Whitehorse Adventure - Day 13: Whitehorse to Boya Lake Provincial Park

Day 13 (503km traveled) - We got an early start leaving Whitehorse.  The original plan was to go to the junction with the Alaska Hwy and Hwy 37 and see what was going on with the forest fire just south of the Yukon/BC border and try to get through the fire area the following day. 

We got to the junction around 2:30 and only a few cars were waiting.  After talking to the person at the barrier we learned that the next pilot car to drive through the active burn area would be leaving in 20mins!  This gave us just enough time to get some gas and grab some snacks out of the trailer before the pilot left.  We were concerned that the kids would rebel since the campground we were heading to was a 70-80 km south of the junction and we had already been in the truck for many hours.  (They were amazing troopers and perked up with the possibility of sugary snacks and chips - which they don't usually get in the car!)

The fire was mostly out where we were driving through, but we did see some flames.  It was about a 20 min drive following the pilot car through the most active part of the fire and then another 10-15 min driving past burnt bush after the pilot car turned around.

We got to Boya Lake Provincial Park around 4-4:30 pm and were happy to find that there was no smoke from the fire.  Most of the sites are right on the lake.  There weren't that many people there so we got a pretty awesome site.  It may have been our best site yet ever!

Boya Lake is one of those impossibly green lakes.  Our Site backed right onto the lake so we spent some quality time throwing rocks into the lake (of course) and wading in the water.  The boys got totally soaked in the cold water so that was the end of that game.

After dinner Dave went to go harass the fish attempt to catch a fish.  Of course they were wise to his tricks and the only interest that his hook got was from the minnows that stole his bait.  His adventure ended when his lure got caught on something on the bottom.  Rather than cut the line he chose (even though his wife thought he was crazy) to get his swimsuit on just before bedtime and go into the water to retrieve it.  I, being his doting wife (whew - managed not to laugh out loud on that one), took pictures helped him.

Whitehorse Adventure - Day 5: Mcleod Lake to Charlie Lake

Day 5 (357 km traveled) - We didn’t want to be camping in a parking lot again tonight so we got another early start.  This is easy for us to do since the kids still wake early (often as early as 6am).

The terrain is becoming even more lush and green.  The highway passed through the Rocky Mountains today and we’re now in the foot hills and near prairies.  We stopped in Chetwynd for gas and as we were driving through town we could see quite a few examples of statues carved by chainsaws.  Apparently Chetwynd is the chainsaw carving capital of Canada (if not the world).  However we didn’t have the time to go look at the carvings more closely and didn’t want to stand around in the rain either.  This is the first rain that we’ve had for the entire trip and it is badly needed to help with the high risk of wildfire conditions.

We took the slightly longer route to Fort St. John (Charlie Lake) because we wanted to stop at the Mile “0” of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek.  This meant we are not going to drive through Hudson's Hope and we will not see the W.A.C Bennet dam.  It is too bad that we couldn't do both, but it is not at all practical and we don't want to extend our journey any more than we have to.  

We had lunch in the parking lot at the Dawson Creek tourist info and the got our pictures taken in front of the sign.  It is rather daunting as we drove into Dawson Creek to see a distance sign saying “Whitehorse-1500km”.  Yikes, that means we are slightly less than half way through our driving journey just to get TO Whitehorse not to mention getting home again afterward!

After lunch we drove to Fort St. John and on to Charlie Lake (about 5min further).  We stayed at the Rotary RV park which was like a large gravel parking lot, but it was fully serviced, had free wifi, a playground and was near a large dock to fish off of.  For dinner we went into Boston Pizza in Fort St. John which was our first restaurant dinner out.  After dinner Dave and “A” went fishing from the dock and “A” was able to use his fishing rod for only the 2^nd time since he got it last Christmas.  They didn’t have any luck, but later after the kids were in bed Dave went back again and snagged a small walleye.  Unfortunately it was too small and had to be released.

We are concerned about a wild fire that we have heard about that has closed down HWY 37 (Cassiar Hwy).  It won’t affect our trip to Whitehorse, but we were planning to come home that way.  We’ll watch the reports and may have to adjust our return trip.  Luckily we have almost a full week until we need to come back that way.