Well I have a little rain greeting me this morning, but it is not too bad, just the light rain that has greeted me many morning. It is interesting to see the view traveling in the opposite direction. Yesterday there were views that were complete different than going up. The lake there at destruction bay was a lot longer than going down as I could see where it turned and another finger went up several miles. My plan on the way south was to make it to Watson Lake, we didn't stay there on the way up as it was early in the day and we went on to Rancharea. The Cassiar highway heads south just before Watson Lake and I plan on riding that, the last report I had read on that was lots of gravel and some of the cafe/fuel stops might be closed. I decided that I should take a little extra fuel with me so a stop in Whitehorse at Canadian Tire was called for. The ride to Whitehorse was pretty and the rain was no bother. In fact it was warm in Whitehorse, I picked up two 1 1/4 gallon gas cans and two more bungee cords to tie them on with. Got every thing put away and tied on refueled and headed south. Opposite direction, just like a new road. Critter count for the afternoon was 1 bear and two moose, none of them very close to the road. Only a few miles where the rain was very heavy, mostly it was just a nuisance making the windshield dirty and the face shield hard to see out of. I ran 270 miles on a tank of fuel and the reserve light was on when I got to Watson Lake. Cruised through town to see what hotels were available, the Air Force hotel had the cheapest prices advertised on the signs coming into town and when I refueled I asked the guys in the station where the the cheapest hotel was and they said the Air Force Hotel, It was only 3 or 4 blocks away so I headed back there. It was interesting. The price was the best I had seen since we hit the Alaskan highway. The owner is a big German guy with a pony tail and he asked if I would like to see a room, I said yes, "please take off your shoes" There were about 20 pair of shoes and boots lined up along the wall, the place was like a dorm, it had been a dorm for the air force in the 1940s and was put back just like that, Hard wood floors with carpet runners in the hall way, the rooms were clean but no bathrooms, the showers and potties were down the hall, all the wood work was redone and perfectly varnished. The rooms were carpeted, a concession to modern times as were the hall way runners. As I said it was interesting. There are a series of runways all along the Alaskan highway that were built for the air force as that was the route they ferried airplanes to Russia during world war two. Watson Lake was one of the places where they stayed over night. There was no Alaskan high way at that time, mostly just a trail. The more traveled route was the Cassair highway that I plan on going down tomorrow, it was the route that the Hudson Bay company and all the trappers used had used for almost a hundred years, it had a couple of places where there were side roads that went to the inland passage to connect with the boat traffic. Tomorrow I will see if the Cassair highway is as bad as the travel book I had said it could be.
Until tomorrow, bare foot in the dorm
Traveler
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