May 21 and 22 Yukon Territory on way to Alaska

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Saturday, May 21, 2011 Watson Lake, YK. Starting mileage 8032. 57 degrees and very overcast.

Last night when we walked around Wye Lake we could see the ducks on the other side of the lake—of course. We did, however, see a pair of red-necked grebes in the water and a northern shrike in the top of a tree. He sat and posed for Valerie for quite some time.

After disconnecting and getting ready to go, we drove to the other side of the lake and spotted a bunch of loons, but they were out in the middle of the lake. After scanning around the lake, I located a pair of horned grebes. These were fantastic looking birds, and as are most birds we have seen at this time of year, they are in their breeding plumage. We walked down the trail to get closer to the ducks and grebes we could see over to the side and startled a red squirrel who made such a racket that the birds all flew away across to the other side of the lake, of course. So, gave up the effort and walked back to Rosie II.

We then drove a block to the visitor’s center to look at a film on the building of the road with some history of Watson Lake and to the Sign Post Forest which was built around the visitor’s center. The Sign Post Forest was started by a homesick Army GI in 1942. He posted a sign pointing the way and stating the mileage to his home in Clinton, IL. Others followed his lead and now there are over 10,000 signs. We took pictures of our Rosie II sign there and will put it on a pole when we go back through this town on our way back to the US. This is why we had it made; to leave it there.

We then drove out to the airport. Watson Lake was one of the stops in the route from Great Falls, MT to Russia for transporting planes and supplies during the Land-Lease program, to help them fight against Germany during WWII. The really neat original airport building, built in 1942, is still used for air traffic out of this town connecting to Edmonton, Alberta---a lot of sea planes also land on the lake.

A few miles out of town, we went down a dirt road to Albert Creek bird banding and monitoring station. What a GREAT treat for us!!! A three-person team was sitting out in the open at a table banding the birds and we could walk right up and watch them work. They had previously netted the birds and had them individually captured in cloth sacks. One man was recording all observations and one man was supervising the work and acting as the expert/double checker on various issues. The woman would take each bird out of the sack and band it on the leg with a pair of special pliers, then blow on the chest feathers to gauge the amount of fat under the skin. She then measured the length of the wing, and finally stuck it upside down in a paper tube to weight it. We watched them do about 15-20 birds, most of them tiny warblers. One robin surprised us when he came out of the sack. She held them out in her hand so Valerie could take pictures of them. They band about 200 birds a day.

We then began an almost boring ride through the huge forest of ugly trees, passing many ponds and over many very fast rushing creeks. Then we began to climb and climbed right up to the continental divide, but this time the water runs to the Arctic Ocean on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other side. Snow, snow and more snow still left on ALL the mountains and on the ground here and there.

Arrive at the First Nation community of Teslin Lake over a long metal grated suspension bridge. Found a campsite on the lake with 4 other Trekkers. Had dinner and wrote this up while Valerie worked on the pictures. No wifi, as this campground is a Yukon provincial park for $12 a night---no hook-ups either. Lake still has mostly a frozen crust but it is not solid with lots of cracks and areas that have melted completely.

Sunday, May 22, 2011 Teslin Lake Provincial Park. Starting mileage 8226. 44 degrees with a light rain falling.

Since the Teslin Tlingit Heritage Center did not open until June, we left camp and did not go back into the town of Teslin. This town has one of the largest Native populations in the Yukon Territory. We will have to see it and their museum when we come back through in July.

We drove along Teslin Lake for quite awhile as it is a long thin lake, 187 miles long and averages 2 miles across. Because we are running several days ahead of schedule, we decided not to take the cut off to Carcross and down to Skagway as we had originally planned, but to continue on up closer to Whitehorse which was about 100 miles away, and hang out here for a couple of days. We had expected to see it on our way back, as we are in a stretch of road we will travel again going back down before we cut over toward the Pacific Ocean going along highway 37.

We checked out a couple of small, not so interesting, Provincial Parks and just kept going until we pulled into this one about 30 miles south of Whitehorse. It is absolutely full of campers with the three day holiday. One young man camping with a soaking wet and leaking tent saw us drive by, and waved us down, to tell us that his mother was coming to get him and his girlfriend, and if we wanted to pull into their spot we could have it shortly. So we did, as it is a nice level spot, in the pine trees, looking out over Marsh Lake.

Still raining , so glad we are not in a tent like many here are. Had lunch of leftovers made into soup and declared it a down day. Valerie took a nap and I read a book while watching the fog on the lake came in real thick and then go away. Saw a red squirrel right by Rosie II, which is the usual squirrel color for this area. He looks exactly like the chatterbox that warned the ducks at Wye Lake. Had chicken thighs, winter squash, and red potatoes for dinner. Damp, cold feeling tonight and the heater is clicking on as I write this. Think we will drive into town to see about a wifi spot—maybe at the welcome center. Don’t want to lose this spot—but maybe we will find a regular RV place in town for Monday night.

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