June 27th

Today started out as another rainy day. Not very heavy but enough that one did not want to get out of the truck. The temp was also about 43 degrees which didn't help either.

It was a good day for seeing animals. We started out with Bison (or Buffalo as they say in Canada). There was a family unit with cows and calves and a big old bull sitting on the top of a hill overlooking his harem.
Next, we say a black-bear sow with 2 cubs. What was neat was watching them enter a pipe that went under the road and then they exited on the other side. You might say it was a bear crossing without the danger of being hit by a car.

Then we saw another Bison family unit and a little while later another black bear only this time he was brown. We did see one other lonely Bison (he must have lost his harem). That was the end of the animals for the day.

Another interesting site along the road was the "Internet Corral"… yes you read it right. It is not an "Internet Café". We didn't stop so who knows what the inside looks like. You may have to lasso a connection.

We only drove about 2 hours down the road to Watson Lake as there a few things to see here and we wanted to take a couple of days where we weren't "on the road". Actually we picked up an hour too as we are now on Pacific Time. Driving with BA is always a hoot! Did you know that the campsite we are in has free TV on Saturday? That is what BA read in the description of the campsite book. Imagine our surprise when we found out it was free satellite TV – every day is an adventure!

We walked over to the Northern Lights Center to watch an I-max movie on Astronauts and the Northern Lights. It was very impressive as well as informative. It would seem that we would not see the Northern Lights on this trip or at least our chances are minimal given the long daylight and that they occur mostly in winter. It was worthwhile going too.

Next, we walked to a local "department store" (about the size of a very small convenience store) but they had just about everything from fishing/camping equipment to clothes to bikes, etc. etc.

We also went to 5:00 PM Mass at St Anne's Mission in Watson Lake. The priest was surprised to see 10 people at the mass as they normally only have a couple people in attendance. The mass on Sunday AM has about 25 people total, as this is a very small church. It is also a very short walk from our campsite as the RV park is right behind the church… very convenient.

Did you know?  Moose can swim continuously for several hours, dive up to depths of 20 feet and remain submerged for over a minute!

Keep your loops open!

PS  We don't have phone service in the Yukon.  We were told that Bell Canada has a monopoly here and doesn't have agreements to "hook-up" with other carriers.  It will be a several days before we get to Alaska when we should have coverage again.  In the meantime we may or may not have internet