On the ALCAN Highway heading back south

The famous ALCAN and we are riding it. We wouldn’t make it all the way to Ft. Nelson so found a lodge/campground about 100km east of Ft. Nelson. However, before leaving Watson Lake we had to check out the Signpost Forest. The forest reflects the international attraction the Yukon and Alaska hold with travelers coming long distances to see this part of the world.

Rolling hills and a seemingly endless road start the day. Not more than 20 minutes into the ride and we see a bison rolling around on it’s back on the side of the road. We encounter bears, more bison, and Stone sheep along the way. We eventually make it into the mountains again passing unusually green Muncho Lake, winding our way through the valley with light to minimal traffic. We may pass the occasional RV or car but otherwise we ride as if the road belongs to us. The road is rough and often times there are no road markings either.  Although we don’t ride that far by most riders standards it’s still a long and exhausting though beautiful day.  Constant vigilance, checking the road ahead for potholes or other problems as well as scanning the sides for wildlife take their mental toll so we are happy to pull into the Tetsa River Lodge at 16:00- our campground for the night.

This is a new kind of remoteness. Things you take for granted like, I don’t know, electricity are not brought in by a utility but rather generated on site by a noisy and smelly diesel generator located, of course, just across the tenting area. Tenters in general don’t get much love from RV/campgrounds, planted either on the main road or wedged somewhere into a remote corner out of sight to hide the grungy occupants ;-). According to the campground website the electricity is shut off between 22:00 and 5:00 which I assumed meant no generator. Wrong, the damn thing ran all night :-(. Diane said it felt like we were part of an experiment being pumped with subliminal messages of some sort all through the night.

First time we drank our morning coffee and ate breakfast in the tent. Not because its comfortable but rather to escape the hordes of mosquitoes. Yes, we have and use bug spray so they may not land or bite but they still swarm you, buzzing your ears, getting in your face, being a nuisance. We got tired of swatting so we went into the tent. I was able to practice phrenology on Diane’s head due to all the mosquito bites and the new dimensions they added :-).

The campground tagline is that it’s the “cinnamon bun centre of the galactic cluster” making fresh baked cinnamon buns daily. Of course, Diane had to partake. Since we don’t normally eat these, we had nothing to compare to but we were both rather “meh” about it.

Todays route.