To Muncho Lake, BC

June 17, 2011

“There’s not a single mosquito on the Alaska Highway – they are all married, and have raised very large families.” – Alcan Bumper Sticker Wisdom

They only come out at night… 

While we were getting settled in at Hay Lake in Fort Liard, we were not surprised to see a lot of gnats and flies, but were surprised to only see a couple of mosquitoes.  But, overnight, the skeeters descended in droves and a lot of them got into the rig, so we have been swatting them all day.  A local told us they don’t like the heat of the day and only come out at night. What night?  Twilight arrives at  11:00 p.m and sticks around until 3 a.m., and then the sun comes up. 

Hay Lake, 9:30 P.M. 

Today we added a caribou and a flock of Stone sheep to our mega-fauna list.   The sheep were standing in the middle of the road, and seemed as curious about us as we were about them.  As we stared at each other, the sheep apparently decided we were pretty boring and trotted down that very steep incline to the left of the road:We stopped at a little place called the Tetsa River Services and Campground, where we had the best cinnamon rolls I have ever had – cooked perfectly, with a gooey, sticky and almost chewy cinnamon filling, and just the right amount of sweet frosting. We split one to go along with our coffee, and got another “for the road.”

As RVers know, the best cinnamon buns are reportedly made by Miss Terry.  Never having tried them, I’ll stand by these for now. But the next time I run into Nick and Terry, I would not mind judging which is better – of course, that means Miss Terry will need to whip up a batch of hers for testing purposes – and I won’t mind that a bit.

We also stopped at the Toad River Lodge, home of a hat collection numbering in the vicinity of 6,800.  They made a ceiling carpet in every room, and in some places had started to migrate down the walls:

We are now at Muncho Lake where it appears there are two major ways of launching boats (or pontoon planes). The first is by a ball hitch on a Caterpillar scoop:

And the second by truck!

Well, maybe this one should really be called by a “semi.”