We left Fort Nelson this morning, heading North on the Alaska Highway. Last night we stayed in the Trailer Park from Hell. The place sounded good in the guide… shaded spots, showers, and mini-golf.

When we arrived, however, we found that the campground was little more than a parking lot occupied by uptight old folks in huge RVs. They kept asking us to turn down our already-quiet-music. Eddie was quietly singing folk ballads by the campfire when one neighbor asked us to ‘can the music, okay, buddy?’

The past day’s drive from Moberly Lake was a fairly uneventful one. The Alaskan Highway consisted of gently rolling hills through forests of stunted fir trees, none over 15 feet tall. I later learned from a native of Fort Nelson that this was muskeg, a boggy land. He also told me that there was permafrost at this latitude (59 degrees).

The arctic circle is defined as the latitude where the sun never sets at least one day of the year. We’re not there yet, but the days are getting noticeably longer. It was still quite light out at 10pm, and when I awoke at 8am, the sun was already high in the sky.

I’m writing this on Don Kane’s Powerbook Duo. Mine appears to have died in a fairly significant way. It doesn’t boot past the little ‘happy mac’. I’m somewhat depressed about this, since I was really enjoying my role as chronicler of the trip. I’m going to try to find an Apple Service Center in Watson Lake or points North. The machine is still under warranty, and it would be great if they could fix it.

Until I find a fix, I’ll continue to write using Don’s mac, and I’ll take one or two photos a day with the Quicktake camera. I’ll then upload the photos to the net when I return.

Today we’ll get to Liard Hot Springs, just 200 miles or so down the road. And then we’ll soak our mosquito bites in the healing waters.

Scratch scratch scratch…
Ron