Sunday July 29th 2018
We had a nice cozy night at the Hidden Vally B & B in the Blue Room with its two twin beds and as I anticipated the two dogs and myself would only use one. Slept well again and naturally we were up by the very late hour of 5:30 am. It was a bit of a challenge getting myself dressed, and the dogs down the stairs and out the door to pee (I did remember to pee in the house though I could have just as well used the woods as I have doing in the night and first thing in the morning while camping). Of course Kili had to join me in the bathroom as his loud bark at my abandonment of him for all of 1 minute would wake the whole household. I think we actually managed to not wake the other guests.while tromping down the stairs. We hung out on the first floor by the kitchen, drank coffee and Kili begged the whole time JoAnn, the woman managing the B &B, cooked breakfast. He smelled people food and would not eat his dog food. i took the dogs for a walk and then parked Simba in the car so I did not have to carry him up and down the stairs again while I packed up. If I had let him wander in the house he would probably find the basement stairs to fall down. I was packed up and ready to go before breakfast and went through the now very consistent routine of getting Kili to leave his newly established home! Breakfast was served at 8:00 so I also put Kili in the car so he would not be hanging around the table begging and pestering all the guests.
We were off by 9:00 am to find a real grocery store in this real town!!! Once I resupplied the lunch food, got ice, coffee and gas we were off to Snag Junction – back to camping.
Generally speaking the Alaska Highway is in good condition but the further north I got there was more road damage, bumps, dips, gravel breaks, and sections where the road had heaved significantly due to thawing and refreezing. It probably goes without saying but I will anyway. The scenery got more beautiful and mountains higher and more rugged than the days preceding. Once heading north out of Haines YT, the Alaska Highway bordered Canada’s Kluane National Park and Reserve to the SW and the Insling Range to NE and in the distance several peaks sported long glacial fingers crawling down their crevices. I decided that if we were to engender mountains I would see them as female — they are so awesomely beautiful, extremely varied and colorful, they are bold and strong, they have curves and bumps and rumps, and teats, and tits and nipples etc. They could not be male as there was not much in the line of phallus unless you count the thousands of fir trees adorning the slopes.
An exceptionally beautiful area was Kluane Lake. From the first glimpse at the Boutillier and on through Destruction Bay and Burwash Landing, the waters shimmered and the many hued mountain slopes makes for an idyllic ride. It is the largest lake in the Yukon. Fireweed lines the highway in many many areas. I have commented previously on the scarcity of services and on closer look, the population of most of these town identified on the map is less that one hundred. And they are mile and miles apart. Just re-supplying food and gasoline is a challenge according to one shop keeper. Additionally most of them have a historical significance either as a trading post, grew out of the building of the Alaska highway, or popped up in the era of the Gold Rush. By now road conditions are only fair continuing so we were undulating, rolling and bumping, and jostling over frost heave areas and many spots of construction to repair seasonal damage. I have read that this area was one of the toughest sections to build due to the nature of the glacial soil and the lack of suitability for road embankments. Further on down the road were great views of the Icefield Ranges of the St. Alias Mountains.
The intention was to stop for the day at Snag Junction Yukon Government Campground. It was a delight small campground (15 sites0 overlooking a lake. I was able to get a lakeside site and we set up and settled in for the late afternoon and evening,
Uniquely Theo 