since our is really lame. After this, we continued towards Teslin, our next stop.

Along the road to Yukon in northern British Columbia

After a while the kids started to get hungry. I wanted to continue for a little while longer. We went in and out of rain as we got closer to the Cassiar mountains. Then, like a complete flash, I spotted something really odd in the valley, far from the truck. It looked like a large bird. Could it be? I wasn't able to stop at a rest area a few hundered yards away from the sighting, so I made a U-turn to get back to it. Isabella found our binoculars and handing it to me she confirmed my hypothosis; it was a bald eagle. We were not able to get very close, since it sat in the middle of a marsh.

A bald eagle sitting in the marsh; resolution leaves a bit to be desired but we were 300 yards away..

As we were standing there, looking at the bald eagle, the two Airstream couples from Long Island came buy. One of them told me that they knew the older Greenblatts who's kids had joined the New England Unit. It trully is a small world.

The rest area from which we spotted the bald eagle; it was in the valley below. Cassiar mountains in the back.

We get WBCCI company from Long Island at the rest area (#30915 and #30916)

We left with our bellies full of soup, continueing towards Teslin and Dawson Peaks. The sun was shining when we got there. This turned out to be quite a nice campground. We quickly inquired about a fishing license, since our last campground didn't know where to get them. And, as it turns out, not only did they have them but they were free for age 15 and under. While I dumped, Erik got his license prepared. After some difficult manuvering to get away from the dump station, we got setup at our campsite. Erik rushed down to try his fishing gear in the lake (Teslin Lake) accumpanied by Izzy, Karl played with his cars, and I started fixing up the diary. This campground also serves breakfast and dinner in their main cabin; we're going to try that tomorrow. Better yet, we can get WiFi all the way to the trailer. I called Lilli at home to check on things. All appeared to be ok.

Erik tries out his fishing gear in Teslin Lake (with the "Twin Peaks" in the background)

Campground   Name: Dawson Peaks Resort   Our hookups: Water and 30 amp   WiFi: Yes and two bars (free)   GSM service: None   TV Channels: Unknown   Cost: 23.32 CDN/night   Reservation mode: Phone call (via Skype)

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All Pictures (c) 2006 Hamnqvist, Background features the Yukon Sky.