Day 4 - Whitehorse to Watson Lake, Yukon (518 km)

Photo of the Signpost Forrest in Watson Lake, Yukon. Fascinating.

A beautiful day up here in the Yukon, but not so good in our competitive trials.

The first Regularity today had two timing sections. We were prepared and then I made a rookie mistake. As we started the Regularity, I forgot to turn on the stop watch….embarrassing, but true. Accordingly, our times on these two sections were terrible. Although we aced the second Regularity with a perfect time, our screw-up on the first pushed us down in the standings to 6th in class and 14th overall. There are lots of days to go, but we’ll have to claw back a position at a time.

Today’s drive in the Yukon from Whitehorse to Watson Lake looked a lot like a drive through Montana or Colorado. Beautiful vistas; lots of sun and lots of healthy trees. My only regret is that we don’t see many animals. Some of the competitors report seeing bears, moose and elk. Where they have taken a picture I have tried to post them on this blog. For us, one red fox and one black bear crossing the highway.

We’re in Watson Lake tonight and they have a very unique park in this town. They have a dedicated park called: The Signpost Forrest. It all began in 1942 when an Army soldier was selected to clean up a municipal park and put up accurate distance markers. He did that, but also put up some automobile license plates to highlight the destinations. Since 1942, 77,000 other tourist have posted either their license plate or other small sign to recall their hometown or their journey through the Pacific Northwest. Very expressive and impressive. Stop and take a look at it if you get up to these parts.

Off tomorrow toward British Columbia as we work our way back to the “lower 48.”