Packed up this morning and got ready to roll on out and hit the road for the Yukon! We said our goodbyes to our neighbours after a tour of their 40ft RV. Pretty impressive rig! It was like a show room... Two bathrooms, leather sectional, two big screen tv's, king size bed, washer and dryer, full size regular fridge!! Quite amazing! They started out as tenters, then pop up campers and so on... They travel around in their home for 8mo of the year. We we're impressed with the quality, but agreed we are happy with our little old home on wheels.
Left Muncho Lake around 11:15am and it was minutes later that we saw a cariboo mama and calf at the side of the highway. Snapped some photos. The mum didn't look super healthy.
Not long past that we saw a big dall sheep right by the road.
Made it to Liard Hotsprings sometime around 2pm. Paid the $10 total to check it out. Parked the M.T. in the shade and had a picnic lunch under a cook out shelter before packing a backpack and heading for the boardwalk trail. Lovely walk through a swampy area and cool trees to reach the hot springs. They have been outfitted with very tastefully done wood slat changerooms and steps into the natural pools. It was very hot in the first pool so we skipped it and entered the second section first. Kids had their life jackets on and were happy to float and enjoy the pools with us once we carried them over the hotter parts. Both of them were very keen to explore the narrower part that flowed into the other creeks. It was like being in a tropical jungle! Roots and plants overhanging the edges. Very neat.
We saw Don and Anne there again and said hello and bye again before we left. We think we spotted two "lesser yellow legs" birds wading in the marsh as we walked back along the boardwalk.
Back in the vehicle we saw bison at the side of the road (3pm) and a herd of them an hour later. This herd had at least two little calves. Really cool to see this group. Very majestic animals.
Trouble Ahead...
Unfortunately, about 4:30pm... The Mobile Traveler started acting strange. Kids were asleep, thank goodness... No added stress needed. The engine was lurching as it it was running low on gas, or wasn't firing on all cylinders. We thought for a minute that we were going to break down on the highway right beside a huge bison. We were fine on gas and the temp gauges were all fine, but something was clearly not right. It would sputter and lurch and then be fine. Gah!!!
We decided to push on and literally 15 min later we saw the first "welcome to the Yukon" sign, but I couldn't take a photo because we didn't want to slow down in case we stalled! And, I wasn't prepared with a camera! It was only 15min of sputtering and the engine seemed fine again. So weird. We would have to investigate this...
We managed to make it to Watson Lake by 5:30pm. We stopped in at the tourism centre and got information about the RV parks in the area, decided on one out of town that has a mechanic, and then we wandered the famous Sign Forest (if we go back, we will make ourselves a family sign and put it up!). Here is where we had some free WiFi and finally some cell reception. We called the grandparents to check in and report that we made it to the Yukon!!
We went for dinner at Kathy's Kitchen restaurant and then drove the 20km or so out of Watson Lake town to the Baby Nugget RV park. We dumped the very full sani tank and pulled up to our site that had full hook up water and electrical. The bugs here are not as bad as Tetsa River, but worse than Muncho which had barely any bugs. We have all been chomped by horseflies over the past week... Amelia seems to be the tastiest. Poor kid.
When Jonathan checked under the hood of the Mobile Traveler, he was very troubled to see fluid leaks under the master cylinder. Upon examination of the mc he noticed one reservoir was empty of brake fluid and the seal was all sucked in and warped. When he jumped in and pushed the brakes, they went all the way to the floor. Our brakes were pretty much shot. Pretty scary stuff. We feel lucky to have made it here safe and sound.
He will be checking in with the mechanic first thing in the morning. Hoping it is only a couple of days delay. :(
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