Day 49 – July 24, 2001 – We saw a bear today! Or, I guess I should say that Bruce saw a bear today and the rest of us got to see his bear. Our day was pretty uneventful. We made the decision two days ago to drive beyond Whitehorse to Teslin, YT, tonight. Our scheduled day to Whitehorse was slightly over 100 miles and the next day, to Watson Lake, would be nearly 300 miles. The Mileposts guide indicated a motel almost in the middle that would split the trip up into two almost even days so we changed it. We did stop in Whitehorse at an auto parts store (of course) and to have lunch. Whitehorse is a gold rush town and they play up their history. We drove around a little downtown and had a great lunch (Klondike Ribs and Salmon – worth a stop) before we headed on into the wilderness. Lots of road construction and some pretty scenery later, we got a call over the radio that “We’ve stopped for a bear!” Ben and I turned around and went back and, snacking her way down the side of the highway, was a big black bear. A black bear isn’t as big or as vicious as a grizzly but they are certainly no teddy bear. Ben, Ross, and Bruce were all trying to get pictures without getting eaten when she finally turned and went into the woods. (Actually, I think black bears are vegetarian but we weren’t certain that she was also a pacifist.) Bruce Lilleker, who has only been with us for a few days, was the first to see this bear so she is Bruce’s bear.

Our stopover turned out to be a lovely place (with a bathroom in the room, a feature we no longer take for granted) and no phone. This is our fourth night without a phone so it is a challenge to find a place to download this journal. If you are looking for info and the page is blank, just hold on. We’ll get to it as soon as we can find a phone jack somewhere. Unfortunately, the staff at this lovely and very middle-of-nowhere place were not interested in helping us download or much of anything else. So, we’ll get this to you as soon as we can.

724a
724a – Bruce’s bear! She looks like she is sizing Ben us as a snack but decided he was a bit too dusty and mosquito bitten.
724b
724b – The bear wandered along snacking on berries or something she was finding, with very little interest in us. We talked with some people at the restaurant later who said they had seen a mother and some cubs in that area so we suspect the cubs were nearby but hidden.
724c
724c – She was bored with us and ready to wander off into the woods. Fortunately, no one in our group was eager to go after her.
724d
724d – You may not recognize the new car on the trip, driven by Bruce Lilleker. Barbara (Bruce’s wife), it followed him home; can he keep it? We put his name on the sign but Jennifer enjoys having windows too much to let him have it.
724e
724e – Ross, Ginger, and Taylor enjoy a break from the driving during a brief stop to check the cars. Ross is a little bored that he hasn’t had to rebuild an engine in the last week and is eagerly awaiting the next breakdown.
724f
724f – We were driving down the Alcan when Ben spied this great bridge over to the side. Canyon Creek Bridge was a link in the gold road between Silver City and Whitehorse during the gold rush days. It was rebuilt during the building of the Alcan in 1942 but was replaced when the road was rerouted. Ben wanted to drive all the T’s across it but Nancy thought it would be much safer if Ross did it. Ross, of course, couldn’t be kept off it.
724g
724g – Once he was over, he had to come back. Do you see the river rushing under that bridge? Do you see anything that says “safe for travel”? Do you see Ross grinning?
724h
724h – One more of the really beautiful lakes we have passed. In Texas, most of the lakes are brownish. In Alaska and in this part of Canada, the lakes we have seen are a brilliant blue, or a vibrant green, or a rich turquoise. Sometimes they are several colors swirled like a painting with streaks of blue and green. I know you have seen lots of pictures of lakes if you have been looking at this journal, but it is impossible not to take them as we pass.
724i
724i – We are back in among trees again. They are spruce, a different kind of tree than we have seen in many of our travels. It is a thin, skinny tree, and on the way to Prudhoe, we watched them get shorter and shorter. Now, as we travel south, they are getting taller and taller. They are still skinny but they are beginning to look like trees again.