Alaska Highway, Part 3: Watson Lake and Whitehorse

The next morning, our bodies refreshed and our faith in humanity restored, we left Fireside and headed towards Watson Lake, which would be our first stop in the Yukon.  I was eager to see the "Sign Post Forest" that I had been reading about in the guidebooks.  Apparently back when the Alaska Highway was first being built, a guy put up a sign with the distance to his hometown.  Just because he was homesick, I guess.  Anyway, other people started doing the same thing and on and on, and today there are over 75,000 signs all posted in one place in Watson Lake!  And travelers are encouraged to add their own signs as they pass through.  I love the idea of a tourist attraction you can become a part of yourself. 

We got in to town in time for an early lunch and stopped at Kathy's Kitchen.  Rich liked my sandwich a lot better than the one he got so I was nice and gave him the other half.  Can't hurt to put a few extra bonus points in the bank, right?  After lunch we looked for the Sign Post Forest on our way out of town.  We didn't have to look very hard... it is HUGE!  Rows and rows of signs almost as far as you can see.  You could probably get lost in there. 

I walked around looking for signs from places I knew.  If there was a Penfield one I didn't see it, but we found a bunch of familiar places, including NOLA!  Rich spotted that one first.  I don't think I would have even caught it.

As I was walking around thinking about how cool this thing was, I was trying not to be too disappointed to not be able to put our own sign up there.  Did people plan ahead for this?  I knew we had a scrap of a 2x4 and I asked Rich if he thought we could make that into a sign.  "Oh, you want a sign?  I think I have some in my suitcase", he says.  Because of course, who DOESN'T carry random signs around in their suitcases.  Sure enough, not only did he have one but several signs to choose from.  He's been known to come up with some pretty obscure items in a pinch but this one was pretty impressive.  I picked the BEWARE OF DOG sign, scratched our names into it with a drywall screw (which of course he just happened to have in his pocket) and started looking for a spot to put it.  We found a great spot right on the back of the entrance sign.  He lifted me up onto his shoulders and I tacked it on.  Now c'mon, how cool is that???  Another little bit of Alcan magic.

Our destination for the day was one of the few places we had arranged ahead of time.  We'd be staying in the Hidden Valley Bed & Breakfast in Whitehorse.  It's the type of place that's sometimes called a B&B&B (for Bed, Breakfast & Barn) or Bed & Bale because it has accommodations for your horses as well.  I knew we were going to like this place when the owner didn't skip a beat when I said we'd  have four dogs in our room with us.  Usually "dog friendly" doesn't extend quite that far.  Not only was she cool with it, but there was no extra charge!  Pretty amazing.  And sure enough, the place was great.  Eva & Emile were excellent hosts and their house is beautiful.  The guest paddock for the horses was great too- enough space to stretch their legs and a nice roomy shelter.

We liked it so much there, we decided to stay another day!  Rich was pretty run down from the last few days of tough driving, the horses were getting a little fed up with being in the trailer all day, and all of us could use a little break.  Especially at such a nice place.  Our 2nd day there was quite luxurious.  We ate at a great spot in Whitehorse called Burnt Toast Cafe.  Unfortunately most things we wanted to see in town were closed because it was Sunday, but it was just as well since we really just needed to relax and sit in one place for more than a few minutes.  So we went back to the house and rested up.  In the morning, back on the road.

Kind of nice to be going zero miles per hour for a change.