A Viking’s Walkabout – Day 12 – Viking Navigation LLC

Ft. Nelson, B.C. to Watson Lake, Yukon (ho!)

Distance: 319 miles / 513 km

Time: ~6h15m

Fort Nelson was the first place the hotel staff warned me of brigandry and robbery. I checked all the locks on War Bus, but my bigger concern was the thick pall of smoke that hung over the town from nearby forest fires.

The surrounding terrain was pretty, but difficult to photograph through the smoke.

Large bodies of water everywhere… and smoke. Muncho Lake. I didn’t take any pictures of it, but there was a moment in the mountains where you could only see about 100 feet in the smoke. Very slow going.

The Laird River. I didn’t know much about it. It turns out it drains to the Arctic! I’m getting closer.

Bison!

“Nice collar, Butch.” “Shut your mouth, Frank.”

Laird River from a cliff overlook. And Smoke.

Contact Creek, where Army Corps of Engineers and contract road builders working south from Alaska met ACE crews working north from Dawson Creek near the B.C.-Yukon border.

War Bus and Adam cross the 60th Parallel, which marks the northern boundary of the western provinces and the southern boundary of the territories. The road crosses the B.C.-Yukon border a few times before you’re solidly in the Yukon.

Yukon, ho!

Watson Lake’s Sign Post Forest… I have tons of signs that have been… ahem… “acquired” at about the same time I was dreaming this up 30 years ago. I should have brought one, but I didn’t appreciate the scale of this thing. (That seems to be a theme of this trip…)

Wikipedia: “In 1942, a simple sign post … was damaged by a bulldozer. Private Carl K. Lindley, serving with the 341st Engineers, was ordered to repair the sign, and decided to personalize the job by adding a sign pointing towards his home town, Danville, Illinois, and giving the distance to it. Several other people added directions to their home towns, and the idea has been snowballing ever since.” That’s so cool. I saw two groups adding their own sign while I walked around.

On a marker at the site: “I had received an injury near the border of BC and Yukon… I was taken to the Company aid station at nearby Watson Lake… Not able to do much work, the C.O. asked if I could repair and repaint the sign that had been run over by bulldozers. I asked if I could add my hometown sign of Danville, Illinois, as I was homesick for my hometown and my girlfriend Eleanor…,” said Pvt. Lindley.

“In 1992 Carl Lindley returned with his wife Eleanor, to Watson Lake for the first time since his departure in 1943. He was overwhelmed when he saw the size of the Sign Post Forest. At a sign re-enactment ceremony, he replaced the original Danville, Illinois sign that had rotted away long before.” That’s awesome. The marker that tells that story is old now. It claims (at that time) there were almost 55,000 signs in the forest. I looks like a lot more. They plant new 6x6s regularly, it appears.

Jaywalking the Alaska Highway near the center of Watson Lake.

Smoke, thunderstorms, and sunset… Watson Lake

Another phone booth. I didn’t bother to check if it worked.

A shot up old Army olive Ford, perhaps dating from the original highway construction. Another cool inn: The Air Force Lodge. I recommend it. A former Royal Canadian Air Force military barracks converted by a cool German immigrant into a dorm-style inn. Common washrooms, and individual bedrooms. It’s cool and very well maintained. Michael, the innkeeper, is a fantastic conversationalist.

I told Michael I was sorry to see his Ford all shot up. He laughed and replied in a knowing German-Canadian accent, “No, that was shot up by the jealous husband of the girlfriend of the man who previously owned it long before me.” Ha! Michael is clearly very smart. He claims he can get it running again as soon as he has the time. I’d like to see that.