AROUND - Canada 2022 & 2023

  2022 June 18 to 26   We had covered the road from the Dempster Junction to Stewart Crossing, and from there to Carmacks, on our way north, so this was familiar ground. We did visit Ethel Lake to camp one night, which we had vaguely expected to be a deserted lakeside campsite, given the distance from the highway on an unsurfaced track, however it proved to be jammed with humans and mosquitoes.        From Carmacks we had chosen to take the road to Watson Lake via Ross River, with a side trip to Faro. The difference in traffic was surprising – many travellers on the Alaska Highway, and very few (and almost no bikes) on this highway. It was in good shape, albeit mostly unsurfaced, and it was really enjoyable to experience the scenery as we headed east.        Faro was quiet – a town built for a mine which is no longer operating. We found our way to the Mount Mye Sheep Centre although saw no sheep, and we explored the road to the mine seeing three porcupines

  2022 June 8 to 18 We had looked forward to this part of trip for various reasons, including Alan’s interest in visiting the places he had worked many years ago. Uncertainties associated with this highway included the weather, and impact of the weather on other uncertainties, the state of the road, and the timing of opening of the Peel River and Mackenzie ferries. It has been a cold spring, not that there’s been much spring, more of a transition from winter to summer with no intervening period. In the days prior to heading north there had been snow, and later a blizzard south of Eagle Plains which had closed the road. The ferries, which in the last 15 years had opened in early June, with the latest opening having been June 10 th , were still closed on the 11 th . Gathering information on the state of the ferries was not easy. Our decision leaving Dawson City was to head for Tombstone Mountain campground and check with the Interpretative Centre there before he

  2022 June 4 to 8   We arrived at Kathleen Lake campground and that evening walked down to the lake, with snow-capped mountains as the backdrop to a tranquil expanse of water. In the morning we returned to the lake, this time spotting a beaver, beaving in the water. We then headed back to Haines Junction for good coffee at the Village Bakery, then north along Kluane Lake. At Thachäl Däl (or perhaps Thechàl Dâl’ – the signs showed both spellings) Visitors’ Centre we were pleased to see Daal Sheep high above us on the mountain crags. We continued to the excellent Kluane Museum, then south again Destruction Bay and Talbot Arm to Soldiers’ Summit, where there’s a short walk to a viewpoint over the lake. We saw another Grizzly on the way south to Rock Glacier Trail where we walked up to another viewpoint, then to Dalton Post and finally to Million Dollar Falls campground, where we camped with the sound of the falls below.   On the road Kathleen Lake  Heading north Tha

2022 May 24 to June 4   From the cannery we returned to the highway then headed east, back towards Terrace, where we took the Nisga’a Highway northwards, with stops at Kitsumkalum Lake, Tumbling Creek, the “Lava Flow”, with a 20 min walk to allowed limit on the lava, bringing back memories of lava flows in Iceland, then the Drowned Forest, Beaupre Falls, and Vetter Falls, finally reaching the Nisga’a Lava Campground, which was a lot more comfortable than it sounds. In this area we saw black bears frequently, and this continued as we went north. The highway is relatively light in terms of traffic, and there is a sense of being remote, which is good.        This is Nisga’a country, and there is a cultural centre to the southwest of the campground which is reported to be excellent. We headed to the centre, calling ahead to confirm that it would be open, given our experience so far that visitors’ centres and cultural centres were closed in most cases. We were ple