Flat tire fixed & heading south to Iskut

Mike took photos of our campsite at Watson Lake this morning.

From Nugget City to Watson Lake

We drove over to the Visitor Center at 9:00 and Mike called Verizon again and have the Canadian calling plan added to our phones. Tech support said our phones may work once we get into an area with stronger cell service.

After thanking Rena at the Visitor Center for her help yesterday, we left Watson Lake at 10:45 and headed back west along the Alaska Highway and then south down the Cassiar Highway.

Yesterday (and again today) we drove through a large burn area that just went for miles and miles and it looked fairly new.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

I asked Sonja at the Visitor Center this morning about it and she said the fire occurred last year and burned from April through November and burned 450,000 hectares (over 111,000 acres) and it even flared up for a short time earlier this year. Sonja said that there was also mud slides at the same time as the fire last year and the highways were closed. She said if they had had to evacuate, which way could they go – towards the fires or the mud slides?

We stopped for lunch at 12:15 at the Beaverdam Rest Area – didn’t see a beaver dam anywhere. We have been driving on the Yukon Plateau and now are entering the Cassiar Mountains.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We saw this German RV parked beside Simmons Lake and had seen the RV back in Watson Lake yesterday – they sure picked a beautiful spot to stop!

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We stopped at Super A Foods in Dease Lake to get gas in the RV and got 107.936 liters at $1.449 a liter (28.522 gal at $5.532 a gal).

We drove by the Lower Gnat Lake and then the Upper Gnat Lake where we saw a few RVs dry camping.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

We arrived at Tatogga Lake Resort at 5:10 after driving 220 miles from Watson Lake. Just as we stopped at the campground, that’s when it decided to rain! I went in to the restaurant/office and registered for the campground. I was given a map of the campground and shown where the pull-throughs are located and told we could just pick one.

We are in site #23 with water and 30-amp electric hook-up. There is wi-fi here up in the restaurant and I don’t feel like walking through the rain and the mud to go there.

From Watson Lake to Iskut, BC

There is also a Man Camp here for loggers that work in the forests here. We could hear helicopters landing at one end of the campground and then we would see men walking up to the Man Camp carrying their bags. Then we would see different men carrying their bags and walking out to where the helicopter was waiting to take them out to the logging camps.