Day 12 - Part Two - Toad River and Watson Lake

Back on the road after lunch!

We crossed into Yukon Territory!  We are a long way from home!

We also had another Sasquatch encounter.  Apparently his vehicle was out of gas.

Back on the road to Contact Creek, YT.  We need fuel.  Full service was $1.09 a litre.

We also spotted these bears along the road.

First and only one we saw like this.

On to Watson Lake!

Approaching downtown Watson Lake (really all of Watson Lake)

Watson Lake is known for it's collection of signs.  Signs put up by travelers!  Originally it was signs put up by the road construction crews.  Since then it's been added to over the years.  Spend a few minutes looking at all the signs.  They are from everywhere.

 Janice, Kay, and David among the signs.

 Unique black sign

 Where we've been and where we're headed, sort of.

 Even the Universe gets in on the act!

Among the many signs are also old road equipment left from the 1940's

We decided to do some shopping at the local department store before going to the campground.

We did take in a great show that told about the Northern Lights.  Unfortunately we will not see them on this trip.  There is very light darkness here even this far north.  David and the dog have no trouble with it.  I'm using a sleep mask.  I wake up in the middle of the night and remove the mask.  I think we've overslept every time.  You can read without a light and you could probably drive without headlights on.

Campground here...what can I say that would be good about the campground?  NOTHING!  It was all gravel with some hookups.  The manager/owner had to be kin to Archie Bunker.  Attitude!  About dark we began to hear drums pounding.  ALL. NIGHT. LONG!  Drums and yelling.  Seems like the local First Natives in their early twenties decided to hold a powwow.  We couldn't call the authorities because our phone didn't work.  We listened to yelling, drums, and noise all night.  Didn't get much rest.  Didn't leave a favorable review for this campground.

The apartments here at the end of the campground is where the powwow was taking place.

Mileage:  3,959

TTFN!

Jenny

Day 12 - Part One - Toad River and Watson Lake

50's, Sunny

We started out with a squished bread breakfast.  Somehow it got mashed down into a small place.  Still tasted good!  We managed to pull out at 7:30 a.m.

We've been seeing these signs a lot.

We  haven't seen any of the critters since the first few days in Canada.  The battle over buffalo/bison rages on inside our truck.  David:  "It's bison."   Jenny:  "It's buffalo.  O give me a home where the BUFFALO roam."  David:  "It's bison."   Jenny:  "It's buffalo.  O give me a home where the BUFFALO roam."   BISON/BUFFALO  BISON/BUFFALO.  On it goes, even today!

After seeing them, we passed this sign:

They are quite large.  We've seen them chasing people in Yellowstone and had one charge our truck there.  We have a healthy respect for them.

Kept seeing signs for caribou all through Canada.  Don't believe we ever saw any of them here.

Bear! Bear! Bear!  We began to see them coming out of the woods (no pun intended, literally coming out of the woods!

Those three were the same bear, different shots.

And there were more buffalo!  They were in camo.

We decided to stop for lunch after all the animal excitement.  Next stop was Toad River Lodge.

 It was located at Mile 422 of the AlCan Highway.

David was driving the sled.

 Chrissy and I decided to say Hello from here.

Toad River Lodge is known for one thing - hats!

Over the years, people have stopped here and left hats.  Hats. All. Over. The. Place.

We didn't remember to bring one and didn't have one to leave.  Not sure where we would have placed it even if we had one.

Lunch for me was a buffalo burger.  If you really know me, you know I won't try new foods.  I did here and loved it.  Loved it so much I talked them into selling me four patties uncooked to take with us.  YUM!

David tried a slice of Bumble Berry Pie.  What is bumble berry?  It's three different types of berries mixed with rhubarb.  Not sure I would have tried it, but he did.  His experience on this piece of pie was not much better than the last one.  Not a homemade pie, either.

There were signs all around the place as well as hats.  This one caught my eye!

Because of the long post for Watson Lake, I think I'll end here for now.

TTFN!

Jenny