August 4-7: British Columbia & Yukon Territory

We're in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory right now, the largest town we've seen in many days. With a bustling population of 24,000, we've slowed our pace for the day to take advantage of the services, namely to get an oil change and pick up a mosquito net. The only reservations we could get in Denali National Park were a couple days earlier than we had originally planned, so we're generally on a torrid pace, averaging 400-500 miles a day on this leg.

The last few days have been a journey into the increasing remote wilderness of Northwestern Canada. (We're hoping to cross into Alaska today). Each day finds us at a more beautiful alpine lake and campsite then the last, deeper into Pillars of the Earth book on tape, and amidst stranger communities, if you can call them that. For the last couple days I'm not sure anything we've passed would qualify as a town, mostly lodges along the Alaska highway that sometimes offer gas, coffee, knives, guns and fur hats. We came close to running out of gas yesterday and have learned to try not to let the tank get below half full in these parts.

Some highlights from the past few days:
- We stumbled around Vancouver on a perfectly sunny Monday and it felt like a ghost town. Each neighborhood we walked through felt abandoned, and then we finally realized that it was a long weekend as Monday was BC day. We ended up at the beach at Stanley Park and found everybody. It was too packed to fully enjoy, but with the looming mountains, the cityscape and the glittering Pacific, it looked like an amazing place to spend an evening when the crowds weren't there. Vancouver does a great job of bringing the beach into their neighborhoods, San Francisco could learn from them.
- Swimming/bathing in alpine lakes and rivers multiple times a day. The water is very cold, but incredibly invigorating, especially with the snow-capped peaks all around.

- There are a couple not to be missed spots on the Alaska Highway. Both the Signpost Forest, thousands of sign from all over the world in the middle of nowhere), and the Liard Hot Springs were both well worth the stops. One of the hot springs was closed as a grizzly was apparently enjoying the waters...

- The animals...so far we've seen bison, caribou and mountain sheep on this drive. Still haven't seen a grizzly...I'm hoping to soon, Allison's not so sure...