18 May – Getting into the wilderness

We woke up and ate breakfast in the Toyhouse today.  Departed Pine Mountain about 8am. It was a high overcast and cool.

Since entering Canada, we’ve seen a lot of oil and gas drilling activity, it seems like every town we’ve went through, that’s been their main industry.

Even on the Alaska Highway, its been oil and gas, up to about Ft Nelson, and then it seems to quit.

We’re definitely getting into the wilderness. We’ve seen a lot of wildlife out near the road, Several medium sided Black Bears, Elk, a small herd of mountain goats, and a large herd of bison. I thought we were going to have a collision with several bison when they started running down the road and doing improper lane changes lane changes beside the Toyhouse (we were doing about 2 MPH as we passed through a herd of bison).

If you like Mountains, streams, and nothing, you’d love the Highway. Summit Lake still has ice on it, a very bright blue ice and crystal clear water  (It doesn’t show up on the photos very well)

During one stretch of drive, we hadn’t seen or passed another vehicle in almost 30 minutes.

We stopped at Laird Hot springs for the night, we walked back to the wading area, about 1 kilometer, but decided not to go for a swim.  The water was definitely hot and had an odor of Sulfur.

It started raining lightly after we set up camp.  So, I took some time to make sun shades for the roof vents and door window. These let in a lot of light. the farther north we get, the later the sunset and earlier the sunrise.

Rather than cook dinner in the Toyhouse, we walked across the street to the Laird River Restaurant, They just opened for the season and had a limited menu, but we were able to sit back and enjoy a good meal.

So far, with the exception of last night (we had electricity last night) we’ve dry camped every night, no water , electric, or other connections. Good heat from the furnace, plenty of light from the LED lighting, the 1500 watt inverter, for running the microwave and coffee percolator, has been running OK with no need to start the truck engine.

Mileage  >>  346  Averaged 14.6 mpg today.

John & Jodie

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