ARRIVED IN THE YUKON!!

MARGA INJURED!! // SHOT BEARS // BLOW OUT

July 14, 2009, Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada
The Liard Hot Springs early this morning had a heavy steam mist, like some kind of mysterious fog in a horror movie. The temperature was some 106 degrees and is an all natural mix of cold mountain river water mixed with hot water from the earths crust. The water fall, some three feet high, provided a gentle massaging of my back, and the minerals provided a softening of our skin. The water was about waist deep so kneeling down was a normal posture unless you found the underwater bench allowing the full experience while sitting down. It was just 7:15 in the morning and it had been daylight already for several hours. The gentle breeze and sulfur smell of the hot spring caressed the body and the soul. Sulfur is a rotten egg smell that can stay with you if you don’t shower after the hot springs, but I did not care about that and no one else did.

Marga especially liked the hot springs, both last night and this morning. She badly hurt her ribs and shoulder when I had to stop suddenly for a red light while she was standing up in the RV.. My speed was quite slow, but nonetheless she flew crashing on top of the dashboard of the RV in severe pain. For some time we were concerned she had broken one or more ribs. This all happened on July 12th , Jennifer’s birthday, and over the last two days she has been managing the pain with pain killers, slowly feeling somewhat better. This pain is likely to still be with her long after we have returned to L.A., a real bummer for our vacation.

Bolstering her spirits have been endless wildlife along our trail. She has shot many pictures of black bears, a wild herd of some 50 to 100 bison crossing the road; moose, caribou, and deer. One very large black bear we saw some 100 feet up a hill actually ambled down the hill toward us to within 50 feet as both still pictures and movie pictures were taken nonstop.

Let me give you a sense of our voyaging through Canada on the 1,500 mile Alaska highway. It is a two lane road, almost all paved and of good quality for any kind of vehicle. Pine trees boarder the road on both sides, but some 100 feet or more from the road on each side. We have been speculating as to why all trees have been cleared away from the road for such a wide swath away from the road. Is it to create a large fire barrier between trees on one side of the road to the other? Or is it to allow us to see wild life long before they want to cross the road? Or is it to provide a very wide area to allow small planes or helicopters to land on the highway? Or is it to allow snow plows in the winter to plow major amounts of snow to keep the highway open in the winter? Or is it all of the above? Anyway, since we are mostly traveling though the pristine Canadian Rockies, with snow capped mountains, and pure invigorating air, we can fully appreciate the fabulous scenery every moment and not stress over road conditions.

Of course RVing does have its challenges. Some 45 miles after we left Ft. Nelson day before yesterday, Ralph and Trudy’s motor home had a blow out on their right inside real wheel. Since there are two wheels on each side of their RV we were able to turn around and travel back to Ft. Nelson at a very slow 40 mph. Fortunately, in this really small town there was just one left of exactly the tire that was needed and we were on our way the next morning.

I can not emphasize enough how much we have continued to be in the wilderness. There are almost no towns. Then we have lost all cell phone use, even in the mall towns. Today we have even begun to loose our Serius radio. Consider if this blow out took place 100 or 200 miles from no where. Yes there is a spare, but who wants to try to change a tire, that is the inside tire, on a vehicle as big as a city bus? Not any of us.

Rain, rain, and more rain has been with us for most of the last week. Our elevation in the Rockies has varied from 4,000 to 7,000 feet and at the higher elevation the rain was like a car wash. No water spots on the windows. A beautiful clean RV at all time. There seem to be no impurities at those elevations. However, below 3,000 feet it is a different story. Our vehicles look like they have been in the dirt road Paris to Dakar road race. Millions of bugs cover the full front of our machines, heavy dirt blocks off our ability to see out of the back window and we are constantly scraping and cleaning windshields to carry on the next segment of the trip.

Arriving in the Yukon Territory today was a major milestone. We are now in Whitehorse if you want to look at map to see where that is. Also, if anyone want to Google why the some parts of Canada are called Territories and others are called Provences I would appreciate it. The Yukon Territory begins at Latitude 60 degrees north and so this has been an amazing event to have reached this far north. To reach the Arctic Circle we will just be going another 7 or so degrees north.. Tomorrow we cross over into Alaska….with many exciting places in front of us.

Tonight we ate at the Klondike Restaurant and had musk ox meat and lots of fine beer. Our 400 miles today took 9 hours and we were ready for this treat. Jim and Nancy were celebrating their 43 wedding anniversary and treated us all to this feast. It is now 11 pm and my cigar has long ago gone out and the mosquitoes are eating me alive outside our RV. It is still daylight of course, even this late….lord know when dark will come.

I miss all of you so much and only wish I had a big enough rig to take you all aboard like I do on the boat. I love you all.

The adventure continues……

Some numbers: Driven so far from L.A. – 3,225 miles;
Driven so far from Ralph & Trudy’s house – 1,979
Driven so far from Canadian/U.S. boarder – 1,885
Most recent cost of diesel - $3.48 per gallon
Cost of fabulous RV park in Whitehorse - $20.00 with full hookups and services: showers, computer room with WIFI, etc.