NO, NOT TODAY, MAYBE TOMORROW.

Day 9; I can live like this. It isn’t always pretty but every day has its own parameters and you don’t dwell on what was or might have been. The couple on motor cycle from Palmer, AK: talked to them again yesterday. They told me about the Liard Hot Springs on the road up to Watson Lake, Yukon. Said it is too good to pass up so I was looking for it. When I walked in the gate, they were just a few minutes ahead of me. We swam and soaked for a couple of hours, along with lots of others but we were the only English speakers. I recognized German, French and something that sounded Slavic or Cyrillic at best; funny how good will and body language overcome almost any obstacle. My friends were still slow cooking when I took off. 

While I was getting in the truck a man pulled up and wanted to look at the tear drop camper. I showed it off but the conversation went way beyond the camper: he was retired from Canadian Nat’l Parks. A former Superintendent at Laird River Provincial Park, we had lots in common, from bears to chipmunks but always back to bears and almost an hour later, I pulled back out on route 97. My best plans to reach Whitehorse were scuttled by serendipity and it’s been a great day. You can plan on great scenery but the people you meet are the salt in the soup. Drove in and out of a few showers but sunshine most of the time. 

The Laird River is huge. Drove parallel, down in the gorge or up along the rim, most of the afternoon. It was full, bank to bank, churning with monster eddies and whirlpools, dark with sediment, over a quarter mile wide in most places. I wondered where it was going. When I stopped for the day, I learned it turns north and joins the Mackenzie River, emptying into the Beaufort Sea some thousand miles to the north. In North America it ranks 2nd only to the Mississippi/Missouri system. Really impressive; the Laird by itself is hundreds of miles of remote, undeveloped hydraulics, surging north, ultimately to the Arctic Ocean. What must the Mckenzie be like?

Rock Sheep, Black Bears and Buffalo browse along the highway right of way. Almost all the campers stop and take photographs: so close, all you have to do is roll the window down, point and shoot. The animals don’t seem to give a hoot; really, really close but neither did I see anybody getting out for a better look. They say we will see Moose today and tomorrow and that will be cool. I’m done trying to anticipate how far I’ll get on a particular day. I’m just driving: stop, eat, sleep and see what I see. I’ll get there. I'm pulling out of Watson Lake this a.m. and will capture breakfast somewhere on the way.