Liard Hot Springs to Whitehorse

We left Liard this morning after another wet night and a quick feet soak in the hot springs. We pressed on towards Watson Lake our last camping stop for the next couple of weeks. Yay! We saw many a black bear and buffalo along our drive. I had only half a tank of gas and even though the drive was just over 200km I wanted to stop at one of the few gas stations along the way. Now I use the term gas station very loosely as they are little more than small log shacks with one and if you are lucky two dilapidated pumps attached. Now one would expect the gas to be a little more expensive at these stops as they are 100’s of km apart and there is nothing else around. Well the one I stopped at today and drove right out of was $1.439 a litre, now this is not the most expensive we have seen. The last travelling day one gas stop was $1.839 a litre! Needless to say I risked it and continued to drive. We crossed the boarder into the Yukon and reached Watson Lake around 1230 and discovered, as we expected, there was very little there. We went to the sign post forest and posted our amazing sign painted by Bev and Erin prior to our departure, I can say without a doubt it was the nicest sign there! The sign post forest was pretty epic with thousands of signs from all around the world, we even found another one from Abbotsford. When we decided we were all done there the sky had again turned black and was threatening rain. Now I hate camping at the best of times and after spending the last two days camping in the rain I was pretty motivated not to camp. As we drove to our campground which turned out to be way outside of Watson Lake I managed to convince Devon that he really didn’t want to camp and instead drive another 400 odd km to Whitehorse and get a hotel room there a day earlier than planned. Success I convinced him with my uncanny powers of persuasion. We drove through Teslin and went to the local first nations museum and cultural center. I can say without a doubt the carved masks displayed were the best I had ever seen! We reached Whitehorse around 6 and drove around until we found a reasonable looking hotel. It turned out to only be $123 more a night than camping but I feel that a good night sleep is worth that and more. Now at this point we were starving and hit up a local pup, perusing their menu I thought to myself I saw buffalo all day I wonder what those tasty tasty looking animals taste like? So I ate one in burger form and as I thought it was delicious! Devon tried the fish and chips and so far nothing untoward has happened. The helpful waiter informed us that the beer on tap was out of service so instead we should order a bucket of local beer. Of course we took his advice and the beer was delicious but very very tiring. Now that we are a day ahead of schedule we can take in all of the Canada day events tomorrow including the duck race. Apparently they drop ducks off of the bridge and race them downstream. I am curious to see how this turns out!

Animal sightings – buffalo, black bear
Casualties – none
Km travelled today - 669







Map