9th May 2015 – Watson Lake to Whitehorse

We leave the Air Force Lodge at Watson Lake for a 444 kilometer drive to Whitehorse with a planned morning stop at the Rancheria Falls. The Air Force Lodge is a restored WW2 officers mess building, which has a great deal of character and memorabilia and is owned & run by our host Mike who most welcoming.The drive to the falls is through beautiful scenery.When we arrive at the falls the path is covered in thick snow and it’s too hard to walk in so we have a quick cuppa and move on to Teslin.All along the highway are messages written on the banks in white stones, mostly of people’s names, or marry me and love hearts, they go for miles. We stop at the continental divide, where the water flows down either to west into the Swift River or to the east into the Rancheria River. On the way to Teslin we see a moose standing in a river eating the river weed. His antlers are just starting to grow.Teslin has the longest bridge on the Alaskan Highway, it has 7 spans across the Teslin Lake.We visit the Nisutlin Trading Post which is a supermarket and hardware shop combined. We then visit the Tlingit Heritage Centre but it’s closed so we are only able to see the totem poles out the front.We stop at Johnson’s Crossing for lunch before heading into Whitehorse, where we go for a walk along the waterfront past several huge totem poles.As Michael is cooking a meal for the group tonight we go in search of Canadian salmon to cook and we find the fish van that comes into town from Haines each day and we buy some sockeye salmon. We are staying about 26 kilometers out of town in a cabin that has a full kitchen and a very good BBQ.ÿ The end result is a seafood feast, smoked salmon, capers & asparagus for starters followed by sockeye salmon, almonds, beans & salad for main & pancakes with raspberries, ice cream & maple syrup for sweets.ÿ We also have a glass or 2 of wine to go with it of course.ÿ It’s delicious, the company is fun and we have a great night, it’s so good to have a home cooked meal, especially when I don’t have to cook it, but nothing new in that.