Day 4 - Watson Lake

Thursday, August 16, 2012
Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada
Time seems to slow down in the North. It does for the vegetation. Trees grow more slowly due to the short summer. A sign in the Rancheria Falls Park I visited today said it takes 100 years for the vegetation to stabilize again at its climax composition after a fire. In the Southern Yukon the blue spruce eventually dominates, followed by lodgepole pine. As one travels down the highway there are signs indicating the year in which the most recent fire occurred. Trees from 1958 do indeed look half the size of those untouched by fire.  

Also, World War II is much more present here than in Washington DC (in spite of the monuments) . Yesterday I crossed the convoy of WW II vehicles (and re-enactors) commemorating the highway. Today it was the remains of more vehicles used to build a road from oilfields in Northern Canada down to the Alaskan Highway in 1942. The oil proved too expensive to develop, so the project was abandoned, but the road remains.

And people have more time. Winters are long. Towns are small. The range of activities is limited. Michael, our charming German host at the Airforce Hotel agrees. He says he stays in Watson Lake all winter, and has no desire to return to Germany, after 16 years away.  

I had dinner with a group of Australians traveling on motorbikes around Alaska and Western Canada. They had done this kind of thing before and loved it so much they actually bought their own bikes, and store them with a friend in Seattle for future ventures. After dinner we tested out entertainment alternatives in Watson. Our choice was the Northern Lights show . Held in a small planetarium, what you see are time lapse sequences of the aurora borealis -- taken from different points on the Arctic Circle. I never realized there is a ring around the world, hundreds of kilometers high, of these lights dancing and glowing continuously. It more or less tracks the Arctic Circle. One only sees them when its dark, no clouds, and the Sun is electromagnetically active, sending out charged "winds" which interact with our own little magnetic field and our atmosphere, and make light.  

I spend the day either freezing or sweating inside this enormous grey suit -- armored at the joints to diminish the physical damage from a potential fall. I feel like a certain knight, of doleful countenance, mounted on a trusty but crusty steed going from town to town listening to peoples tales. No windmills in sight... but trucking down the highway today I saw the next best thing -- an old WW II vintage DC 3 airplane wrapped up in blankets to keep it warm...

 
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Comments

Pita
2012-08-17

It is great to read your blog again; quite the treat! I'm enjoying BA. Back to Juanicó tomorrow. Thank you for sharing your amazing trip with good writing and wonderful pictures. Cariños y un fuerte abrazo rioplatense.

Harry
2012-08-17

You are probably taking 97 to Edmonton, but if the spirit moves you, the area around Jasper is more than worth seeing. Banff and Lake Louise are real high- end tourist traps, although the views are still spectacular, so you would probably want to cut back toward Edmonton before you get that far down. If you don't go to Jasper you can always see my pictures as a second or third best alternative. How are the saddle sores?

Gwynn
2012-08-18

Photo-wise, it would be hard for me to choose between the guerilla knitting or the totem poles. Creativity abounds.

2025-02-07

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