Watson Lake
Yukon Territory
Airstreaming  2006

Arrive:   July 6
Depart:  July 8
Road Conditions:  Very Good
Weather:  Cloudy/Rain
Miles:  130

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This is the day we enter the "Yukon Territory". Sounds like a John Wayne movie taking place in a remote and inaccessible area with wild animals threatening at every turn.  Well - we sped along at 60 miles per hour in a modern vehicle on a well paved (so far) Alaska Highway heading to Whatson Lake, more on the road conditions later.  Today we only encountered a few buffalo in the road and some smoke.  Actually a smoky haze gripped most of the route today making the smell of distant fires very noticeable.  The dry spell continues and the threat of fire is very real., however rain is forecast and will even be welcomed by these tourists.

Power lines again edged the road indicating our arrival at Watson Lake, the home of the Sign Post Forest. Not the only attraction but certainly the most famous, the Forest offers those that dare travel the Alaska Highway an opportunity to leave their  mark.  It was started by a homesick GI in 1942 when the highway was tough, rustic, and a hard slog. Now of course, those traveling comfortably in million dollar motor homes or even Airstream trailers still contribute to the ever expanding display. We found it fun, interesting, and quite large. We also visited the Northern Lights Center where they feature a film displaying the Aurora Borealis which was nicely done with pleasant music but left me wanting for the real thing.

Downtown RV Park turned out to be the best choice. Convenientlly located, maybe a little rough looking, but friendly and a good stopping point. Archie has owned the park for about five years and continues to upgrade his services whenever possible. We had full hookups, good electric power, and even wifi.  Rain came not unwelcome, stopped the fire threat, and washed off some of the dust.

Regarding WIFI: More and more parks are offering wifi and with good reason. Staying connected has become very important to those of us who travel and it is often the deciding factor in selecting a campground. I have installed an external high power client radio with omni antenna on top of my Airstream. This allows me to easily pick up wifi signals that would not otherwise be available, certainly not from within the comfort of my trailer. Unfortunately many parks are simply installing home use wireless routers with limited range, often only accessible a short distance from the camp office but they claim to offer wifi and technically do. The radio I installed will, not always but most often, allow me to connect even to those weaker broadcasts. After connecting I plug into my own wifi router and rebroadcast the signal leaving me reasonably mobil and able to feed the rest of our crew.

Archie was having some difficulty with his DLink router installation. He was competing with other nearby wifi signals on the same channel.  I fixed that and set up passwod protection for his router settings so Archie generously contributed a precut sign board and paints, we now had what we needed to leave our mark in the forest.

Ted spray painted the board black, the only color he had but perfect, and then with Archie's paints finished the sign. Kathleen sacrificed a stained glass Airstream , created by Raynold Lemaire, which I attached to the board, with power drill and deck screws in hand off we went. Ted's attractive sign is now eternalizing our "Airstreaming 2006" trip to Alaska.

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