taxidialogue

An early departure after a windy, sleety, noisy night at Summit Lake and I stopped for eggs at Toad River Lodge, Toad River where I deposited a hat - number 7433 with the collection they started many years ago.

Crossing into Yukon I arrived at Watsons Lake where I visited the information centre, watched the film about the construction of the Alaska highway and read a few of the many thousand signs displayed outside the visitor center. Do I spot a trend here?

West to Jakes Corner and I made the turn south for a side trip of 100km each way to Atlin. The road was paved part way but a good portion of it was gravel/dirt.

Today was quite prolific in terms of wild life sightings - 3 black bears, a bull moose, mule deer as usual, buffalo, porcupine all beside the road. Photo wise not a great day because all of the animals ran as soon as they saw the car.

Having arrived late at Grand Prairie I set off mid-morning the next day for Dawson Creek, mile 0 of the Alaska Highway, crossing into British Columbia along the way.

Side note: it seems that everyone rides around on ATVs and Quad bikes in these parts.

After driving through what seemed like days of forest I stopped at Fort Nelson for fuel and a well prepared piece of Halibut (surprising in a place like Ft Nelson!) Rather than stopping here for the night, I pushed on and the scenery soon reverted to the familiar Rocky Mountains as I passed into Stone Mountain Provincial Park. Its strange how you have to actually visit these places in order to discover their existence. Although it is covered reasonably well in Milepost I suppose my mind had been consumed with other preparatory matters until now. As I passed through Summt Lake I noticed a provincial campground nestled at the top of a pass between snow covered peaks and decided to stop for the night. That decision turned into a test of the Technitops wind resistance capabilities! Although you can’t tell from the picture which was taken late in the evening, the wind was already picking up which is why the fly sheet isn’t fully extended. During the night I learned a lot about the tents design for dealing with wind. Basically it moves around like a suspension bridge which while seemingly effective isn’t exactly quiet!

Waking up to the sound of glacial melt flowing in the nearby stream with the sun rising over the snowy peaks around me is what makes camping in places like this worth while. I would have posted a photo of the view from my tent but couldn’t bring myself to get out of my sleeping bag to fetch my camera! Pictures and words can rarely capture the real essence of experience anyway.

A quick breakfast of steak, spinach and eggs cooked in my cast iron skillet and it was time to pack out. Passing from Banff to Jasper Nastional Park I briefly took in the ice fields before heading east on 16 and then west and north to Grand Prairie via Grand Cache.

After waiting at the Toyota garage for a couple of hours while they gave the Land Cruiser its first service I picked up some provisions, fixed a loose antenna fixing with a washer (probably loose because it clipped the height restriction at the bank) I set off for Banff National Park. A quick stop at Banff with its many visitors and I took the less busy 1A to Lake Louise where I planned on camping at one of the grounds due to open for the season today. About 20km out of Lake Louise I came upon a stranded cyclist who was having cramp problems. After supplying him water and food the bike was strapped to the roof and I dropped him off in Lake Louise village passing his fellow riders on the way.
Unfortunately, as with the US Rocky Mountain parks most of the campgrounds are not yet open and although the one at Lake Louise was supposed to be open it was only open for hard sided campers. They say it is to protect the bears! After a brief stop at the still frozen over Lake Louise, I headed for the more remote and higher Mosquito Creek campground about 23km north of Lake Louise. This was open to all and was more akin to the National Forest campgrounds in Colorado. i.e toilets only and “no trace” camping.

OK, I’m an idiot. The first two closures were out of my control. Snow on Monday night meant the closure of the South Entrance to Yellowstone from Grand Teton despite the fact I had diligently checked before hand that it had opened as planned on May 9th. The road to Canyon Village from the south was closed the next day due to a burst water main that was causing the road to subside. This meant missing out the northern section of the ‘Grand Loop’ and retracing back via Old Faithful. The third closure caused me to drive unnecessarily from East Glacier to West Glacier because I hadn’t been as diligent about checking the opening dates for crossing Logan pass on the Going-to-the-Sun road, supposedly one of the most spectacular drives in the US. When I found out that the road doesn’t generally open until mid June it meant retracing back to Browning before heading north to Canada. I suppose I need to get use to the extra mileage for the long legs ahead of me in Canada and Alaska.

I crossed the border at the very quiet Port of Piegan. No lines, no people, just the US and Canadian border and customs officers. Having declared my food items and answering the usual questions I was on my way again finishing the day in Calgary where the first service was due on the Land Cruiser.

Buffalo use the road in Yellowstone especially during snow as it is a much more convenient way for them to travel! Two had just passed me and you can see the vehicles behind stopped waiting for them to pass. When I was here during January I saw as many as a dozen buffalo traveling together by road. Comically they often appear to travel in single file which makes it easier on motorists!

Although washed out by the high sun during the day, the drive across the North Western corner of Colorado and North Eastern corner of Utah was nevertheless spectacularly beautiful. Reminiscent of more famed parts of Utah and Arizona this part of the US is pretty remote. The Gates of Lodore at the north end of the Dinosaur National Monument were particularly impressive.

I added the “Latest Pictures” feed to the sidebar today. If you are reading this post and note that none of the images relate in any way to my current activities it is because they don’t! I uploaded them from my collection for test purposes. Over time, they should become relevant to recent posts. Of course, if they do seem relevant it is because you are reading this post at a date and time long after it was written.

My Land Cruiser had to go back to Slee today to resolve a couple of issues with the heat exchanger. Hopefully I can still leave for Alaska on Thursday or Friday.

In a few days time I begin the long drive to Alaska via … who knows… along the way. The only deadline I have is to be in Homer on June 11th to catch the float plane down to the McNeil River Sanctuary on the edge of Katmai famed for its rather large brown bears. (They are bigger than the grizzlies inland due to their rich diet of fresh salmon.) Beyond that my aim is to drive to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean, the northern most point of the Pan-American Highway……

If you wish to track my progress on a map you should be able to here as long as I have my GPS tracker turned on. Just ask me for the password.

No, it’s not a conversation in a taxi. I don’t think it is even a real word. If you are really interested, it is derived from Greek words and suffixes combined in what is highly likely to be an incorrect and possibly even inappropriate manner. “taxidi” supposedly means “travel”, “voyage” or “journey”. Of course that explains why taxis are called “taxis”. “ia” is a suffix used for “state of”. You know about “logue” from words like “travelogue” and “dialogue”. The fact that most will read “taxidialogue” as “taxi” and “dialogue” rather than “taxidi”, “ia” and “logue” (OK I lost an “i” for aesthetic purposes) is neither here nor there and might possibly make sense if you engage with me by responding to any posts I may or may not make.

San Francisco street gathering in Chinatown