After flushing our water in New Hazelton on Friday, we eventually got back on our way. We drove until it got late and we eventually settled at a pullout on Eddontenajon Lake, just south of Iskut, BC. It was a gorgeous still lake. We met a couple there from Belgium who had been traveling for eight months, through Mexico, Guatemala, and now Canada. It was a really peaceful place to stay for the night.
We drove 317 miles that day.
On Saturday we stopped for breakfast at a Cafe in Iskut, but the cafe wasn't actually open. Just the convince store which we thought was the cafe. It was confusing. They didn’t know the password for the WiFi that was advertised on the side of the building, which was half of why we stopped but at that point we were committed. We also got a kick out of the fact that the convenience store was playing a country radio station from Spokane, WA over the internet.
As we continued, we were excited to make the transition from Highway 37 to the Alaskan Highway. Unfortunately, about 10 km from the junction, we heard a pop and pulled over. We had blown our first tire! The outside tire on the rear driver side was completely worn down and had split. We decided we could make it to the junction on the bad tire. When we got there we ended up just give GoodSam roadside a call. We had a jack and a spare but we didn't really trust our jack and weren't sure about how to jack up the back of the RV. They found someone in Watson Lake, YT for us to come out and put on our spare, which was nice because shortly after we got there it started raining. We got our tire changed out and followed the guy into Watson Lake for a new spare. On the drive to Watson Lake, the rain started turning to snow and we were thankful for the luck involved in where we blew the tire. Any further out and we may have needed to hitchhike our way to the closest payphone. We spent some time putzing around Watson Lake, which was a cute little town with one main street, trying to figure out why the tire blew and wondering about whether we’re causing uneven tire wear because of our load, or if we needed another tire to replace the one next to the one that blew out. Those two are the oldest tires we have from the receipts we received from Darlegne when we bought the vehicle. We decided to drive a little further to Moreley Lake, BC — the road dips back into BC for a bit going west. There we had to share a camp spot with a couple in a van who also had a dog that Aiden didn’t really get along with, so we did not get much of a chance to talk with them. We tallied 363 miles, including a 21 km detour each way to Watson Lake.
On Sunday, we set out to make Whitehorse, which we did pretty easily. Whitehorse is the capital of Yukon, with a population of about 25,000 people. It’s pretty clearly run on tourism and the RV parks have a pretty heavy influence on the politics there. Everywhere in town had a no camping or overnight parking sign. Even the Walmart enforced this no camping policy. The town itself was quite cute though. It’s right along the Yukon River and had a cute downtown area that reminded us a lot of Bend, OR. We ate at a bar called the Dirty Northern and were happy for some meaty burgers after a week of pasta or beans and rice. If it weren’t for the blistery winds, we may have payed up for a campground too, but we decided to push on. We bought a new jack in town and we wanted to replace the other tire that was getting low on tread the people in Watson Lake thought we would be fine until Fairbanks and all of the tire places were closed since it was Sunday. We settled at a pullout along the Alaskan Highway next to Marshall Creek. The long stop in Whitehorse means we only drive 227 miles.
Monday morning, as we were eating breakfast and getting ready for the day, an older gentleman, John, and his grandson showed up at the creek to try their luck at fishing the creek. Turns out John has a son who lives in Eugene, so we shared a short chat before they decided to try another fishing spot up the creek. He offered us a cup of coffee if we decided to come back that way and stop by their house just around the corner from where we stayed. Hopefully we'll get a chance to take him up on it. We headed out shortly after they did and made it to Haines Junction before our first stop. There we saw signs for the Village Bakery, which seemed like a quaint place to stop and have a bite to eat. We stopped and worked on the blog for a little bit before continuing on to Alaska! It was an adorable shop but unfortunately their internet was really poor.
We made the border in the early evening and got to add a new sticker to the RV map! At the border, we did unfortunately lose 5 oranges that we had bought at a Walmart along the road, but we did get a dog treat from the border guard, so Aiden came out on top on that one.
We drove a little bit further before stopping at the Tetlin National Wildlife Reserve campground for the night. It was another very peaceful and free site that had about 6 sites, a lake and a photography blind. It was a very peaceful night and a lovely morning walking to the blind and just watching the wildlife for about 20 minutes.
On Tuesday we woke up and drove another 277 miles to Fairbanks, which deserves a whole post of its own.
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