During the night the rain starts washing most of the mud from our previous days journery from the Jeep and the back of the motorhome. Today we leave the main body of Alaska and cross back into the Yukon Territory. Our plan is to visit Dawson City before traveling down the Cassiar Highway in British Columbia to Hyder Alaska as our final point in this Alaska visit. It is with a bit of sadness that we leave this part of Alaska. We now see why many people continue to come to Alaska year after year.
We hade several highlights of the day, one of which was seeing a moose near the highway in Reflection Lake, Mile 1128 of the Alaska Highway. She had two calves that ran into the woods, but we got pictures of the mama. Not long after that in another lake we saw two swans a-swimming -- with their babies (swanlings?) swimming between them. So beautiful! With binoculars, we saw a large brown duck swimming with four or five little ducklings behind. So cute!
The other thrill was to discover that the horrible washboard we drove coming in, and were dreading, had been repaired to freeway-like smoothness. As we were coming around Kluane Lake, we were stopped for construction and the flag-lady confirmed that it had recently been taken down to washboard. She explained that they spread rocks, then crush, then put seal coat (that is oil) for the top surface. Seeming so knowledgeable about the process and appearing to be student age, with tongue in cheek, Wilma asked her if she had to have a college degree for her job. She said all she did was take a $1000 first aid and safety course, but that some have to have degrees to run the heavy equipment seen here.
She is enjoying the job, talking to the people, and has learned how to keep her legs from getting tired from so much standing -- by walking, stretching, and when possible -- sitting in her lawn chair in the middle of the road. She will soon resign to go with her parents down south to visit her grandparents before entering college to study nutrition. South? "Well," she laughed, "that is Alberta."
We agree that the highway department does a nice job of putting red flags where the dips and bad frost heave area are, and we appreciate it, so that we can slow down.
We end the day at Hi Country RV in Whitehorse. They have a coin operated RV wash, where we give the Jeep a good going over.
Walldog, Willie and Jake
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