It was the same old bull. I got up close to him for a photo but he never looked up. A little later on, I came upon the whole buffalo herd, grazing alongside the Alaska Highway. A man in a house-bus wanted to move through, but the old Tianamen bull just stood in the middle of the road and stopped the traffic. I came across this same herd, I am sure, when on this road in 2012.

It was a good day for animals . I was alone on the highway when a caribou wandered out of the forest onto the road. I stopped, but didn't think I would have time to get my camera out. Wrong. The caribou crossed the road, walked up towards me, turned around, ate some grass, then wandered back across the road and disappeared. No other traffic came by.   

Earlier in the day two black bear cubs wandered out of the forest onto the grassy verge to play, not noticing me alongside. Didn't see mama. Didn't stay to find out. At other times I have seen porcupines by the side of the road, wandering slowly along.   On the Dempster a mother bear and her cub wandered onto the road and stopped, and stared at me. I stopped in the middle of the road. A big white pickup roared up behind me, overtook and charged the bears who scattered one to each side of the road. So much for game park etiquette and Canadian courtesy.

The route went South East from Watson Lake following the Laird River into the mountains that separate the Yukon from the central plateau of British Columbia. Great bike ride along a road set right alongside the water (lake or river) twisting and curving with the shoreline. Most of the run is through BC Provincial Park land. This has to be the most interesting section of the Alaska Highway.