We spent the night at Peace Island Park. It was nearly empty so we had a pull through and never disconnected. So easy to pull out in the morning. This is where we lost all signal. Pure torture. Seriously. We really didn’t need our gps’ because the Alcan is the only road–we just had to go in the right direction–don’t worry–we did. I never thought I would be so helpless without my internet. Helpless is really not the right word but I can’t think of another word to describe what it was like to not have service. I am so used “looking something up” whenever I want and contacting anyone at any given time. Naturally, there were a million things we wanted to ‘look up.” And a million people to contact. Ok, a million people is pushing it. When we set out on this trip the plan was to wing it as far as camping. And it worked out just fine. But usually we would start looking for a campground to book once we got about an hour away. Well, that wasn’t possible without the internet. We had planned on staying at Muncho Lake for a couple days to rest and go visit Laird Hot Springs. When we got to Muncho Lake they were full. So we continued to Laird Hot Springs and they were full but, they did have an over flow lot so we stopped there. Judy and Mike were going to meet us at Muncho. We did have a satellite radio so we could at least text Judy to let her know where we were.

Our night in the overflow cost $26 and included use of the hot springs. We took a walk to see them the night we arrived and headed down at 7:00 to take a dip. It was so nice and warm and so cold when we got out.

Along our trip on the Alaska Highway aka Alcan we saw 4 black bear, 2 moose, 9 stone sheep, more bison than we could count, 1 porcupine and 1 fox. We did not get a picture of the fox.

The scenery was beautiful as we traveled along the highway. Sometimes it is hard to not stop to take a picture but we knew we had a long way to go–and we did stop sometimes, just not as often as we might have had we not had a schedule.

We posted our sign at the Sign Post Forrest and took a hike to see Rancheria waterfall and we had a Fourth of July picnic along the river. Then went on to Whitehorse where we will finally meet up with Mike and Judy who have been booking it along the Alcan with 12 and 15 hour days just to catch up with us.

It has been a few days! We left Montana and entered Canada on July 2nd. We originally planned to go through Roosville port of entry but, decided to forego the more mountainous route to Carway. We expected to be detained slightly as they went through the camper but, the officer asked where we were going, and then asked if we had any wood or boating equipment. We did tell him we had a blow up kayak. He asked when was the last time we had it in the water. When we told him it had been 2 weeks he said ok, have a nice trip. It was that easy. He didn’t confiscate our dairy, veggies or meat. 

We were so excited to be in Canada and to keep our food!! Our next stop was in Okotok where Judy was to meet a friend she met in an online photography class. John and I went to Rumple Quilt Skin quilt store and then we went to Tim Horton’s  to meet up with Mike and Judy and her friend.

After lunch we headed to our campsite at O. R. Hedges Lions Campground. It is a piece of land owned by the city and run by the Lions Club. A win win if you ask me. We had power and electric.  We got all set up and went into town to a Walmart to replenish some supplies when we received a text from Judy saying they sprung a huge leak in their roof and had to go to a hotel. OMG! We grabbed a large tarp and headed back to the campsite. John and Mike worked on it a bit and thought they fixed it—but they didn’t. Judy and Mike headed to a hotel and told us to keep going and they hopefully they will catch up.

We drove for a few hours and stopped for gas somewhere around Edmonton. John went in to pay for the gas (you have to pay up front here) and I went to the bathroom—because I never miss an opportunity to go. I walked out and looked up at the camper and thought it looked weird. As I got closer I realized the window had been blown out. John was pumping gas and never noticed.

Luckily we were right next to a Rona’s which is like a Lowe’s. John an in to get some plexiglass and caulking and tape and whatever he needed, while I cleaned up all the glass. We don’t know when this happened but we were really lucky that it must have happened after it stopped raining. It set us back 3 1/2 hours but all is well that ends well.

We made it to Dawson Creek and took our picture at the infamous Alaska Highway sign! We drove another 35 miles up the Alaska Hwy to Peace Island Park and spent the night. We didn’t even disconnect. I have more to tell of the past couple of days but the internet is still kind of iffy right now. Will continue hopefully tomorrow.

John and I headed out to Glacier again. Judy and Mike had some things to do so we went without them. I was able to get reservations for today so we did not have to wait until 3:00 to enter. We didn’t get as early of a start as we had hoped but we arrived about 8:30 this morning. Our main goal today was to hike Avalanche Lake trail. By the time we arrived all the parking lots were filled including some that were a mile away. So we decided to head to St Mary’s Lake and take a hike to Baring Falls.

We stopped at Logan’s Pass Visitor Center to use the facilities and as soon as we got out of the car we saw Big horn Sheep in the parking lot. The bladder can wait!!

There were 3 of them and they just sat and posed for everyone. What more can you ask for? Maybe a Grizzly or two or three or four? Well that is exactly what we got just after we left the parking lot. We started from way across the valley and then we drove to the other side to get ahead of them.

The top left is when I was on the other side of this ridge. The others were after we drove to the other side. I know these are not great shots, but they wouldn’t look up. John made me get back in the truck because he said I was too close. I had a really long lens on my camera–I wasn’t that close.

We finally got to St. Mary’s Lake and hiked to the falls. The lake is beautiful, the hike would have been better if it wasn’t so wet and cold.

After leaving St. Mary’s we headed back toward Avalanche Lake to see if we could get a parking spot. We circled around a few times and found someone backing out. Yay! We set off for what was to be the highlight of our day. (Actually the bear did it for me). We got about .5 mile in and it started to rain. We decided to keep going. It rained, it stopped, it rained and then it poured. We were about 1/2 way there. John thought it best we turn around because there was already a stream running down the trail. I am sure he was more concerned that I would fall. Anyway, we turned around and suddenly we heard thunder and knew we made the right decision. Though we were disappointed and cold and wet, we had a great time.

Tomorrow we set out to cross the border. It might be a while before I post. Not sure what internet service we will have.