April 28 Toad River to Watson Lake

The weather report looks a little better so we  have decided to head north after 3 nights at Toad River.  This is the site we are leaving.

One of the strange signs we have seen is this one in the hall of the motel.  No one works the night shift but as you can see if a room is available you are welcome to stay.

 

Leaving Toad River the first 150 miles were packed snow or clear pavement.  It varied so much we decided to drive the vehicles separately for a while.  Then the last approx. 55 miles were loose blowing snow and sometimes a complete whiteout.  Took these two pictures as I was following Francis.

                                      

Sometimes it was very hard to see exact location of the road.  Of course this did not stop the 18 wheelers from passing. This was not a fun day of driving.

After days of travel and not seeing any large animals, today we saw approximately a dozen small herd of buffalo.

                           

Most of the lakes are still frozen even though many of the rivers have at least partial free running water.

When we reached Watson Lake we found few businesses open, the Visitors Center shows open mid-May to mid-October.  Even the sign forest is not ready of visitors.  In 1942 when the Alaska Highway was being built post were erected with distances to some cities.  One homesick GI posted the distance to his home never thinking this would be beginning of such a large group of signs.