Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Back to the Dempster 2011 – Part 17

Left Moose Creek Territorial Campground in the morning…

Sandhills in flight

saw a large flock of Sandhill Cranes heading south as we neared Pelly Crossing.  Once we reached Carmack’s we had to make the decision of exploring new territory by taking highway #4 to Ross River and then south to Watson Lake, or going back to Whitehorse.  We had heard conflicting reports on highway #4…some said it was a great road, comparable to or better than the Dempster, while others said it was awful…unfortunately our choice had been made in the morning by the dogs eyes being worse, and the regulator for the propane tanks acting up off and on all night…Whitehorse it would be.

We later heard from a ‘local’ in Watson Lake that the road from Ross River to Watson Lake was in deplorable condition -  the worst he had ever seen – so I guess we made the right decision.

Mergansers in the creek

Stopped at the Tatchun Creek campground for lunch.  We had stayed here during our 2009 trip.  Were sitting having lunch in the sun when we spotted these Common Mergansers on the creek….

Common Merganser

there appeared to be a couple of females with probably a blended family of this years young, not quite ready to fly…

Mom in the midde

you don’t often get this close to Common Mergansers so I’m posting a few pictures – the sun was in the wrong place for really good shots…but the group of them were determined to swim up river which meant going right past us – very cautiously!

Mom again

here is another look…

hugging the shore

and another as they hugged the safety of the far shore as soon as they could reach it…

Shaggy Mane

only other item of note here were these Shaggy Mane Mushrooms….

It was a long day but we reached Whitehorse late in the afternoon and headed to the nearest vet clinic.  They were booked solid but said they could see us in the morning….so headed out to Wolf Creek Territorial Campground which is just a few kilometers east of the city…

Yukon River near Whitehorse

In the evening took a walk that over looks the Yukon River… (Ernie took the above picture earlier in the afternoon)

Trail along the river

This shot shows it is a long way down to the river…

and the other way - looking towards Whitehorse

this is looking back the other way towards Whitehorse…

Hairy Woodpecker

Only really notable item was this Hairy Woodpecker.  Notice how crisp and white it is compared to the ones we are used to here on the coast.  Ours are less ‘crisp’ with the white having a yellowish cast.

We would spend the night listening to the ‘tick’ of the propane tanks regulator then next day headed back into Whitehorse to the vet…got the dogs eyes checked and medication for them.  Fraser Way RV was almost right next to the vet clinic so we stopped in and the regulator obliged by acting up when the technician came to take a look.  They very graciously fit us in and installed a new regulator.  Then onto Super Store to stock up on groceries.  That pretty much used up the entire day – so back to Wolf Creek where we would spend another night before continuing on.

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