Alaska or Bust: Revisited: Big Creek to Mendenhall Creek, YT Part 1 (6/24/2017)

Day 11
1964, the Plan: Tetlin Junction to Fairbanks, AK.
1964, the Actuality: On Monday, July 27, the Explorer Scouts traveled from Big Creek to Mendenhall Creek (River) in the Yukon Territory.

Saturday, June 24, 2017
We departed from Big Creek Campground and in quick succession saw a black bear, two moose crossing a river, and three snowshoe hares.
Because Rancheria was mentioned as a planned overnight stop on Day 8 for the Explorer Scouts, we stopped there for breakfast.

Rancheria, one of the first lodges open to the public in 1948

In 1946, the British Yukon Navigation Company/BYN started a bus service from Dawson Creek to Whitehorse, and financed the construction of four lodges to provide gas for the buses and food for the passengers.

The original part of the lodge

1964: View along the Alcan Highway (Dr M)

2017: View along the Alaska Highway, closer to that mountain

Kent on the wheelchair accessible trail
to Rancheria Falls

Part of the trail is on a boardwalk

Rancheria Falls

Apparently the river divides and there is another falls

Tamiasciurus hudsonicus/American Red Squirrel (KSS)

Whoa! The squirrel leaped off the boardwalk (KSS)

An RV from France

1964: Another view along the Alcan Highway (Dr M)

2017: Another view along the Alaska Highway,
seeing more of the mountains to the right

Swan Lake; the pyramid-shaped mountain with white
below its top is Simpson Peak in BC

A memorial cairn commemorates Alaska Highway
construction worker Max Richardson

1964: Nisutlin Bay Bridge (Dr M)

2017: Nisutlin Bay Bridge, the second longest water span
on the Alaska Highway at 584 m/1,917'

In Teslin, YT, we stopped at the Yukon Motel and Lakeshore RV Park, which has a Wildlife Gallery. In case you missed seeing wildlife in the wild, you can see them in dioramas! This was the best display of stuffed animals, if you wanted to take photographs.

Dall sheep

They also had displays of Native artifacts

Beaver and elk

Barrenland caribou

The Yukon Motel is also known for its pies;
we tried the bumbleberry (mixed berries) and blueberry pies

Teslin also has the George Johnston Museum

George Johnston was a Tlingit who was known for trapping and photography.

A blanket made from gopher (actually Arctic ground squirrel) pelts

George Johnston brought his 1928 Chevrolet car to Teslin
by paddlewheeler, and cut a 3-mile track to drive back and forth

George Johnston also used the car to hunt bear in the winter on the frozen Teslin Lake. The bears could see them coming, so George had the car painted white! It obviously has been beautifully restored.

A replica of his trapper's cabin

Continuing on the Alaska Highway/YT-1...

Five totems (c. 2001) carved by local artists,
at the Déslin Hà Kus Teyea Dàkhakhwân Hit/
Teslin Tlingit Heritage Centre

The totems represent the five Clans in which Teslin Tlingit Council society remains firmly rooted: Kùkhhittàn/Raven Children, Ishkìtàn/Frog, Yanyèdi/Wolf, Dèshitàn/Beaver, and Dakhł΄awèdi/Eagle.

Marsh Lake Dam; Marsh Lake is the headwaters of the Yukon River,
which starts here and flows 3,218 km/2,000 miles northwest to empty
in the Bering Sea, making it the fourth longest river in North America