Teslin, Nugget City, and Deese Lake

8/4/17

 

Today is a travel day from Skagway to Teslin for an overnight stay only.  We unhooked the tow car so we could pull the 8% uphill drive out of Skagway a little easier.  It really didn’t seem as steep as we expected.  At the top, we passed through Canadian customs OK, and pulled over at the immediate turnout to re-hook up the Jeep.  We were on the same road that we came in on, so nothing new to explore.  The drive through the canyons above Skagway is absolutely beautiful.  This is Teslin Lake.

Teslin Lake

The area is scattered with lakes throughout.  They call it the ‘Southern Lakes’ area.  We tried to find a breakfast stop that I took notes on at last nights’ Wagonmaster meeting, but it didn’t exist, so we went a little further down the road and pulled over in a turnout and had our lunch instead.  We didn’t see anybody else in our group, so on to Teslin.  We arrived at the campground and bought gas, then settled in for the day.  I read for a bit and Tom did laundry.  We both had naps.  At 7:00 we met up with the group at the Wagonmaster meeting for driving instructions for the next day, then the tour people served us root beer floats.  Actually, Tom and I had not had dinner yet, but we had the root beer floats all the same, then we went home and had our dinner.  It was OK. 

 

It really feels, with less than a week left on our tour,  like the group is winding down.  We are all tired and ready to head home. 

 

 

8/5/17

 

Today is another travel day.  We travel from Teslin to Nugget City, an area near Watson Lake on the same road we came in on.  Yesterday and today are both overnights, and there isn’t much to tell.  We left the campground at 9:00 and stopped around 11:30 for a nice breakfast at Rancheria Falls Restaurant.  We were here at the beginning of the tour, and the food was good.  Also, this is the stop where we met the young people who were biking solo all over the continent.  The breakfast was excellent again.  Maureen and Jenny showed up after we had ordered, and they joined us.  We had a nice visit.  I bought two more small banana bread loaves on the way out, and I didn’t forget them this time. 

 

Pete and Cindy and their dog, Milo arrived at Rancheria Falls as we were leaving.  Milo is a mix of Great Dane and Shepherd, and a beautiful, easy-going mannered, dog.  Penny really likes him.

Milo and Penny

 We only had about 60 miles left to the campground at Nugget City campground, so we took our time.  We arrived at 1:15.  Got settled, then Trish and I walked up to the front office/gift shop.  There was a restaurant there also and I found out that they had good BBQ ribs on the menu.  I think that will be dinner tonight.  We wandered through the gift shop, and I only bought a sticker for the coach that says, “I drove the historic Alaska Highway—Canada-Alaska”, and a key chain for Vince (who said he liked key chains).

 

I stopped and visited with my Tom and Tom and Dorothy Young at their coach.  I really enjoy their company.  John came over and told us that one of his horses was running in a race at 4:50, so I invited us all to go over to their coach to watch the race – John and Mary said, ‘OK’.  It turns out that 5 of us showed up at John and Mary’s at 4:50 for the harness race on their outside TV.  Their horse was a beautiful 3 year old, and came in 5^th in the race. 

 

At 5:30, we met with Trish and Bev and walked up to the restaurant.  We had BBQ ribs and they were great.  The owner, Linda, and her husband ran the gift shop, restaurant, and the RV Park; but, they took over from her parents, Gwen and Don Lee, who built the whole place.  Gwen wrote a book, “Rivers of Gold”, about how they came to the Yukon as gold miners and settled here.  The book is all about their lives here in the wilderness.  They sold the book in the gift shop, so I bought one and took it to the restaurant to see if Linda, their daughter, would autograph it.  She said, “Come with me.”  I followed her through three back rooms of the restaurant to a private dining room, where her entire family was sitting down and waiting for dinner.  Her mom and dad were there and were more than happy to sign my book.  I also talked for quite some time with Gwen, who is now 87, and Don, who is 91.  They were a lovely couple.

 

At 7:00 we met at the Wagonmaster meeting.  One of our couples, Donna and John,  had ‘pressing matters’ at home and were leaving the group tomorrow morning.  Our next 2 stops are pretty rustic, so I don’t expect any internet. 

 

 

8/6/17

I am thinking a lot about my sister, Vicki, as today would have been her 67^th birthday. She passed away 5 years ago.  She would have loved Alaska.  How does time pass so quickly?

 

Today we travel to Deese Lake.  We left the campground at Nugget City (21 miles west of Watson Lake), and headed south on Highway 37 (the Cassiar Highway).  This is a brand new road.  It was built in 1972 to connect Watson Lake to Stewart, BC.  It is a narrow, curvy road with narrow bridges, no shoulders, steep upgrades and downgrades, and some construction.  Even with all of that, it was a beautiful drive, through large canyons with steep mountains (many with glaciers).  At the beginning, we saw the remnants of a large fire (78,000 acres) in 1958. The trees were coming back, but even after almost 60 years, you could still see the devastation.

 

We stopped at Jade City Store in Centre City  because the Wagonmasters told us that they had free coffee and free Wi-Fi.  I got on the Wi-Fi, but it was so slow that I sat there for ½ hour and only got 2 pictures down.  I had to give up on getting out anything on the blog.  However, I did get an email out to my family to let them know that we have been traveling for 4 or 5 days without any cell service or internet, and it looked like it might be another couple of days before we got to any signals.  I hoped it would be in Stewart, BC.  I didn’t buy any jade, but I did find a cute pair of pink earrings for one of my granddaughters.  Here is a glacial river (that is why it is so brown – it is full of silt from the glacier) called Istuk River.

Istuk River (glacial)

 We arrived in Deese Lake, bought gas before we entered the campground, and got set up in our new site.  I saw several of our tour friends gathered at Cindy and Pete’s rig, so I joined them and enjoyed visiting with 6 of our group.  Tom joined the group a little bit later.  At 5:00, we gathered at the pavilion in the campground for nachos and margueritas.  It was really more food than I expected, and I got filled up.  Tom was still enjoying himself with the guys and he had another drink, so I left and went home.  Tom came home around 6:30 after 3 drinks, and flopped into bed with his boots on.  I stayed up and read and Tom never got up.  When I went to bed, he got up long enough to take off his boots and went back to bed.