The Alaska Highway

Day 1. The Alaska Highway starts at Dawson Creek BC.... This would be the 3rd night camping since we left Bend. A person would think the start of the Alaskan Highway would start in the mountains, but not so. Dawson Creek is a prairie area with lush farmlands and poplar, birch, cottonwood and some pine...Its a cool place, very interesting. It was in the 80's when we got there and stayed fairly warm all night. It was dark for about 4 hours, 11-3. We got up at 5 and down the highway at 6 or so...The miles are fairly mild with a few rivers and a few animals. The first moose we saw we named Rigo, as it had a set of very stiff legs... it had been laying in the same spot for over a day.. the next we saw was a small cow and then we saw Mortis who had been laying there for quite some time....But we did see a big girl who showed off for us. The road is fairly easy all the way through Fort St John and things dont pick up till after Fort Nelson except for the Peace River which is huge. After that things get exciting. The Rockys reappear and lakes and rivers are all over the place. Major water.... The thing I think about while driving down that highway is how it was made and how long it took...It is a marvel. Its 1528 miles long, it was built in a little over 8 months with 7 regiments of American engineers, 11,000 men from the services, 16,000 civilians, 7000 pieces of equipment, against some of the most unforgiving wilderness areas in the world. The road included 133 major bridges and more than 3000 culverts. The cost,,,,$140 million dollars...Finished Nov 20, 1942, one month and 2 days before I was born...Think of the equipment then compared to today... Anyway we drove to Muncho Lake that day, stayed in a cabin for the hell of it and had wienerschnizel. On the way we saw trophy stone sheep about the road the melted in to the rocks, but keen eyed June spotted them and we turned around and got pics while they posed....Pictures you wait a lifetime for.. FYI......Pics will follow later when June gets on this in Fairbanks so she can download them. Next day we went a hour to Liard Hot springs and camped and kicked back there. On the way we did see some huge buffalo along the road, who did migrate into the area a long time ago. Also one black bear. The springs are huge and big pools...A large campground is alway full of rvs that stay for the night. There is a boardwalk about a quarter mile long that goes through the warm marsh the hot springs empty too. At the end is a big pool and 5 minutes up another. A few years ago a woman was attacked by a black bear on the boardwalk. A man saw her in trouble and went to help her....Both were killed, her child wounded. It was on the Discovery channel . Last week they tranquilized a sow grizzly that was there bothering the people and took her across the river where she will bother no more. Then after a nice rest we took off today to Watson Lake, home of the famous sign forest which we have pics of...There are 2000 town, road etc signs that people have stolen that are put up every year... We saw today many more buffalo, more sheep, and many black bear, some of cinnamon color.... no grizz yet, but there will be. We are camping tonite in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. We are right on the Yukon River. Rained a lot of the day, but no biggie...Stopped at a place that had rhubarb pie that was out of this world... This is the first place we have had WiFi, so that what took so long.....We did go through a large forest fire today, burned on both sides of the road, there were flames next to the road on one side....Must have went 15 miles with the fire and where it had been, but it rained most of the day and it really helped ....Tomorrow Haines Jct and beyond. The mountains are still here and high and snow capped and everything is green and lush..