Stampeding bison into Yukon

Last night no Internet, and tonight it's VERY slow, so this may be short with few photos. The last two days have been wonderful, as usual. Forested rolling hills, some headwinds, sunny, warm, lots of wildlife. A grizzly bear, many black bears, and today, herds of bison. In one case, we caused a stampede of about 30 of them, and they ran along the road next to us for about 2 miles. I didn't know those huge beasts could run that long. Here's their photo:

Day 20 Wed., July 4. Muncho Lake to Coal River, BC. Distance 73 miles.


The day was "plain" compared to some, especially in the afternoon, but still just so scenic with green forests, mountains, and rivers as far as the eye could see. I was feeling like a cold might be coming on, so I rode slowly. We stopped at the famous Liard Hot Springs, where the 1942 Alaska Highway builders enjoyed getting warm in the snow. It's been a favorite stop-over ever since. I decided not to go in to help prevent a cold if one really was coming on. Here's a morning shot of our incredible scenery with Bob riding by in his Pizza Hut kit:

When we arrived at the Coal City campground, I did two loads of laundry. Rick made a fabulous dinner of turkey burgers, french fries, BBQ beans, and Derek made the salad.
Went to bed early hoping to ward off the cold.

Day 21. Today. Coal River to Watson Lake, Yukon. Distance 93 mi. My distance 70 mi.

I was the first of three drivers today, and got tons of photos of the guys riding with wondrous scenery behind them. I was also in the motorhome when we saw most of the bison, and a grizzly bear (Rick saw four. He's such an eagle eye when it comes to wildlife). Here's just one of the dozens of photos I shot this morning.

I would show you many other pictures, but uploading each one takes about seven minutes, and I don't have all night!

Here's Bob riding by a black bear next to the road. We've seen so many black bears, we almost never stop to photo them anymore. I got some great ones of the grizzly, but the upload time is too long for me to want to post it here.

Eventually we crossed the border into the Yukon Territory. I've never been here before, just as I've never been to Alaska.

In Watson Lake, Rick and Derek went shopping for gobs of foods on our shopping list. Bert got there soon and was in charge of buying the desserts: pecan pie, apple pie, oatmeal cookies, pecan cookies, sandwich cookies, and ice cream. Bob and I went shopping for beer and wine at the liquor store. Once all loaded on the RV, we pulled into what is called an RV "park", but it should be called an RV parking lot. It is nothing more than a square of gravel with RVs lined up one next to the other in three rows. Oh well, we've got water, electricity, a dump station, and slow Internet, so who can complain?

After our scrumptious dinner of pulled pork sandwiches, which Diane Brown bought before we left Butte (the frozen pulled pork), we walked to what is Watson Lake's biggest attraction: the Signpost Forest. I will post one of 17 pictures I took, but it doesn't capture the magnitude and full flavor. You should Google it. Anyway, it all started in 1942 when one of the homesick soldiers building the Alaska Hwy decided to erect a signpost showing the distance to his hometown of Danville, IL. Other soldiers added their cities to his post, and the rest is history. People from all over the world have added their city signs (or other postings) to now hundreds and hundreds of 12-ft-high 4x4 wooden posts. It would take fully two days of walking through the entire forest to see every one. I looked for places I could identify with, but so far found only Lewiston, ID. I'm absolutely certain that if I looked long enough, I'd find Monroe, OH, Simi Valley, (I did see Eugene, OR), Columbia, SC, Hawthorne, CA, and on and on. Okay, here's my one photo with Bob and Derek in the foreground:

I felt so strong during my riding today that I really thought my sore throat was not actually a cold. However, this evening I've sneezed a few times and blown my nose, so now my goal is to try to keep it a MINOR cold, while still riding a bike a few miles.