Kluane Lake (Destruction Bay)

Day 70 – Wednesday, August 21

Today we drove 230 miles to Destruction Bay, YT.  Destruction Bay was one of the relay stations in operation during the building of the Alaska Highway.  It earned its name when a storm destroyed all of the buildings and materials here.  But, after traveling the road, we know exactly why it’s called Destruction Bay—it was quite a wild ride—much rougher than the Top of the World Highway!  Rough road, frost heaves, construction, gravel, potholes, yuck!  The road could destroy anything that crosses it!  I thought even Spot was going to get rv-sick!  It took us almost 8 hours!

We made it through customs without a problem, and stopped for breakfast at Buckshot Betty’s.  It was a great breakfast—Betty was the waitress, the cook AND the cashier!   We almost bought a tshirt for mom, that said Buckshot Betty’s on the pocket, and on the back: “Best Buns on the Highway!” 

By the way… Betty’s fantasy is two men…one to cook and one to clean!

When we crossed the border, we also crossed into a new time zone, and set our clocks ahead one hour, so now we are only 3 hours behind Indianapolis time.  It quit raining, but there is still a chill in the air…it is probably around 14 C …(because we are in Canada, we need to speak their language! --that’s about 57F)  We tossed our firewood last night, and it’s a good thing.  They asked if we had any firewood, and we were able to say no.  We saw a big pile of it at the border that had been unloaded from people crossing the border.

In spite of the awful road conditions, there was some magnificent scenery.  We admired Reflection Lake—just like a mirror reflecting the mountains and trees that surround it. We saw several trumpeter swans in the lakes along the road.  They were bright white.  At first I thought they were milk jugs floating in the lake, but then they raised their necks.   We passed too quickly for a photo.

 

We saw the peaks in the St. Elias Mountains, which include Canada’s highest mountain, Mount Logan.  These are the youngest of Canada’s mountains (formed 5-10 million years ago when a fragment of the continental plate got wedged under North America and the Gulf of Alaska).  There was an avalanche of rock and ice in 2007 from one of these mountains that caused earth tremors. 

We stopped at two different service stations and both were out of diesel fuel.  I guess they have depleted their supply, and are getting ready for winter. Because of the scarcity of gas stations, we try to keep the tank at least 1/2 full.  We will be able to get fuel at the next stop at Whitehorse, but always like to be safe.

Here are some pictures of the road…it’s just really too bad Jim washed the rv and truck yesterday…you sure wouldn’t know it once we got through the mess!

The truck is pretty dirty! 

We will just be here at Destruction Bay RV Park for one night.  It is adjacent to Kluane Lake, the largest lake in the Yukon (154 square miles!)  Kluane means “Big Fish”—trout is the fish caught here.  Even with its size, the lake stays frozen 5-7 months of the year.  The campground is on the old military supply depot, on top of permafrost.  The campground owner provided dinner and entertainment tonite.  The population here is 47—not much else close by.  We have one more stop in Whitehorse before we hit Skagway on Friday.   It takes awhile because there is just one road to get to places up here.  We are back in remote country—no wifi, no phone. 

But, the good news is that Jim got the satellite dialed in, and we can watch the Bristol truck race tonight!  This is the first time we’ve been able to get satellite tv in almost 30 days!!!  The satellites have been too low on the horizon to catch it, but boy, we’ve got it now, and we get to watch Bristol Baby!!

Hoping for a peek at the Northern Lights too….