DAY 16 OF OUR ALASKAN ADVENTURES

We decided we had better "top off" our fuel. Fuel is becoming scarce to find along the road and distance between big cities(I say that loosely) is further and further. We pulled into Fast Gas in and had to pay our highest price yet - $1.19/L or $4.54/Gal. We are going through fuel like "water over a dam". Yesterday, we only managed 5 mile/Gal because of all the up hill climbs. We’re purchasing around $100.00 of diesel/day. Holly Shit, Batman"!! I don't know how these truckers can stay on the road. $150.00 just this morning and that did not even fill the tanks. I took a picture this morning, looking from our 5th wheel, at the North End RV Park. Notice the sunrise, the SNOW, the MUD. It was 38 degrees - a regular heat wave - and there were 5 tenters braving the elements, while we were toasty and comfy in the 5th wheel. I would not recommend this RV park to anyone. High dollar for just sewer, electric – no water – not to mention the facilities! The Mile Post warned us (lots of red notes) that we were traveling on narrow, rough, winding roads with steep grades when leaving Fort Nelson. This section of the road winds through the Canadian Rockies for 200 miles. We saw 2 moose and a herd of buffalo along the left side of the road, just on the outskirts of Bob had to drop our speed down to 45 mph because of the frost heaves and potholes. This section of the road was really beaten over the winter and it was very, very bumpy. I did manage to snap a few pictures (on the fly) of the of the Muskwa River Valley, Steamboat Mountain and Indian Head Mountain. We came over a rise in the road and Bob yelled "Moose, Moose in the road", but by the time I turned the camera on and managed to get focused and steady, the moose had headed into the trees along the side of the road. I took a picture any way, unfortunately, he does not show up that well, but if you look just right, you might catch him. We hit our first section of gravel road and it rattled or teeth when we first hit it before Bob could slow down. They never give you enough warning in advance of these little changes. We hit paved road once again, however, the road seemed to be getting progressively narrower, windy and desolate. We constantly saw large footprints in the snow along the side of the road.
We stopped for lunch in Muncho Lake. Boy, the picture in the Milepost sure painted a better picture than we actually saw. Judy took over the driving after we ate and the road went to complete S_ _ t – barely wide enough for two vehicles and bumpy as hell. Sure glad we put new tires on the 5th wheel before we left AZ. There are numerous warnings in the Milepost to watch for Moose, Stone Sheep, deer and buffalo. From Muncho Lake to well past Liard Hot springs, a distance of 75 miles, we saw tons of buffalo crap along both sides of the road. We finally got to see a Stone Sheep and several herds of buffalo. What a thrill to us Yanks who don’t see things like that often. I suppose the locals aren’t too happy with them sh_ _ _ing all over everything.
I drove for 3+ hours and I hope that Bob has kept up his part of the blog. It is 315PM and is actually very warm despite all the snow around us. We have on long sleeve shirts and are both too warm. We are hoping to reach Watson Lake this evening. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, on this section of the road as far as fuel or camping. We have driven through some magnificent country and there is no possible way that we can take enough pictures to show it all. We crossed into the Yukon Territory at 330PM from British Columbia and pulled into Campground Services for diesel (second fill up of the day) at $1.029/L. It took 172.012/L of diesel. It’s killing me! We had planned to stay at the RV park over night, however, it was under 3 feet of snow and we were told that “spring was just a little late getting here”. We headed into Watson Lake and parked at the Downtown RV Park for the night. It is pretty much a parking lot with sewer, electric (no water yet here either). We ran into 3 other rigs here that were parked at the 2 previous RV parks with us. It seems we are all “hitting the brick wall” and stopping at the same places at the end of the day. We just had a couple pull in next to us who are heading to Seward, Alaska to work camp this summer. He was not too encouraging about the road from Haines to Tok – the next few days should be interesting!