My Day 13 - Jeep Expedition Arctic

My Day 12 – Jeep Expedition Tour

This morning the expedition left the town of Watson Lake and slowly made our way towards the town of Whitehorse, Yukon territories. I say slowly because at every bear sighting, national or otherwise historic spot we stopped.  I sighted a moose out in the middle of a lake from quite a distance and called it out on the ham radio that I borrowed this morning from Woody.  We all stopped to take pictures of the moose that must've been a good mile away and about 2,000 feet below us.   

Watson Lake is what is called Yukon's Gateway.  This is the place where Frank Watson; after not making it big in the prospecting department found his way here and then settled down by marrying a local woman.  Watson lake also had their gold discovery at nearby Dease Lake in the 1870's however, it was more known for the gold-rush stampeders heading ot the Kondike. 

Watson Lake will forever be known to me as the place where I lost my jeeps gas cap after filling up.  I somehow became entangled with the 20 feet or so of fill hose on this pump while at the same time multi-tasking as I handled a truck sized two foot squeezee that I was using to clean my dusty, dirty mosquito encrusted windows.  

Yes, dear, I did drive off without placing the gas cap back on but, in less than twenty minutes I had a another one.  Miles later when I realized oh crap - no CAP!  I recalled seeing a trucking outfit - I said, what the hell.  I stopped and immediately saw this blonde woman with a nose piercing slouching on a chair, feet spread all apart.  She spotted me and gave me a rather who the hell is this guy in a red jeep type of look.  I immediately broke her down with witty charm as I told her I did a very, very, very stupid thing.  She then smiled and said wait right here.  She then came out with a rather large cardboard box full of gas caps.  She said see if one fits.  I did and found the exact one made for the Jeep Wrangler.  I asked how much?  She said, nothing.  I thanked her and then parked my jeep almost on the middle of the street so that the approaching expedition could see it and stop at my location.

Locals are great in that they tell you local stuff like for example.  This family located in Watson Lake the nose piece of a US B-26 Maurader bomber airplane that was believed to have been lost in 1942.  It was in 70 feet of water so the family reported what they found to the government (everyone including the Air Force).  After receiving what they thought were mixed messages about recovering the nose piece they decided to do the salvage themselves.  Apparently what they recovered was the WWII Bomber known as the Flying Prostitute.  The wreckage has since been confiscated back by the government.

Another local told me about how back in 1966 how he first started visiting the Liard Hot springs that the expedition visited yesterday.  He said that when a military piece of equipment became bogged down they just drove over it and then used it as fill.  He said that a local found a D-9 tractor buried in the bog and that it took him a little while to remove the fuel, change the plugs and add a battery.  He said that this thing that was left in the bog for all those years (1942) was able to fire up after a few tries.  The guy then drove it right out.  Sounds a little fishy but hey, or I should say 'eh who the hell am I to question any locals historic lore.

I am now doing my laundry at 9 PM and as I look out it is still totally day light like it should be around 5 PM.  The expedition had dinner earlier and then departed.  I stayed back and tomorrow will continue on my own journey towards Dawson City.  We may or may not hook up at a later date - stay tuned.

Just now I also learned that I am only 112 road miles to Skagway.  This is the place that is really a backpackers delight.  From Skagway goldminers embarked on a trail known as the Chilkoot trail.  This 17 mile trail very much doable and a good place to improve upon my gold-rush history.   Will let you know tomorrow if I start making my way down there or truly end up with a zero (NO DRIVING) day like I want to and need to.  

I now also just came across a DVD that John gave me earlier.  This DVD is titled Alone in the Wilderness.  I have the book at home and remember reading it from cover to cover because it was so easy to day dream about also getting dropped off in the wilderness, building your own cabin and living out an adventure.  

Laundry took quite a bit to get done.  Step 1 - Get change.  Here they call they $1.00 loonies because that is what is on one side of the coin.  Next step assemble the clothes.  Step 2 - find change.  Step 3 - Go back down to get the soap.  Step 4 - Wash clothes.  Step 5 - Move clothes to dryer however, dryer takes different coins.  Step 6 - Is it dry yet?  

That is all for now.  

Trawlercat

(PS:  Thank you John for that graciously paying for everyones dinner tonight - and for that DVD that I am about to enjoy)  See you on the trail.    

Enjoy the pictures.  

Trawlercat - Out!