roadquill1

At my last posting I suggested that we would be bringing our northern experience rains with us back to the lower mainland. Watch for it!

We had a couple of scary moments on the highway from Prince George towards Cache Creek. The first happened as we approached a sharp bend to the right. We were behind another truck and camper travelling south at 100 kph, when a transport truck came roaring north around the corner and halfway over into our lane. There couldn’t have been much of a gap between vehicles as we corrected sharply to our right. We made it.

The second incident didn’t involve us, but after climbing the hill south out of 100 Mile House, a police car with all lights flashing caught and passed us. A few miles later we came upon the reason – a pickup truck on its side with a large fifth wheel smashed alongside it in the ditch to our right. It was a shocking reminder of the sudden and horrifying consequences of loss of control.

We were happy to locate a gorgeous lakeside site at Loon Lake – about 20 km east off the highway just north of Cache Creek. We watched from our anti-gravity chairs as hundreds of small trout caught air above a very still lake surface – and did not bother them with fishing lures. No rain since Vanderhoof, and we finally caught up to some very warm weather.

On Wednesday, we had smooth sailing until we reached Abbotsford, but then something ahead of us stalled the flow, and highlighted how much we dislike travelling on the lower mainland! We opted for a side road through to Fort Langley. After an evening and follow-up morning of catching up on family news, we finally headed for home – with the weather forecasts proving that we were very correct – the rain will hit the lower mainland and Vancouver Island – big time – tomorrow. Although this area needs the big wet, I am sorry that I was correct in my prediction, and that it followed us – arriving on a weekend!

We are glad to be home. Since late August of last summer, We drove 10,020 km in the past 40 days, and saw an awful lot of beautiful country. In the past 12 months, we have driven approximately 27,000 km and have had the pleasure of sharing those long distances and incredible vistas with you – through Alberta, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, BC, Alaska and the Yukon! In that time, Sandy and I have spent 90 nights in Truck House – essentially one-quarter of a year! I appreciated your responses to my notes, and hope that you will continue to follow our travels – whenever, and wherever they take us next.

Much love and appreciation to all, and please stay in touch!

Sandy, the Quilter, and Tony, the Quill

ps I lost track of the number of quilt shops that we visited…all for good cause!

Dear family and friends,

We are looking forward to arriving back on the lower mainland (Fort Langley) on Wednesday afternoon. Although we had no expectations of seeing anything new on the way home, we were surprised a bit just before we arrived at Mezziadin Lake Campground. On two separate occasions, we saw black bears near the edge of the road. At Mezziadin, we lucked into a waterfront site, in no rain conditions! We hauled out our anti-gravity chairs, and began to enjoy the quiet bliss of the water view. However, before long the dropping temperatures drove us inside.

As Sandy prepared supper, I read, and when she placed a plate in front of me, I made the first mistake of asking, “What is that?” (I actually meant it as a reasonable question, as I recognized it as a quinoa salad with cut tomatoes, cucumbers, and lettuce, but it didn’t look as if there were any meat in the supper preparation, so, “What is that?” was meant as a short form of “Is there more?”) My second mistake was in repeating the “What is that?”, and probably putting more emphasis on “THAT”, than I should have. The icy glare that resulted chilled the salad even more, and I should have taken the hint, but I pushed my luck by asking, “What about meat?” The cold leftover meatloaf wrapped in tinfoil landed on my plate with a thud. After pleading my case, and commenting on how delicious the meal was, things returned to chummy, and we were able to move on.

After supper we opted for a stroll around the campground, and near the entrance way to the campground, I suddenly heard a fair bit of rustling in the dense bushes about 3 to 4 meters from me. We both stopped and watched for a few minutes, but the rustling got very active, and suspecting a black bear, we moved to the far side of the road. A couple of grunts later, we were assured that it was indeed a bear, and we moseyed (at pace!) a bit further down the road towards our campsite. I wanted to linger to see it, but I didn’t have my camera, so we headed back to Truck House, where I grabbed my camera and Sandy donned running shoes. (She thinks she can outrun me!)

Back up the hill, the rustling had stopped, but we crowded the edge of the road overlooking a ravine, and watched in awe as an almost adult grizzly slowly ambled away from us, pausing every few feet to test the air, and flick his ears. WOW! And I had originally planned on seeing if I could get closer. Some days, you really should take your anti-stupidity pills!

Grizzly suspects we are watching

Grizzly turns to check on our presence.

Oh, and just to continue the theme that has been running through most of my recent blogs…Yes, we had rain yesterday, during the night, and again today.  We also hear from a CBC forecast this afternoon that was discussing the weather conditions in the south. The announcer said, “Yes, we are going to see a change in the weather by the weekend.” We both expected her to follow up with, “…for, you see, Sandy and Tony Dobson are expected mid-week and bringing the cooler, wet air with them.”

New day: Tuesday, August 25… This morning, as we pack up to leave River Side RV Campground in Vanderhoof, I can report once more that our theme holds, and rain fell often during the night and the prediction is for more showers today!

Love and best wishes as always to all of you!

Sandy, the Quilter, and Tony, the Quill

p.s. As penance for my Mezziadin stupidities, I have agreed to another quilt shop visit in Prince George today.

A left-leaning church in Dawson City – the way it was meant to be!

Robert Service cabin

The Carmacks boardwalk on the Yukon River

Carmacks – looking north in the morning

“Twas on the marge…

“…of Lake Labarge…”

Hilary and Tony meet again – in Whitehorse

The dam at Whitehorse and river kayaking obstacle course

Hilltop above Whitehorse – looking southeast

Whitehorse riverboat

Yukon wilderness changes colour as summer heads south.

New blog to follow…

Tony, and Sandy

On Thursday morning, we had one last stop before we departed from Dawson City, and that was to pay a visit to the Robert Service cabin. Sandy’s father, Wilf, could recite a number of Robert Service poems, and he would have loved to see that spot.

Luckily, though the sky was still overcast, it was high cloud, and we had no rain between Dawson City and Carmacks – our Thursday night stop. Carmacks had its history, like Nanaimo, in coal mining. The Yukon River flows powerfully past the town, which has a hotel, a small community on one side of the river, a First Nation community on the other, and a wonderful wooden walkway along the south side of the river. We found our RV parking site behind the hotel, and then trod the length of the walkway. A planned “Asian Buffet” at the hotel turned out to be a noon-time show, so we disappointedly ate à la carte.

On Friday, we had a short run (less than 2 hours) to Whitehorse. The day started out with fog to our north, and clear skies and chilly temperatures as we headed south. (At one point the temperature was down to -1C). We passed several beautiful, long lakes (actually, widenings of the Yukon River, I believe). Each lake that we passed had its own fog bank hanging over it. The first two were Little Fox Lake and Fox Lake, and then…

We came to the marge of Lake LaBarge, where we turned to our left to admire,

And stepped out of our truck to try our luck at finding the site of the pyre

Where Sam got heated, and thus the cold cheated, as he burned to a crisp in the fire.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun…!

Enough Robert Service? I think so!

By 10:30 we were in Whitehorse under clear skies, and after stopping in at the Visitors’ Centre, we booked our spot at Hi Country RV, and drove back into town to explore, and to meet an old friend of mine from my Vancouver days of 40 years ago – Hilary Preston (née Deasley). Hilary took us on an extended hiking trip along the Yukon River past the dam, up to a scenic hilltop view, and back along the east side of the River to the paddle wheeler where we were parked. Later, we joined the Prestons (Hilary, husband Tim, and son and grandson, Jon and Scotty) for supper at their lovely home. The walk was the best exercise that we have had in some time, and the supper was awesome!

Since the forecast for today had accurately called for more rain, we opted out of spending a second day in Whitehorse, and after acquiring groceries, fuel and propane in the rain this morning, we headed south again towards our Saturday stop at Boya Lake with fingers crossed for a pleasant evening.

The fall colours are beginning to show, and the reds, of the fireweed, combined with the yellows and golds of the aspen and cottonwood, amidst pine and spruce dark greens are striking. I tried to take this photo in sunlight, but the sunlight might be more rare than Yukon gold! As the summer heads south, so must we!

We almost got the “pleasant evening” part, but as I write at 6:00 this evening rain is once again rattling on our tin roof, and I should also mention the other sound…thunder, as we sit in the same campsite that we held several weeks ago (in sunshine!) Hang in there folks, as requested, we are bringing the rain with us. It should be wet by Thursday or Friday when we arrive back on the lower mainland.

Sunday: We are at Dease Lake at the “Northern Lights College”, where we have access to the internet, however, it is a slow connection, and so I must leave pictures out the blog notes this time. The good news…overcast, but no rain today!

Much love and best wishes to all, and we continue to enjoy your comments and emails!

Tony, and Sandy

Dear family and friends,

We made it over the highway from Teton Junction on the Alaska Highway through to Chicken, and then onto its continuation past the Eagle turnoff onto the “Top of the World” highway to Dawson City ferry crossing of the Yukon River.

View from “The Top of the World”.

Parts of this highway were quite brutal with ruts, potholes, washboard, and always – mud! From Chicken to the turnoff to Eagle was the worst, and that was followed by brand-new pavement to the border crossing. From there to Dawson City the road was mostly good gravel, but still very muddy. By the time we arrived at our RV site in town for the night, Truck House had become disguised as a rather boxy mud-pie! Eight dollars later, we had spray washed most of the muck off, and once again looked respectable.

Road paint from “Top of the World”

We are still in that weather system that provides gloom and showers – sometimes heavy. We are sure that some of the viewpoints on the “Top of the World” highway are truly spectacular, but we could only imagine. Fog was also heavy at one point, but we were able to see and experience the vastness of the “Chicken Fire” that occurred in 2004. For miles, and several hours we were within the fire-ravaged territory, and we began to get a shocking concept of the 1.3 million acres that burned!

The “Chicken Burn” of 2004

Trapper cabin near summit at Top of the World

Looking north into Yukon from “Top of the World”

We did stop at Chicken, and were directed to a cafe that featured baked sweets. Unfortunately, a cruise ship tour bus (where did it come from???) beat us there, and we had to join the crowd in line before getting a superb and huge cinnamon bun. This was about 10:30, and became our sustenance until supper time.

The Tour Bus hits “Chicken”

The “Chicken Poop”

Dawson City is an intriguing view into our gold-rush history. Some of the original town has been preserved – in the original – decaying and sinking into the permafrost. Other parts look original but are reconstructions.

Permafrost gradually lets buildings down

Last night, we took in the Diamond Gertie Casino show. It was entertaining, but Sandy and I voted it second best to the Barkerville Revue that we watched several years ago with the Lindsay and Mjaaland families. (The Barkerville performance by brother-in-law Lars was much superior to the “volunteers” at last night’s show!)

Today, hopefully in sunshine, we will stop at the Robert Service cabin, and then begin our trip south. The magnet of home begins to pull, and weather has caused us to shorten our itinerary considerably.

We are continually grateful for all the comments, and the emails. Thanks to all!

Love and best wishes to all!

Tony and Sandy