Day 35 (June 19). Into the Mountains

From: Fort Nelson, BC

To: Watson Lake, YT

Miles today: 321

Total miles: 8336

Fort Nelson, British Columbia, is another town that had its start as a fur trading post, this one in 1805.  (It has been relocated several times.)  When the US became concerned during the Second World War that Japan might invade Alaska, Fort Nelson – which by then had a small airport – was used as a base of operations to build what is now called the Alaska Highway.  Today it still an aviation hub for points further north, and a major stop on the highway and thus a tourist stop.  It is also involved in the oil and gas and timber businesses, and is home to about 5000 people.

The choice for the location of the Alaska Highway is clear from topographical maps; the Rocky Mountains take a bit of a break here; the pass at Summit Lake is “only” 4248 feet in elevation. This explains the necessity of my long detour yesterday to reach this road. I rode it all day today, and despite the relatively low elevations I was very impressed with how rugged the terrain is. This was an engineering marvel in 1942, and continues to be one today as it has been converted to a fully-paved all-weather route.  It rained off and on for most of the time today, and it was cold enough that I broke out my jacket liner and heavy gloves. There was some traffic, not just trucks but also tourists like myself, some even on motorcycles. I saw quite a few large animals by the roadsides today, including more bison and these sheep.

Sheep along the Alaska Highway in British Columbia.  (Don't call them goats!  Those are completely different!)

Some of the route cut through Provincial Parks, but most was not.  This was interesting because from time to time what appeared to be “towns” on Googlemaps would pop up, which sold gasoline, some basic food supplies, and usually had a motel with TV and WiFi.  These buildings were very rough looking, like one or a few guys put the whole thing together themselves, but I’m sure they worked exactly as advertised.  I bought gas at two of them; I was never below half a tank. There are no fiber optics here, but satellite TV and satellite internet are available.  My new way of telling these functional outposts from “real towns” is the presence of cell phone service.

I also passed many striking views of mountains and rivers.  Here are a couple of shots.

Left : Muncho Lake.  RIght: Incredibly blue water.  One sign said "Not Potable."

I got to the town of Watson Lake, Yukon (back across the 60^th parallel – no big sign this time) around dinner time. Watson Lake is smaller than Fort Nelson, around 1500 people, but it has two actual attractions that make it a tourist destination in and of itself.  The first is the “Signpost Forest,” basically a park on the main road through town (the Alaska Highway) that has hundreds of wooden posts planted in the ground in rows that have signposts and license plates attached to them by people from all over the world who have passed through. One source of information said that there were more than 75,000 signs posted there.  I think it’s full; I didn’t see any empty posts anywhere. 

The other thing Watson Lake has is the Northern Lights Centre.  This is a state-of-the-art planetarium, or rather theater where you can watch Nova-like movies projected on a dome while sitting in a reclining chair. I was in time for the last show of the evening, and watched a double feature on Black Holes and the Northern Lights – the latter being the main attraction for me, since I am in the land of auroras, but at the time of year when it never gets dark. I was one of six people at this show, the rest being other tourists who were spending the night there.  Did I mention I ate dinner in a Chinese restaurant again?  It was one of about three choices in the town that I saw. 

Watson Lake is also where the unpaved Campbell Highway splits off to the north for Dawson.  This is the route I will take, and I am planning on taking three days to get there.  We’ll see how that goes!