Thursday, June 16, 2011

Rest Stop South Of Watson Lake

Thursday: (06/16) We didn't make much headway today. First, I had to glue up a recent extension to our windshield cracks. Somewhere around Dawson Creek we grew a 12" extension on the right windshield crack. It has two cracks, one about three years old and another group that have started to arise from a small ding that was in the windshield when we bought the coach and had been repaired with no growth for 8 years until a few months ago when it burst out with two fingers about 12" long and now a third finger. While that dried in the morning sun we enjoyed a nice breakfast of ham, eggs and home fried potatoes. We finally departed our camp at 10am, rather a late start. The intent today was to get up to Watson Lake, a little less than 300 miles but that didn't happen. We enjoyed ourselves too much. We stopped several times for a hunt for beavers (0), a hike to hoodoos (3), bear (3), bison (>40 with 10 calves) and stone goat (>10) viewing, and some information signs. Lunch was nacho chips supreme (chips, cheese, onions, beef, and salsa). Dinner was our shepherds pies that we picked up at M&M Meats in Fort St John yesterday. Quite good. The weather was nice most of the day until about 5pm when we had some good showers. For the last 40 miles of our travels there was gravel on the road due to chip sealing. When a group of three trucks passed us at well over 65mph cruising through a long patch on their side, even though I had stopped and pulled to our shoulder a batch of rocks hit the windshield and caused about 10 dings including one cup. When we stopped, I glued them up. Tomorrow morning when the sun has set the glue I'll clean the excess glue off and hopefully they wont run. I think I'll need to pick up a gallon of windshield glue for this trip?

Alaska Highway Beaver Pond, We Think
One of our searches for beaver brought us to this pond. No beaver seen, just a dam.

Alaska Highway Hoodoo North Of Summit Lake RV Parked By Hoodoo Trail
We hiked the Hoodoo Trail. There are three unusual erosion pillars which are different than most since they are mixed into the forest and on the side of an otherwise ordinary looking mountain. On the right is our RV parked on the road from near where the hoodoo in the left picture is looking down a steep wash.

Stone Sheep Along Alaska Hwy
A family of sheep

Alaska Highway Flower
Not too many wild flowers here in the North. Here are some photos of a few we did see.

Hoodoo Trail Flowers By Summit Lake Flowers Along Alaska Hwy
Some look like sweet peas and the one on the right above is called a rose.

Flowers Along Alaska Hwy Flowers Along Alaska Hwy
Some of the buds look better than their flowers. The flower on the right has great detail.

Wood Bison With Calves Along Alaska Wood Bison Along Alaska Hwy
Part of a big herd of Wood bison we passed through along the highway. There were at least 12 calves in the herd.

Bear Along Alaska Hwy Laird River 60 Miles South of Watson Lake Along Alaskan Highway
Lots of bears including the black bear above right. They seem to enjoy the taste of the grass along the highway. Above right is the Laird River 60 Miles South of Watson Lake Along the Alaskan Highway.

Rest Stop 60 Miles South of Watson Lake Along Alaska Hwy
Our campsite at a Rest Stop 60 Miles South of Watson Lake Along the Alaska Highway.
(GPS: 59.87593, -127.4052)

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