Shattered into a thousand pieces...

The day started off fairly clear, but as we made our way to the town of McBride, it got smokier. Which is a real shame, because that area is beautiful with the mountains on either side of the Robson Valley.

We were wanting to do a hike, but there was really no point. Not good to be breathing in the smoky air, and we wouldn't get much of a view anyhow.

Another great free campsite!

Said goodbye to my Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa, and hope to see them again somewhere in the world! They were talking about going to Newfoundland and renting an RV, so maybe they'll do that while we are there next summer. That would be fun.

We took off on the Yellowhead Highway #16, heading southeast towards Jasper National Park.

A nice day around Prince George, British Columbia

We had a really nice day yesterday. Uncle Dave and Aunt Melissa planned a three hour hike for us all, and we were going to do it in the morning, but as 10 o'clock rolled around we decided to go out for lunch first and then do the hike afterwards.

They took us out to the Northern Lights Estate Winery. We didn't go for the wine... but we had a really good meal!

Seems there is no escaping it

We were laughing the other day about how long it takes us to get anywhere. Our regular readers know that when we're traveling in the motorhome, 200 kms (124 miles) a day is a long driving day. But that's because there is too much to see along the way!

And every little town has an interesting story to tell. Yesterday was a good example.

An interesting day... a bear scare, forest fires, and helicopters

We had delicious bacon and egg breakfast with my cousin Calvin and his wife Brenda, but being a work day they were soon off to the daily grind, leaving us to depart whenever we were ready.

I decided this was a good opportunity to change Sherman's engine oil, so I got everything out and crawled underneath Sherman to drain the oil and change the filter. I was about to screw on the new filter when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked over and had to do a double take!

Well, four new tires are better than none

We went back over to the Kal Tire store first thing Thursday morning to get Sherman's new tires installed. But unfortunately, the two tires we were waiting for didn't show up! When I had ordered them, we were told they would be in "Wednesday at the latest"... but it didn't happen.

So, there were four tires there. The other two they were now told would show up Monday, which is too late for us!

Out with the old, and in with the new...

We knew that Sherman's new tires wouldn't all be delivered to the tire shop until close to noon, so we headed out early to the Twin Falls Recreation area near Smithers. We had read that it was just a short hike to the falls, but we wanted to do a little more than that so we parked where the paved road ended and walked the 2 kms (1.3 miles) each way on the gravel road to the trailhead.

Well, we spent a chunk of money yesterday.

And the spending is not over yet!

It used to be, during our full time working days that when we spent a bunch of money, the attitude was "oh well, we'll make some more tomorrow!" But it's not so easy any more with our sporadic income.

Let me tell you how we spent $776 CAD ($600 USD)...

A bit of frustration, but it ended up better than expected

Yesterday's first stop was back at the visitors center in Hazelton to use their free wifi. They also have a free RV dump station there, so we took advantage of that by using Sherman's shower and dumping the grey tank and filling the fresh water tank.

Hazelton is what we would call an RVFT. What's an RVFT, you ask...?

We can't believe there are empty campsites at this beautiful place

And last night, we were the only ones there!

Like I said yesterday, Anderson Flats is a kind of an odd Provincial park. We found out a little more about it when a couple of conservation officers stopped by to warn us about the current fire ban. The area has only been a provincial park since 2007. Apparently somebody (with the last name Anderson) died and left the land to the province.

We think we'll stay here another day!

Another beautiful day. Clear blue skies and high of 28C (83F).That doesn't help the forest fire situation southeast of here, but it sure is nice for us travelers!

We had originally thought about making it to Smithers yesterday because it's not that far. But we're in no rush, and we got sidetracked to a beautiful campsite!

Totem poles near Kitwanga, British Columbia

We had a nice drive yesterday from Stewart to Kitwanga, British Columbia. And the weather was perfect. We didn't leave Stewart until almost noon. I tried cleaning the idle air control valve on the throttle body to fix Sherman's high idle problem, but as I expected it didn't change anything.

It may need a new one, or it could be something else entirely. We'll get it checked when we get to Smithers.

Sherman is getting old

Just like the rest of us!

We woke up yesterday morning and drove the short distance back across the Canadian border from Hyder, Alaska to Stewart, British Columbia. It was just starting to spit with rain as we pulled up to the border station. The Canadian guard asked a couple of questions, and scanned our passports and we were back in Canada... almost as if we never left.

We heard a commotion with lots of splashing water!

It's an interesting situation here at the border of British Columbia and Alaska.

The town of Stewart, British Columbia (pop 500) is located right on the border with Alaska. And the town of Hyder, Alaska (pop 84) is located right at the same border. There is a Canadian border station here, but there is no U.S. border station. It's probably the only place in North America where you can legally cross in to the United States and not be interrogated by the border patrol people!

This has to be one of the best drives in Canada...

We've done a lot of driving the past four days! That's actually a good thing though, it gives us the opportunity to take a couple of rest days as we want to if we're at a place that we think warrants more time.

And we think we're at one of those places now. The scenery around Stewart, British Columbia at the border with Hyder, Alaska is amazing!

Forest Fire!

Yesterday, we planned on driving as far as the town of Dease Lake. But at our first stop of the day at Boya Lake Provincial Park, we spoke to the park operator and she said "oh, you won't want to stay in Dease Lake, it will be a zoo". Apparently there was a bad forest fire burning at the nearby community of Telegraph Creek, and that area is under a full evactuation order.

We had all day that we could drive, so we weren't that worried. We stayed at Boya Lake and had breakfast and went for a 3 km (1.9 mile) hike to get the blood flowing.

Goodbye Yukon!

Wow... that was a great trip to Canada's north, wasn't it?

It was on June 5th that we arrived in the Yukon, and we crossed the border heading south into British Columbia yesterday, on August 5th. So while we figured we would be approximately two months in the north, we didn't plan it to be exactly two months!

Fantastic views above Carcross, Yukon

We wanted to get our hike in early, and we had overnighted at the trailhead, so we were on the trail at 8:15am.

We've been using a great website called Yukon Hiking and they listed this trail as "moderate". Well, maybe it's moderate to a 25 year old, but for us we would have rated it "difficult". We sure wouldn't want to do a hike any more difficult than this one!

Good thing we didn't meet any oncoming traffic!

We went into downtown Whitehorse on Friday morning, filled up the fuel tank, and emptied the holding tanks. Also did some stocking up at both the grocery store and the liquor store, There aren't many services along the Cassiar Highway so we wanted to be prepared.

Then, we headed back down the highway that takes you to Skagway, Alaska. Only as far as Carcross though! I had read about a fantastic hike in the area, and we wanted to have a better look at the town as well.

Ready to hit the road!

We've been parked up at our friends Art and Jean's place in Whitehorse, Yukon for the past 4 nights. They've let us use their water hose to give Sherman a much needed clean up!

Even though we had used a pressure washer when we were up in Tok, Alaska to get rid of some of the Dempster Highway mud off Sherman's underside, there was still a lot of it that I didn't get at the time.

Day trip to Skagway, Alaska

I can understand why people choose to live in Whitehorse. Especially in the summertime, when you've got so many daylight hours! There is just soooo much to see and do within a two hour drive.

Yesterday, our friends Jean and Art took us in their truck for a day trip down to Skagway, Alaska... only a 160 km (100 mile) drive each way.

July Expenses

Well, not a bad month considering we spent almost a thousand dollars on fuel! We knew that was going to be our major expense up here in the north, so it's not that much of a shock.

We spent a total of $2,069 CAD ($1,600 USD) for the month.

Here's how it all broke down...

Chinook salmon in the Yukon River

The Yukon is still experiencing a heat wave. It's beautiful though... sunny, clear blue sky and the temperature yesterday was about 28C (82F). Supposed to be the same today.

We had parked up in downtown and I took the bikes off to go for a ride to the fish ladder. They have a nice cycling and walking path here in Whitehorse that runs on both sides of the Yukon River.

We are back in Whitehorse!

We left Whitehorse on June 15th, so we've been off exploring the Yukon for about six weeks. And of course, that included a few days in Northwest Territories and Alaska as well.

Since we left Whitehorse, we have driven about 3,700 kms (2,300 miles), and much of it was on dirt roads!

Much better than a busy campground...

We headed further south in order to do more exploring of Yukon's Kluane National Park. There were a couple of other hiking trails along the way we wanted to do. The first one was listed as "a short 0.6 km hike to the rock glacier", so we stopped there and got to the trailhead where the sign said it was 1.6 kms each way. Hmm.

So, we went back and got some water and set off to do it anyhow.

A steep hike in Yukon's Kluane National Park on the King's Throne Trail

We had made plans to meet up with Dan and Isabelle at 9:00am down in the day use area at the Kathleen Lake Campground in Kluane National Park.

We left our motorhomes parked there, and we set off on the King's Throne Trail. There are two sections to the trail... the first part leads to "the seat" of the King's Throne... and then the trail branches off to the summit of the mountain. But the summit is 19 kms (12 miles) return, and it's a rated as a difficult day hike.

Doing some camping in Kluane National Park

There's not a whole lot to see in Haines Junction itself, other than the visitor's center and the fact that it's a fairly scenic location. But, it does have an interesting little church as well that's worth a stop...