June 11th, 2007

When we arrived in Fort Nelson last night the ever courteous Canadians had a welcoming committee of their (and Alaska's) state bird do a fly by and then swoop down to give us their personal greeting. Millions of mosquitos descended on us with their own version of 'how the bloody heck are you?' followed by a chorus of 'we'll see for ourselves'. Nasty little creatures.

We drove up past Lake Muncho, above. Barely a dot on the map but beautiful and huge. It rained on us most of the day so the pictures aren't great.

We saw a mountain sheep (photo by Frank) you'll have to zoom in to see it. Also saw buffalo. I didn't know that they ranged this far north, and we only saw them in the highway apron so speculation is that they are an experiment on keeping the apron clear the natural way. I saw two black bear but couldn't get stopped soon enough to get the camera out. We had traveled 325 miles and deciced to call it an early day in Watson Lake because we were ahead of schedule in catching up to our friends. Hold on there Buckwheat. Watson Lake was like a "gathering" of Brides of Chucky, Reject Elvis impersonators and Deadheads in the Deliverance Hotel and we were the guests of honor. Strangest place I've ever been and Frank agreed. It didn't take much for us to agree to move on. On the way to Whitehorse we came upon this produce truck laying on it's side in the middle of a bridge (photo by Frank). Can you say: yes we have no bananas.

The mountains , rivers and valleys of this part of the Alcan hwy are quite a contrast to the part nearer to Fort Nelson and Dawson Creek. Very little traffic and room to run. We arrived in Whitehorse at dinner time after another 600 mile day. We found our friends having dinner and they were very surprised to see us. We weren't due to meet up with them for two more days in Anchorage. Frank and I just wanted to get the hard running over with as soon as possible and glad we did. Besides, we really did not want to tarry in Watson Lake or you may have never heard from us again.

Whitehorse is well into the Yukon and has a frontier feeling to it. You can certainly tell that we are getting way north as night time does not get very dark. Thankfully all our rooms have had blackout curtains. Tomorrow, into Alaska.

Oh, one more story about mosquitos. At one of our roadside breaks yours truly had to relieve himself. So, off the side of the road down near a lake I go and start unzipping. I've got so many clothes on because of the rain and cold that I can't really see the business at hand, so to speak. Just as I get started a mosquito as large as a small vulture starts heading for you know where. As he (had to have been a 'he' with some kind of complex) dissapeared down there I began to panic. A mosquito bite there would potentially be devastating to not only my health, but ego as well. Like a little boy out to redecorate the bathroom walls I started gyrating and spraying around determined to shoot down the invading nemesis. With all those clothes on I'm sure I looked to passing motorists like the Pillsbury doughboy having a siezure while his hands are superglued to his privates. I am proud to say that the evil creature from the north did not achieve his dastardly goal, although I cannot say with certainty that he met his fate as a result of my sharpshooting skills. Evil creature the mosquito be.