Shortly after leaving the Northern Rocky Mountain Lodge, we saw a sign warning us to be aware of buffalo on the road. Buffalo? I thought they were roaming the range with the deer and the antelope and here we are in the middle of huge, dense, steep pine forests surrounded by mountain peaks. What would a buffalo be doing here? Sure enough, a few miles down the road there were five of them grazing alongside the road. They were very cooperative, posing for the camera. Then we continued to see more of them as we drove further on down the road. We saw a black bear and since we're keeping score, a large rabbit scampered across the road in front of us.
Today was a long day in more ways than one. We drove 435 miles over winding roads that go up one side of a mountain and down the other. And, I'm not sure what time the sun rose; it was shining brightly when I awoke around 6:30 and it will be light when I go to sleep around 11:00. The days are approaching 20 hours of daylight.
We crossed from British Columbia into the Yukon Territory about midday. The population of the Yukon is around 31,000 and most live in the capital city, White Horse, where we are settled into the Klondike Hotel. We heard at a rest area from a fellow traveler that the Alaska Highway north from White Horse is under construction and that a 200 mile section is all dirt and mud with long delays and a maximum speed of 20 MPH. We were advised to take a detour that will add about 200 miles to our trip. Rumors like this seem to abound...people enjoy making things sound worse than they are. I went on line and checked the situation out for myself. According to the Yukon transportation people, there are some delays, but it doesn't seem too bad. We've decided to go ahead and not take the detour. We have a deck of cards and a cribbage board, so we can entertain ourselves if the delays are long. If you don't hear from us for a few days, you'll know that we took the wrong fork.
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