So here we are once again! We made it to Whitehorse, Yukon by 5pm today. Let me tell you a little about our trip thus far:

After leaving 100 Mile House on Saturday morning, I drove us through some of the most beautiful country we have seen in a long time. It was amazing to me how many abandoned houses and mini towns there were along the highway. We stopped for gas at Williams Lake, which was a very busy and bustling town. That’s when we switched drivers and Ernest took over driving. We made our way pretty uneventfully to Prince George where we stopped for supplies. We bought grapes, carrots, bananas, and toothpaste since we forgot that at home. As we departed Prince George, we noticed the gas prices were the same at EVERY gas station we saw! $1.179 per liter. Price fixing perhaps? As we found ourselves further north, prices quickly changed to $1.199 per liter. Again, price fixing perhaps? Or a freak coincidence? You be the judge.

We finally reached Dawson Creek, which is famous for being the Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.
We again stopped for gas, took pictures of the famous Mile 0 marker, and headed out of town to find our camp site. The camp grounds was in a provincial park, lending itself to the conveniences of outhouses (that needed some attention by the outhouse cleaners) and a spigot sticking out of the ground that sucked yellow-brown water out of the ground. Not to mention that from the spigot there was a lovely view of a swamp. Mmmm… Yummy! We set up our tent and put mostly everything from the car inside the tent. Then we set up the air mattress in the car. I know… roughing it, eh? We ate polish dogs, salad, and such and departed for bed after a nice evening of Bible Study. It was about 11pm and the sun had set itself behind a mountain, but still gave us some light to maneuver with.

Sunday we departed and Amy drove about 3.5 hours down highway 97. We drove through Fort St. John and kept going through a bunch of nothing (more ghost towns and abandoned houses) until we reached Fort Nelson. Fort Nelson is one of the most established towns in the northern BC province, and that’s not saying much. I would venture a guess that the town housed around 500 if that. We gassed up in Fort Nelson, stopped to see the museum (a GREAT museum at that… see the photoalbum link on the left of the page), and headed on our way. Along the way we saw a couple black bears, some caribou, and elk. Along a mountain side we saw a mountain goat as well. As we neared the campgrounds at Muncho Lake, we were stopped by an accident on the Alaska Highway. A motorcyclist lost track on some gravel and was hurt. We watched as the Medic Helicopter came in and took him away (all the while I was thinking “good luck getting the hospital to code that correctly on your medical claim.” My coworkers will understand). After traffic was stopped a good hour, we were on our way to Muncho Lake. When we arrived it was close to 7pm and the sun was starting to set. As we ate and got ready for bed, we did some Bible study, I did some cross stitching, and we took a nice walk along the shore of the blue-green lake (and the alluvial fan). By 11pm we couldn’t wait for darkness any longer and went to bed with the sky still as bright as it had been at 9pm when the sun first set.

We headed out by 9am. I started to feel quite sick as my nose and eyes burned, and my throat starting to sting at every swallow. My eyes would not stay open so I found myself in and out of sleep the entire day. Poor Ernest did all the driving himself! Anyway, we stopped at an overlook of some animal mineral licks [picture]. After that we stopped at the famed Laird Hot Springs. This is the one place where mosquitoes are not afraid of the anti-mosquito product OFF. We walked down a board walk through a swamp, all the way smacking our skin and batting the air. There were changing rooms (NOT mosquito free) and we lowered ourselves into the nice hot springs. After about 30 minutes of floating around in the sulfur-perfumed bathwaters, we got out and changed and went on our way. Ernest came out with no mosquito bites, but I almost needed a blood transfusion!

Not long after leaving the park, we came across a herd of buffalo, just hanging out around an abandoned homestead. Next came a herd of wild horses just chillin’ in the middle of the road. They didn’t seem to care if anyone hit them.

After long stretches of nothing, we arrived in Whitehorse. It is the biggest town we’ve seen since Prince George. We’ll rest tonight at this nice hotel and head out tomorrow for another camping adventure. Hopefully we will not take my cold with us! We’ll see ya’ll in cyberspace on Thursday (hopefully!).