Day 34

July 2, 2017

Wow, what a start to our day.  Slept in (for us) got away at 9:00 AM but we were not last.  Shortly after departing we saw our first bear (black) and he entertained us for several minutes.

More bears.  We saw 9 total.

Bison caught our attention so we stopped for them too.  The group had three new calves, two twins. 

More bison.  We saw 12 total.

Along side the Trout River and  the Liard River provided some wonderful views.  

The fuel station we depended on for a fill up was closed (permanently) so we drove on to Contact Creek where we found diesel fuel.  This is the point where the construction of the Alaska Highway from the north and the south met and joined up to complete this wonderful engineering marvel.  The couple that owned the Contact Creek Lodge with fuel said they work year-round as in the winter the customers are the trucks and the Air Force personnel leaving Alaska for new assignments, most with U-Haul trucks and trailers.  They discounted our fuel 2 cents/liter because of our name tags showing the company sponsoring our tour.  Neat!  Arriving at Watson Lake we checked into our campground, Baby Nugget RV Park, all on dirt but with water and electric with a dump station and RV wash station.  We did not attempt the Unity but did attempt to wash the Fit so we could see out the windows.

At 3 PM we drove back into Watson Lake to visit the Sign Post Forrest where our tour folks had prepared a plaque to hang with all our name on it.    This place was started in 1942 by a homesick soldier and now has over 50,000 signs.  We had a few photos here.

A visit to the Alaska Highway Interpretive Center featured a film about the build-up to and the construction of the Alaska Highway as a war effort for WW II.  Then a short visit to the local supermarket that was quite good.  Back at the campground we had a briefing for tomorrow’s activities and then back to the Unity for our dinner and to bed.

We also saw a red fox trotting along the side of the road toward us but by the time we saw him we were past so no photo.  61 degrees this morning and a high in the afternoon of 72.

143 miles today.