Trans Canada Expedition - Day 10

July 23, 2013 – Day 10

Locations: Fort Nelson, British Columbia; Toad River, British Columbia;

So we stayed at an inn in Fort Nelson for the night. Gotta say, it’s pretty expensive… But we all got a really good night’s sleep and in the morning we packed up, ate breakfast and continued on our journey. The road is pretty much just one straight road through, all the way to our destination.

That destination: Watson Lake.

Much of the highway we travelled through is unpaved. At a certain point, there were construction sites and workers working to pave the road. We gained an appreciation towards the workers who come out to basically the middle of nowhere and pave a highway of easier access for the people and future generations. Then we passed them where everything is basically unpaved…

Welcome to the Canadian Wilderness! As we continued to climb up, we see more and more incredible scenery. At the beginning, it was just fog and clouds everywhere. Then there were mountains. Pretty soon fresh water lakes and rivers can be seen. We also saw a lot of wilderness. At a certain point, Billy told us that when he drove through this area many years ago, there were glaciers where we now see empty plains of rocks. It is sad to know what global warming has done.

As we enjoyed the scenery, we finally crossed the border to Yukon and arrived at Watson Lake! We stopped at the Sign Post Forest and stayed there for a while looking at signs people put up (as well as the license plate Billy put up 8 years ago). After which we went to Northern Lights Centre and watched a movie about space and the northern lights. It was very educational. We saw an amazing sight, the sun was still up at 9PM! The moon at night was also lower and bigger here than it is in either Hong Kong or Toronto! Tonight looked to be a full moon, most if not all of us will be waiting until after 1AM to see the Northern Lights, which we would most likely see since the sky is clear.

Note: It is past 11 and we can still see the sun in the distance (setting).

Animals seen today: 3 black bears, 20-something mountain goats, too-many-to-count bison (+1 dying bison)

Yesterday’s count: 2 deer (1 alive, 1 dead)

Lemuel

It took us 10 days to reach up all the way to the Yukon. We have finally reached area the area where we can see the northern lights. On our way from Fort Nelson, we passed by areas where wild animals tend to roam and cross the road. Up here in the north, we were able to see mountain goats and bisons. Once we arrived to the Yukon, we went to see the license plate forest (not the actual name, I just didn’t know what it was called). This is where various license plates from vehicles were posted. We then moved on to the Northern lights centre and saw an educational movie on space and the northen lights. I actually enjoyed the movie since it was a science-y movie. Gonna wake up tonight at 1:30am to hopefully see the northern lights.

Calvin

Today was a relatively simple day at driving, we stopped more than usual to see the sights today, It was interesting to see so many different people come to the Yukon. This really shows when we entered the “License Plate forest.” Heading straight for Inuvik as well so I must do my best as a driver to keep everyone safe. As a leader I find myself lacking skills that I have displayed during the Alpha group. I hope that as I reach closer to the arctic I will display those leadership Qualities.

Mireille

The sky was awesome today. Indeed, when we were in the car, we can saw the cloud very low like we can touch it! Moreover we can breath fresh air. We saw different animals in the road. but there aren’t dangerous. Then, we also saw a very clear water in a lake. The color of the water was polar blue! We didn’t eat lunch but we took a lot of picture and we finally arrived to Yukon! We went to Northern lights centre and saw 1 movie. For dinner we ate rice!!! Yeah and corn and jam and Tuna. Tonight we’ll sleep in Dragon’s Den Motel

Kathy

Today was the tenth day in monticle. We arrived in Yukon today. On the way to Yujon there are a lot of forest and mountains, and the water is very clean, we also saw some wild animals, I took a lot photos. The view is very beautiful I like it very much. Today we drew a new map as well. I was really happy. At night, we still lived in the motle, maybe I will get up at 1:30 in the morning tomorrow, we will go to see some special view, that’s so great, I may try my best to use photo record the view.

Jason Wong

I felt a little tired even though I slept in a bed from a motel. I felt that the motel we were in yesterday was better than the one before. We had bread for breakfast which was good enough. I slept half of the time to Water Lake, Yukon. we didn’t had lunch which was sad but I ate a nut bar since I was hungry. We reached Yukon and we stopped at a area with licence from places around the world. Billy told us that he put his old licence plate there and told us to find it. Eventually as time passes we couldn’t find even Billy couldn’t find it. Billy told us why people leave their liscence plate in that area. we went to our accomadiation for the night which was a hotel, the sleeping arrangements were the same. Later we went to the Nothern Light center to watch a presentation about northern lights.

Crystal

After a super comfy night at a super expensive motel, we quick loaded our luggage and departed. We drove for a very long time and most people were sleeping, however the scenery outside was beautiful. We had also passed many wild animals – bison, mountain goats, and even a few bears. I wished I could’ve taken more pictures, but sadly my memory card was out of space.

After many long hours, we were finally out of British Columbia, and arrived in Yukon we took a group picture and went to visit a sign post forest. I was fascinated with the amount of different liense plates and signs from the various countries in the world.

We loaded everything into our motel and all went to the Northern Lights centre which was located next to us. It was really amazing and I loved the presentation. Hopefully, tonight we will be able to see the Aurora Borealis.

Grace

Today we reached Watson Lake. After we put all our luggage inside the motel room, we went to the Northern Light Center. After buying some souveniers, we watched a short movie. It has two parts, the introduction of the space and the northern light. About 100 years ago, human believed that the solar system was the whole universe, but the development in science, we know more things about the universe. The second part of the movie explained how the northern light came from and also shared some pictures of the light, so I decided that if there will be northern light in the morning, I will definitely wake up at 1.

Quince

Today is a very fun dya. We went to a jungle that have post everywhere, Monticle is thinking to put one also. Then we went to a some kinda space museum. Well that is all for today.

Alan

Today we got to Yukon. Today we went to sigh post forest. sigh post forest. we saw many sighs there from different countrys. It was pretty cool. Exept for the miquettos part. After that we went to see a short movie about the aurera or the northern lights.

Kendra

Bright sunshine is what you’ll see at 9:30 in Yukon. Right now we are experiencing bright sunshine. I sure hope I get used to the sun or else. I probably won’t be able to sleep in the Artic Circle. Today we had to draw another map. Today we learned that we are making these maps because we are using them to go back to Toronto. It was a pretty basic day, mostly driving. We finally reached Yukon today and are expecting to see Northern lights tonight. I’m so excited! Today I also learned that you have to be focused to become a successful leader. That’s it’s for now!

Justin

As we continue to head north, not only the temperature drops, but the daylight has also extended. It is now 9:30pm, but the sun shines as if it is 2:00pm. Hopefully we will be seeing northern lights when the sun sets.

Earlier today, we went to the sign posts forest which is just located next to our motel. There, people would stick their license plate on tall wooden blocs. We attempted to find a license plate that was eight years old, but we were not successful.

After that, we went to the Northen Light Centre to watch a documentary about the universe and the aurora. The aurora in the documentary was spectacular, I really hope that I will have a chance to see it with my own eyes,

Edwin Chan

Today we left from Fort Neilson and headed straight for Watsons Lake. As we head for Watsons Lake we came across some wild animals. Such as bison, mountain goat, horses, and black bears. Apparently I saw a bison doing a number two and every one from bravo car was like “eww”. After a few more hours we finally reached to Yukon, not long after we reached watsons lake. Our first stop was at a licence forest where all the licence from the past was being hanged. After an hour we went to our motel/hotel to set up our rooms and unload our luggages. Once we finished unloading we went to a Northern light Centre to learn about space and the Nothern Lights. Goodnight

Mickey

I just can see hill, tree all day. Of course we can see some animals .. such as sheep. And I feel coal today. just 11C! Yesterday we live in a motel, But it is not cheap. I feel tired today, but it happy. I practing the map. I can’t sleep, I must finish my joy. I will try my best to do it. And I put something down in my heart. feel soft. That is good. When we can see the north light? I really want to know it. J.J yesterday is right. It my so wrong. he is so nice to others. I know the jod important. Thanks J.J. Have a nice day!

Owen

Since we were getting closer to the Arctic Circle, we had to wake up more earlier to reach our target. We almost had a 12 hours of non-stop trip in the vehicle. We even didn’t have time to take our lunch. We were all starving.

We finally stopped in front of a park where full of signs and license plates. Billy told us that he had been put his license plate in this park eight years ago. Our mission is to find that no. ‘EDK 870’ out. Although we couldn’t find it, we really had a good time there.

While we had arrived to the motel, Billy told us a great new. the map that we drew will be used to get our way back home. The official map will be dumped. One of our teammates took photos on our maps immediately. Ha!

After settling, Billy brought us to watch a movie which is about north light. The movie is really boring, I almost fell asleep.

On the way back motel, we saw a lot of souvenir shops. But, I had lost my wallet yesterday so I couldn’t buy anything, So sad!

Howard

Today we departed Fort Nelson to arrive here at Watson Lake. In other words, we’ve arrived at Yukon, home of the gate to the Arctic Circle. The way here was beautiful. Towering Mountains and mystic lakes/rivers surrounded us as we travelled on the Alaskan Hwy. Wildlife wasn’t scarce either as we encountered a cub bear and a herd of goats on the road. I very much find wildlife encounters interesting since you won’t see much of animals such as goat or deer.

Later in the day, we arrived at the sign-post forest. Years and decades ago, miners had travelled from their respective homes to find gold, diamond and potatoes here in Yukon. Upon arrival, they had no idea to mark their journey but their car’s liscence plate which became the forest that exists now. It’s a truly sentimental and awe-full story that really let’s one appreciate the history of the attraction.

Hopefully, tonight we will be able to see the northern lights in the sky.

Edwin Cheung

Today, we woke up at 7:15am at BlueBell in Motel. We had about 500-Km drive. Though the day, we had a long drive through to Alaska. It is a amaing place. 12 years ago there should be ice, but now is all gone, because of gobal warming. Throught the time we see difference speices like Mountain goats, deers, black bear and bisons. We then drive for another 4-5 hour, at about 3:00 we reach to Yukon places board. We had a big group picture with Willy. We then head to Wason Lake, We went to Sign post forest. It have message, car licence place of the world it is is a Car Bario ground. It is amazing to see. Later before dinner. We went to Naton light Mesum. I learn a lot from it. The Movie was amazing and intresting. Tommrrow, We will head to maybe Dawson City. I am also really exsited to see Naton light tonight. It is a displace of Verbrate light though the solar wind create by the sun, that munitic pull of earth suck in create colors. It will be amazing to see. Love you Mom and Dad. Thank you <3 cheung.="" edwin="" from="" p="">

Roman

Today we visited: Sign Post Forest and Watson Lake Northern Lights Center. We had arrived in Yukon territories!  It is 9:50 pm, right now and it is still full of sunshine outside. Tomorrow we will go further north, and we should see northern tonight!

Ryan

Today is the tenthday of our trip, we have arrived in Yukon. After completing a map which is our usual routine we had arrived to the car’s cemetery. It was very interesting historic sight to know the many people that attempted the Yukon goldrush. It is also saddening how many people died in hopes of fortune.

                Today however, my attitude seems to have worsened something I need to improved and hopefully control. I was annoyed at first with the need to remove my map. After that my anger only increased with carsickness.

Marco

We finally reached Yukon. Its really surprising that we reached Yukon in 10 days. We went to the Sign Post Forest when we arrived there. Billy put his motorcycle license plate 8 years ago. We all can’t find it because it disapered. I’m really excited about seeing the Northern Lights. We also watched something like a space museum. There is 2 parts, the first part is about space and the second part is about the Northern Lights. The space part is pretty interesting but I almost fell asleep for the Northern Lights part. Bye now I am waiting until 1:00 AM for the northern lights.

Tiffany

Waking up somewhat well rested, my group and I were the first ones to load up. As everyone woke up relatively earlier than me, they were all prepared and ready to go. As you may think, I was pleasantly surprised. Along the way, the scenery was awesome; there were wonderful wildlife, beautiful mountains, etc.  We made occasional stops until reaching Watson Lake, the home of the Northern lights. After our quick arrival, we headed to the museum for a Northern Lights presentation, some people dozen off, and some people took notes. It was dinner, with everyone in separate rooms, we served diner to all the rooms. It was fun considering they say I look like a 70s waitress in my business attire. As the proportions were not planned out, people in my team couldn’t finish everything, therefore leading to diarrhea, and vomiting. Marco was one of the victims; he wasn’t able to finish everything so everyone else in the team tried to finish the food for him. Unfortunately, nobody was able to. So Mickey stepped up and told me: “ If Billy punishes us  for not finishing our food, punish me I’ll take it for the team.” After his brave proposal, everyone else in the team stepped up. I was pleasantly surprised. Again. So thank you to all, I’m really touched.  As today I am severely tired, well from the writing previously, I’m going to end my blog relatively early tonight, so peace! I’m out.

Mike

After waking up from the very expensive motel room, we, as in Charlie team, did the usual, which included packing up and cleaning, while I and JJ went to get ham and bread for breakfast, which lead to worry moment #1. I broke they key thing to open the can holding the can halfway, so the ham was stuck in the can. In the end, we just used brute force and ripped it open. When we went on the sprinter, we started our detailed maps, which became more detailed, as Billy said we had to use our maps for the return trip when leaving Inuvik. This lead to worry moment #2, which was me, trying to stay awake to mark down landmarks and locations so the map would be more detailed. Sadly, I still slept in the end and missed a lot, despite my teammates telling me I missed only a few things. Apart from that, I am getting even more excited for the day tomorrow as we are getting closer and closer to the Arctic Circle!

Matthew

Today we all woke up after an amazing good night sleep, at the crazily expensive motel. Since it was expensive, we all contributed to “borrowing” the resources they provided. As the student packed their stuff, the leaderships went to HQ teams room to distribute the breakfast. At around 8:45 we all packed up our luggage and equipment back onto the vehicles. Just like yesterday, we continued our tasking of drawing out a map of our trip.

As usual, Billy had something in store for students and leaderships. As you know from the past few days we have been drawing out our own maps of the road trip; this includes intersections, street names, gas stations with prices, provincial parks and even military vehicles. The thing Billy told us, was that all the maps we have drawn will be complied together and will be used to guide us back to Edmonton after we have reached Inuvik. As you can guess everyone was shocked and once everyone was back on the Sprinters, everyone started to make their maps very detailed.

We arrived at Watson Lake at around 6:00 PM. We stopped at a “Sign Post Forest” and looked at all the signs posted on the wooden stacks. Again Billy had something in store for us and he asked all of us to look for his license plate he left 8 years ago. We all looked all over the place and even asked the information centre there. Unfortunately we failed to find it and the staff at the info centre couldn’t help because every plate in the area was placed on the stacks randomly. While we were trying to find the non-existent license plate, which was 870 EDK, Billy went on to find a motel for all of us to live in. In the end we all asked Billy where it was and surprisingly, even he couldn’t find it. We concluded that someone must’ve taken it down from the post it was originally on. When we arrived at Dragon’s Den, we did all the usual stuff of getting our packs and getting tonight’s dinner ready.

Jennifer Wang

I passed out last night because I was so tired. Today, I’m proud to say that I was co-driver for the entire day and I didn’t fall asleep even once! I’ve always wanted to see buffalo, and today, we saw some in northern BC. Mountain goats and black bears were seen as well.

Space and stars make me happy, and the Northern Lights Centre in Watson Lake that we went to just a few hours ago made me very happy. It was beautiful to see the lights dancing across the sky on the screen. What will be even better is that Watson Lake, Yukon is northern lights-central! We’ll be getting up in the middle of the night to watch them!

I read a lot about Canadian geography when I was younger, and one thing that really stood out to me in the Yukon was the Signpost Forest. Seeing it today was like a dream come true. I wandered around those posts for a long time, sort of looking for Billy’s motorcycle license plate that he nailed up there 8 years ago, but mostly just wondering what the story was behind each of those license plates, photographs, dinner plates, frying pans, and even Barbie dolls. There’s a story behind everything, and I can’t help but wonder and feel the need to dig it up. I guess that could be a good and bad thing about me that I need to regulate.

Us leaderships will have to work even harder now to prove that we’re worthy of our positions. I certainly hope that no one thinks that we’ve been taking our jobs and positions lightly. I always take my job seriously, and I hope that I can convey that to those who need to see it.

Jason Wang

Today was a long day. We woke up at about 0645 at the over priced motel run by the Petro Canada people. After waking up, the 2ICs and team captains had a meeting with Billy and the HQ team then at 0845, we began our load up for today. By the time it was 0915, we were on the move from the motel and headed for Whitehorse, Yukon. But due to a variety of factors such as road side construction and driver fatigue, we stopped at Watson Lake for the night. At Watson Lake we visited the “Sign Post Forest” where a collection f signs from around the world were pinned up on poles along with other random items that marked the arrivals of tourists and other individuals who visited the area. We also visited the “Northern Light Center” of Watson Lake to watch a documentary on the northern lights and on space.

I have to say, today was very interesting and I can’t wait for tomorrow and the work which we leadership will be assigned. According to Billy, the tasking for the next few days will be even harder than before.

Michael Fung

Fort Nelson is not our expected stop, but due to Billy’s experience on the (rainy) weather and his travelling to the Arctic Circle, Billy picked a motel beside the Petro Canada Gas Station for us to stay. The bill for the motel is awkwardly expensive – they charge thirty dollars per person beside charging a room for more than hundred and fifty dollars. What a pain for Billy and his wallet! Even though, Billy bought us large size pizza from Boston Pizza (instead of A&W hamburgers which are cheaper but also less healthy) for late dinner to fill up our stomach. See, this is the perfect example of considering the benefits of your peers as a leader.

I have passed out right after enjoying the pizza slices. I originally planned to take a shower before going to sleep, but as long as I laid on my sleeping mattress, all of a sudden, absolute darkness. But still, 5 hours of sleep (which I admit is the one with good quality) is not enough to recover. I originally planned to sleep some more in the vehicle, but as I have Quince sitting beside me for almost the whole day drive, I cannot even have a nap for single minute. He misbehaves somehow a bit intolerable for me but I am shocked about Kathy’s patience on him. He sometimes messes up with his personal hygiene, sometimes makes random laughs, sometimes shouts… Technically, as Billy said to me, he is no different from a nuclear bomb – he does not even need to sleep much for the whole drive while keeping me awake for some reasons. That explains why I cannot resist the temptation to sleep during the presentation in the Northern Light Science Centre about the Northern Light (or Aurora) and the Universe. Sorry for wasting Billy’s 10 bucks!

Just to tell you that we arrived at Watson Lake instead of Whitehorse today. Once we got there, we went to a park of pillars on which license plates, road signs and many other memorial ornaments are attached. Billy gave us a brief lecture about the story of the license plates – many people travel from places far far away from Watson Lake in order to start their businesses and gain some gold. Yet, because of the backward and nomadic transportations, many people got their food running out during the first month. People usually crashed their vehicles or just died because of starving. Some of them even ate stones to fill up their empty stomach. That is part of the reason why Billy did not make us dinner. Just a small piece of information.

After handling another 30-people simple dinner within an hour, we began our journey to the Northern Lights. In Watson Lake, after the sun sets, the sun basically shifts horizontally and rises again at six or so. The sky is as placid and crystal clear as you could imagine. Accompanied with fresh air, scarcely populated city, wildlife sounds… oh my god, I really want to stay in Yukon for more. Hopefully, in the future I will be granted with another opportunity to revisit this place with similar weather conditions and timing!

P.S. Mom and Didi would you mind defining what you mean about insulting Billy’s intelligence? I did not feel I do so (Hopefully so as Billy), but probably I did, didn’t I? Anyways, I am confused, so just please help!