We woke up in Whitehorse to Day 7. We were accompanied by a lot of other cool rigs that looked like they had put on many road miles as well. Laura was excited to see Canadian Tire, which she had heard about from a podcast she enjoys; The rvcanucks. She even shared the moment with Mini Stevie- A temporary travel companion we have that we are supposed to pass on to someone along our journey. (I’d explain it more- but it would ruin the surprise for the receiver of Mini Stevie later. 😂)
Inside the store Laura got a kick out of the “meat” topping pizza, and that in Canada it was called an “Americana”.
I took my first shot at figuring out the running light issue, but after a go of problem solving I came up empty handed for now. I’d have to try at it again later down the road… 😔
Afterwards we drifted our way to the local public park, where we put in our first park workout for the trip! Out front we checked out a pretty cool metal sculpture called “Raven’s House”.
Once we were ready for the road we headed out for a really long drive to Watson Lake.
We hadn’t expected much to be there, it was honestly just a destination point; but when we rolled in that night we were pleasantly surprised to park next to the very interesting Sign Post Forest.
That night we actually figured out how to “Netflix and Chill” while on the road!
On Day 8 we mixed up our morning coffee and wandered the Sign Post Forest. Travelers from all over had pinned, hung, and stuck mementos to show they were there from all over the world. From signs, to pie tins, to hubcaps, to hats and shoes people had literally placed anything they could find to commemorate the moment. We went ahead and tagged a few un-intrusive spots with our own custom stickers and markings as well! 😉
The visitor center right by the forest was awesome- offering all types of amenities and a handy dandy road mile guide we heavily used when we ran into out of cell service areas.
Next our goal for the day was Liard Hot Springs, where we intended to stay the night. Along the way we got to view lots of wildlife; many bison as well as bears and elk.
Along the way we ended up having to stop for gas, and for the first time in my life my gas was pumped for me. Honestly I felt a little bit spoiled along with guilty about the whole thing. 😏
While we were there we picked a small amount of junk food that we had heard Canadians love; ketchup flavored chips. I really thought they were going to be gross, but in the end they were pretty good!
A bit further down the road…
…We stopped to check out a natural phenomenon that the Watson Lake Visitor center had highly recommended; Whirlpool Canyon.
During the melt the bend in the river overflows and gets caught in an overflow area where the water swirls around before rushing back into the river on the other side of the bend. We took a video so we could show you how much debris in the river gets caught up in the whirlpool!
We enjoyed a tasty lunch at the canyon before we decided to push on to Liard Hot Springs. The springs were really beautiful and well maintained. Surrounded by rainforest and marshes, we wandered the boardwalk until we came upon a very busy and multi-tiered hot spring area.
When we settled into the water I looked up to see a familiar face across the pool. I totally thought I would be wrong- but low and behold it was Brian Anderson and his family that I had known in Homer! They were driving a bus up to Alaska and we happened to land in the same place at the same time!
We spent a few hours at the springs before we decided we would go ahead and try and cover some distance towards Dawson Creek. The drive times where already taking longer than we had anticipated due to The Ohana being slow but steady; so any time we could play catch up would be highly appreciated later. We began the trip enjoying passing lots of Bison.
Eventually we climbed high into the Rocky Mountains, where we viewed the gorgeous waters of Muncho Lake. Later we climbed ever so slowly and reached the highest point the Alaska Highway goes into the Rocky Mountains at Summit Lake. During the climb we came right upon a ram on the road.
Along the way we also viewed a few elk and deer. During the trip we came across a gas station we had been banking on, that was closed for the night. It was very “pay to stay” so we voted to continue on to a nice pull-off spot and tap into our gas can for the very first time. When we stopped at the top of Indian Mountain I emptied the can and we enjoyed the amazing view. That night Laura whipped up an ever so tasty dinner and celebrated her first batch of ice cubes she had made on the road.
The morning of Day 9 we awoke to construction equipment operating right outside. During our morning routine we decided we would try and make it all the way to Dawson Creek that night, which would put us a whole day early ahead of our schedule!
After another very long distance we arrived at Fort Nelson. Where we had the tire pressure and lug nuts checked, as well as fueled up, dumped, and replenished our water. The visitor center there was extremely helpful and the dump station right next door was very well laid out.
Next was hours of pushing on through mountains and high winds, so the going was slow. We gassed up at the top of Pink Mountain, where we were finally welcomed with the beginning of consistent cell phone reception.
Continuing on with another long push we came into the city of Fort St. John. As we neared the city we noticed the fauna in the area had changed. The mountains where no longer rocky and jagged but were more plateau shaped, and the forest had turned into rolling farmlands. For the first time in our travels thus far- the climate no longer looked like Alaska at all!
Past Fort St. John was a crazy huge bridge with an 8% massive grade uphill just past it. At the top of the hill there had been an accident, so as we waited the flagger had a very nice chat with us. It turns out people die all the time on the crazy steep hill, and Canada is looking to remedy it. It was just humorously candid how she explained it to us, like it was a completely normal occurrence. 😲
After the wreck and many more ups and downs we finally sped down into our goal of Dawson Creek, putting us officially one day ahead of schedule!
We camped up in the local Walmart for the night, where we where approached by another overlanding vehicle. Here we met fellow traveler Ferenc Elekes. He was on his third massive campaign of travel, heading through Canada to Alaska, and then all the way down to Argentina! They were driving this really sweet Italian model van (an Iveco that I had never heard of before) but was really a beautifully set up rig! If you’re interested in following Ferenc and his very kind wife- check them out on Youtube at:
youtube.com/Overlandsite
We wish them the most wonderful and safest of travels out there in the world!
Well, that’s the gist of our big journey for the last few days. I’ll update again soon as we approach the top end of the Lower 48 of the United States!
Geoff Murphy 6/9/2022
Sweet! Nice update. It’ll be fun to see more than mountains and forests. 😜😁🌻
Will update soon! We definitely did!