Fergie Road Trip

Miles Basalt Canyon, Whitehorse, YT Deb - Headed to Whitehorse early today and stopped at the rest stop before the blue Yukon River Bridge. We hiked up to the view point where we could see, Marsh Lake, Marsh Lake Dam and the Yukon River.  We stopped at Miles Canyon and hiked across the bridge and along the lower trail looking down on the Yukon river, barreling down the basalt canyon. It was a tilted gravel narrow path and I slipped half way down and went down to my knee. (Geez, I hate falling!!!) I totally scraped my knee and had blood streaming down my leg. I limped the rest of the way along. Darrel went on to the other trail and I went back to the RV to cry in private. My whole side, knee, hands and elbow hurt. Darrel got it all on video as he was pointing the camera at himself narrating and I was behind him. We next drove into the outskirts of Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon and got a site (#107) at Hi Country RV Park.   Darrel - I had no idea that ...

hiding porcupine We stopped at the trail head to Rancheria Falls and did the short hike to the Falls. We encountered a porcupine who immediately scurried under the walkway bridge to hide. We also had a red squirrel accompany us for part of the walk.  We traveled on towards Teslin and as we approached the Nisutlin Bridge we got cell service and of course we stopped at the turn out to view the river and lake and catch up on Poke.  We passed up the Yukon Motel/Lakeshore RV park right at the end of the Nisutlin River bridge (where the Nisutlin River and Teslin Lake meet) and drove on to the government camp. We are still next to the lake but you can't see it from out site. It's a very short walk from us, though. This is a dry camp but we could work on the computer because amazingly we still have cell service and we can use our phones as hot spots to work on our laptops. Some interesting things about the Canadian highway: there's no trash along the road and t...

Bison along the Alaskan Highway We left Liard Hot Springs and turned onto the Hwy 97 and saw a herd of Bison. As we headed to Watson Lake we saw more Bison, Black Bears and Stone Mountain Sheep. We saw one little rabbit on one of the trails we walked on today. We arrived in Watson Lake and for the first time in awhile we have cell service. : ) We visited the Visitor's Centre and watched a movie about the construction of the Alaska Highway. It was build in a hurry after Japan bombed Hawaii and the US entered into World War II. The construction was slow until Japan bombed Attu in the Aleutian Islands off Alaska. The effort to get the military highway constructed exploded and the job was completed in 1942.  link to pics

Link to pics

North on 97 towards Ft. Nelson, BC On the way to Ft. Nelson I saw a black bear along the side of the road looking for food, we had to turn around so Darrel could see it too as I was zooming by. He turned the RV around and drove back and we didn't see the bear where I thought it was. Then it popped up and I was so excited, that the proof was right there, I forgot about taking a picture.  The next sighting (as we are calling them) was a white tailed deer.  Darrel took a couple of blurry pictures (my fault, I was zooming again). When we got into Ft. Nelson we stopped at the visitors center and chatted with the hosts. I bought a Ft. Nelson sweatshirt with a bear on the back. We were going to visit the Museum but couldn't find a place to park the RV. Next stop was the Blue Bell Inn and RV Park. The RV's park behind the motel where there are hook ups. Another weird spot but we do have wi-fi which we were starting to obsess about. links to pics

Big muddy field, campground Happy 7th Birthday to Avery! Thank you for the face-time this morning Jason.  After our chat we headed out of the Beatton Provincial camp site. Suddenly both our phones were working and we discovered that the trail head had poke gyms and stops. Who knew.  So of course we stopped and walked to the gyms and one stop. Since they were on the ski trails we didn't linger as I didn't want to run into the bear family. As we traveled north the weather got colder and colder. Our campsite this morning was a cool 46ºF. Further north at Blueberry, BC it was freezing wind and it started to rain. The temperature dropped to 38ºF. The road is paved and ok to travel on but on the side of the road is mud or mud and gravel. We stopped at Blueberry which has a couple of buildings on both sides of the road to get air in the tires. They had no air but the girl was friendly and of course we had to buy some hot drinks and junk food from her. ...

Lake Charlie Boat Launch/Beatton Windy and slightly rainy on the way here. We left our last campground earlier than our usual 11:30 or 12:00 departure time and arrived at Beatton Provincial Park, next to Charlie Lake, at 11:54. We even stopped at Safeway in Ft. St. John and got a couple apples and car window wash stuff. They were expanding their store and it was a mess. Most of the produce was ok, but very expensive and there was some moldy organic produce which I really couldn't believe they left out. We ate an early lunch in the Safeway parking lot and then drove about a half hour to our campground. After setting up, we discovered Beatton is closed as a campground in the winter, but used as a cross country ski area.  There are several trails next to the campground area that are cross country trails in the winter. The place gets packed in the winter and they have races and events here. We took a 2 hr walk (including a walk around the campground) and went in a loop on ...

This is the start of the Alaska Highway, so the campground called themselves Mile Zero. As you go along the highway you'll see mile posts as you continue to Alaska.  We read that the sites were sardined together but they had some space. If they planted bushes between the sites it would have been more private.  After Lake Elsinor these sites didn't seem that close.  They also have a Pioneer Village, where collectors donated stuff (log cabins from various locations and antiques from the same periods as the buildings) It lets you take a walk through. It's kind of like and old town with the board walkways. We walked for 3 miles (round trip) to get pokemon in Dawson Creek (Eva reminded us it was double candy day in Pokemon Land) and happened upon Mile 0 Pizza where we stopped and ate dinner. They have gravel everywhere here and we saw so many cracked windshields parked along the street. They wouldn't let you drive around like that in Calif. As we were walking at first I...

An Elk visited our campsite at Snaring Overflow link to pics

Lots of skinny log piles everywhere link to pics

Cache for furs and winter supplies link to pics

Mt. Robson link to pics

Mount St. Helens Today we drove north on 5 and east on highway 12 to a Thousand Trails campsite. One of the memberships we joined for the year. So it doesn't cost beyond the membership. We picked our site and put up a reserve sign on it and then took off through the backroads to get a closer look at Mount St. Helens.  It was about 1 1/2 hrs away. On the way we saw a Helicopter Ride to the volcano and began discussing the merits of taking a helicopter to the dome. We estimated the cost and was shocked a bit by how wrong we were. It was much more. After some debate we both agreed it was a lifetime event and went for it. It was unbelievable. We took lots of pictures. Now I want to get a pilots license. (ha!) Link to pics Video of explosion   not the video we watched but it gives you a snapshot Day 2 I was looking forward to taking some great pictures today. But we're back to overcast. I'm glad I took two at the campground entrance yesterday. They really have a grea...

Campsite 36 (Oisin our RV in the background) This park was expensive for a site with no hook-ups. They charge extra if you're from out of state. Our site was great though. The RV was parked next to the one way road and there was a short path to a glen area where there was a fire pit and a picnic table, with an area for a tent. It was very beautiful. We parked and biked over to the Mount St. Helens Welcome Center and spent a couple of hours there. We watched an incredible movie about the May 1980 eruptions and the months leading up to the explosive event. It really moved me. I walked around the center and read every display, feeling emotional about all the devastation.  We went outside the center which closed behind us and walked their loop trail. The trail goes out over a water area Loop trail at the Welcome Center by way of a wooden walkway that goes for about 1/2 mile. Kind of like the walk way at Big Bear Lake.  The water in this area is covered with miles of li...