August 18
39mi/63km
1700ft/518m elevation gain
We ate breakfast this morning with the most persistent little squirrel I’ve ever seen. He wanted some food and he would not leave us alone!
It was a beautiful day and an easy ride to Watson Lake, and we arrived by 1pm. Along the way, we saw a black bear cub. No sign of it’s mama, but it was cute.
We stopped at the sign post forest and looked around for a little while before heading to get some lunch and find a room for the night. The sign post forest dates back to the construction of the Alaska Highway, when a homesick soldier added a sign indicating the mileage to his hometown.
It started a trend, with others adding their own signs, and now travelers from all around the world bring signs from their home to add to the forest. There are over 77,000 signs today.
We checked into our room, showered, did laundry, got groceries, then headed back to the sign post forest to look for the sign my parents with my sister and her family posted when they were here last year. It was quite a hunt, but we actually found it. And although we didn’t have a sharpie, we were able to write on it with a regular pen so we added our names.
Tomorrow, we leave the Alaska Highway behind and head south on the Cassiar. I’m excited to get off this busy road and into more remote terrain.