Oh, the Places We'll Go

Day 63 - Thursday July 20/17

(Written on Monday July 24, at Eagle Creek Campground, Alaska, in front of the campfire!)

(Posted on Saturday July 29/17, in Anchorage, while having a new trailer tire installed)

We left Boya Lake Campground at 10am; temp 16 degr.; cloudy to partly sunny; heading to Carcross. (map)

We had made a reservation yesterday, via landline pay telephone, as there was no cell service, for Carcross General Store RV Camp (also known as Montana Services, as it had been the base for supplying mining operations on Montana Mountain).

We stopped at Beaver Dam Rest Stop, and read forest fire information boards. Showing areas that had experienced forest fires in recent years, and explaining the need for and benefits of periodic burn-off by forest fire. (photos)

We have become aware that a part of the reason that the fires have been so widespread and severe in the central interior of BC this year has been due to the cancellation of controlled burn programs in recent years. Complaints from residents about smoke and air quality were the reason the planned burns were cancelled.

We saw a porcupine dead on the road, and we remarked that we have not seen very much roadkill on this trip at all.

Today we crossed out of B.C. and into the Yukon Territory (photos)

Stopped at a Rest Stop at the Rancheria River. We followed this river for some time along the Alaska Highway. We took a lunch break at the Rancheria Falls Recreation Site, and walked on the trail to the falls. (photos)

Stopped at the Continental Divide, which divides two of the largest drainage systems in North America, the Yukon River Watershed and the Mackenzie River Watershed. Waters draining west from this point form the Swift River, which drains into the Yukon River, and continues northwest 3,680km to the Bering Sea (Pacific Ocean). Water drains east from this point form the Rancheria River, which flows into the Liard River, and then into the Mackenzie River, flowing northward into the Beaufort Sea (Arctic Ocean), after 4,200km (photos)