We started our day at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre where the Adaka Cultural Festival is being held (June 30 to July 6). It was a unique experience. Various artists were displaying their work, demonstrating their talents, and holding workshops.
First up were the boats. Kayak.
Moose hide cargo canoe.
Birch bark canoe.
Dugout Canoes
Then, the finer skills:
And the smoking of fish.
Just $10 per fillet, the Arctic Char was well worth the price!
The fellow who sold us the fish had been taken from his family at age 6. He returned from the residential school at age 13, and conquered the resulting alcoholism 20 years ago at age 42.
We made two visits to the festival today. In between, we toured the sternwheeler S.S. Klondike.
Apparently, one of the items the Klondike carried was Pilsener Beer in 10 dozen pint kegs.
If you read the sign, you will understand that there were parts of the ship that Mardi wasn't allowed to visit.
But Bud was allowed to participate in one of the upper class activities. My friend Andy Hardy (a.k.a. Gary Parker) will appreciate that Quoits was played on the Klondike.
After leaving the ship, we visited Miles Canyon. The Yukon is navigable from the Bering Sea to Whitehorse. But upstream rapids (now dammed) held back the steamships from entering the canyon.
In the centre of the picture is a foot bridge which we walked across.
Yes, the bridge does sway. You can see the basalt columns along the river, the result of volcanic eruptions just 8.5 million years ago.
But, we didn't go much further.
It is a beautiful spot. The green colour is what we saw, but couldn't show in pictures, at Muncho Lake.
Today's Big Thing (not stupid) is a totem that represents the clans who reside in this area, e.g. bear, raven, wolf, eagle, etc.
All in all, a very interesting, but relaxing, day.
Tomorrow we enter Alaska, to help them celebrate July 4th.
If you wake up at 5 a.m. and can't get back to sleep, what should you do? Look for a moose of course! So Mardi did, and lo and behold Bullwinkle showed up!
Good work babe! Not centred, but at about 500 yards, and 63X optical zoom, it's hard to even find your target, let alone get it in the middle of the picture (I know, I could have edited it but that would be like rolling the ball to improve your lie - seems like cheating!)
To give you an idea of what Mardi pulled off, I took this picture later in the morning. The moose was at the other side of the river.
This is the view looking to the left from our cabin. This is a beautiful spot.
And this is a picture of the "airport" across the street.
The small sign at the right bottom corner of the "AIRSTRIP KEEP OFF" sign says "NO ATV's, NO HORSES, ON RUNWAY". The "runway" is between the blue wooden blocks, if you can see them, The runway is maybe just a good golf drive long.
After Mardi got the day off to such a good start, things could only get better, and they did!
Saw six black bears today. "Smokey" was the first. That makes seven black bears and one grizzly (the brown juvenile in yesterday's pictures).
And two Stone Sheep ewes getting their mineral fix of calcium carbonate.
Then a small herd.
And the Boss!
Next up came a herd of Wood Bison (bigger than the regular Bison, and just over 2,000 of them left in the world).
Each year, the Wood Bison in this area lose almost 10% of their herd as road kill. We counted 14 calves in just this one group, so hopefully they can stay ahead of the game.
We also saw three old solitary bulls (they don't join the herd until sex is mentioned). This guy was the best! Wouldn't want to challenge him!
You know you're on the Alaska Highway when your GPS tells you to make a right hand turn in 792 kilometres!
As we continue our progress northwestward through the Northern Rockies, each day becomes more awesome, and the accomplishments of the 11,000 army engineers and their 13,000 civilian counterparts (many indigenous peoples contributed to the project) in conquering the landscape becomes more incredible!
This is Muncho Lake. The jade colour doesn't show well in our photos. Many of yesterday's and today's pictures were taken under leaden skies, with haze, and between intermittent showers. The long days of sunlight also produce a weird kind of light that doesn't do pictures justice.
We crossed into the Yukon here. But the highway crisscrosses the B.C./Yukon border seven times before it gets serious and stays in the Yukon.
Next up was Liard Hot Springs. The seven springs that contribute to the pool start above this shelf and the temperature at that point is about 50C.
Temperature is over 40C at the camera end of the pool and 30C at the other end.
The temperature here is about 35C. Mardi conceded at the 40C level.
Today's Big Stupid Thing is actually about 80,000 things. Back in 1942 a soldier added his home city to a sign with Alaska Highway destinations on it. Others followed and then things got out of hand.
Rows upon rows. Unbelievable!
One final note. At 9:30 p.m. on a SUNDAY! night we legally bought a bottle of Canadian Club. They are open from noon to midnight seven days a week! Now that's civilized!
We're spending the day tomorrow in Whitehorse. There's a native festival three blocks down the street, then a visit to the S.S. Klondike, and whatever else we can find of interest. We head to Alaska the following day.
Woke up this morning to discover that a tick had attached itself to my leg during the night. Ticks in Northern B.C. haven't been found guilty of the Lyme Disease infection but we'll keep an eye on the situation for a few days.
Fort St. John's Canada Day parade wasn't to start until 11 a.m. so we headed out of town. Our thoughts this morning were with the men who died building the Alaska Highway. Just outside of town, on Charlie Lake, is a memorial to U.S. army members who drowned on May 14, 1942 while trying to take a bulldozer, barrels of gasoline, and other supplies to the north end of the lake. All of this stuff was placed on a "pontoon boat" which consisted of three large rowboats with a deck on top and flaps of canvas to keep the water from filling the boats. Half way up the lake the wind came up, waves reached three feet high and ended up swamping the boats. A local trapper rowed out through the waves, making three trips and saving a total of five men. Seventeen others drowned. The 17 posts surrounding the memorial each have the name and regiment of one of those who were lost.
We saw several of these oilworker camps along the way. Other workers also stay in the highway hotels.
I assume that my tick may have hitchhiked from the bush to the hotel on a worker's clothes.
The vistas today were awesome. Due to an even slower internet than yesterday I won't be able to share them all, but these views are a start.
We stopped in Fort Nelson and visited the local museum. Our personal guide was Paul DiMaggio, who, although he has lived here for 49 years, spent his school years in Cayuga, Ontario. He and Mardi knew some of the same people.
They have several vehicles which were used in the construction of the highway. Some of the museum's cars were in Fort Nelson's Canada Day parade. Cool!
This picture of outboard motors is for Roger (the Bassman). Also, note the albino moose in the background.
And this one for Barry (Sologill of Fishguts fame).
If you haven't stopped at Tetsa River Services for a cinnamon bun your trip to Alaska is a waste!
Note the sign on the pump below. Their price is $1.59 per litre. We paid $1.14 this morning and $1.38 tonight.
And now for the absolutely awesome part of our day.
The black blur to the left of the above picture is this guy.
They both seemed oblivious to the presence of our van. We watched them for about ten minutes as they crossed the road and went their separate ways.
We checked in to the Toad River Lodge and after carrying our things to our cabin, checked out the river (which we can see from our window). First we noticed a pair of swans.
And then, this young lady cavorting in the water.
We couldn't have asked for more today. A fabulous experience.
Except that we didn't find a Big Stupid Thing, so we had to create our own.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA!
