Yukon Ho!

More animal sightings; we’ve seen dozens of caribou and buffalo/bison (not sure which; guidebook says bison and warning signs along the road say buffalo).

We’ve made excellent time and are now in the Yukon! We’re sitting at an RV park somewhere on the way to Whitehorse and “borrowing” a wireless internet connection we found that belongs to someone nearby named Rick. Thanks Rick!

Tomorrow we have a 300 km drive to Whitehorse, where we’ll likely stay for the rest of the day, and the next day we’ll reach Dawson City, our final destination!

So far the drive has been spectacular. Amazing mountains, caribou just wandering in the middle of the road in packs of 2 to 6, strikingly blue mountain rivers and lakes, and more extremely remote highways. We’re learning a lot about the construction of the Alaska Highway (which we’ve been travelling on since Fort St. John) and I can’t imagine having been a pioneer forging the way here, breaching the northern Rocky Mountains on foot or on horseback. It’s hard enough to drive this route, and we have hotels, restaurants, and RV parks to take a break in…it would have been a rough life, but I’m sure those people had amazing experiences. The pictures of the mountains here were taken from the truck as we drove at full speed. I think I'm getting good at drive-by shootings (ha ha).

We almost had a truck towing a big trailer hit us head-on earlier today. He was driving towards us normally and then jerked violently towards our lane and back again, and then seemed to have trouble regaining control of his vehicle. The road looked fine and we couldn’t figure out why he did that – maybe he was falling asleep? We both got a big adrenaline rush from seeing him coming towards us like that, and I think Mark was ready to put our truck into the ditch in order to avoid a head-on collision. Whew!

We also saw another pickup truck towing a large travel trailer catch air with the travel trailer’s wheels by hitting a large pothole at full speed. I bet that guy woke up in a hurry too. The highways up here are not to be taken lightly and we are both constantly watching our speed and the condition of the road, as well as keeping an eye out for wildlife.

That’s about it for now – we’re looking forward to Whitehorse and Dawson City!