Headin to Jerusalem by way of Jerico

The title denotes a round about way. We have to head north and east for over a day before we can start south.
The motorized barge out of Gustavus was also towing someone's boat back to Juneau, along with our rig aboard. When I went to greet the rig in the early morning the barge was parked in the harbor and I noticed the small boat they were towing was on it's side and had partially sunk while the barge crew slept (After seven plus nighttime hours of conveying our rig across the inside waterways). The small boat's motor was submerged in salt water. When I awakened the captain he was in disbelief until he looked over the rail. We finally got our rig that afternoon. Two days later, Wednesday about midnight, we got on the ferry to Skagway. We got a few hours sleep lying on bench seating in the closed bar/lounge of the ferry, where we figured it would be quietest. Thurs AM we offloaded and began the steep climb up White Pass out of Skagway. The road this far north is rough in places from winter after winter of frost heave, necessitating many slowdowns to navigate the irregular areas. Darkness overtook us that evening after only about 400 miles of progress. Few dare drive at night up here because of the large wild animals that may wander onto the road in the dark. We camped overnight in a provincial park campground. The host called us British Columbia senior citizens when we registered and gave us a half price deal. I told him our true residence and he said, "Tonight you are from B.C." Next morning we awoke about 8AM to 28 degree temps. I was grateful we slept that late because the previous night and day were short on rest. The camp host told us they already had their first snow which reached all the way from Ft. Nelson down to Hope, but said it would be melted by the time we reached Ft. Nelson. Next morning travel through two Provincial parks was beautiful on the winding road with a lot of up and down. The scenery and wildlife viewing were awesome. Again we saw caribou, also many bison and a half dozen bighorn sheep. They come down to the road to lick the winter salt from the pavement. One group of caribou started running alongside the truck. The pix is a bit fuzzy as both the animal and cameraman were in motion and he had to pay attention to driving with caribou running on both sides of the rig. (No animals were endangered in the making of this photo ;-) The big feature was the fall colors. On the way north spring had not arrived yet. Now fall was in full display. We ogled and pointed for hour after hour at vistas and rich fall colors with the sun on them.




After Ft. Nelson the road turns south and improved a lot for about a hundred miles. Then we hit road construction. A few months are all the good weather they have to do road repair in the far north. I didn't count the number of flaggers or stops, or the time it took for a pilot car to lead us miles and miles across soft roadbed. I could feel the trailer bogging down as I tried to pull its wider wheelbase over areas cars did not compact. My least favorite was several bridge repairs with complete stops. Rivers are in valleys and often the ascent up the mountain from the bridge had me in second gear for miles after the stop. They don't reconfigure the mountain much for these roads. Some of the grades here are 10%! An hour before nightfall we made it to Fort St. John, a bit tired after a fairly long day with only three pit stops. I fueled and am ready for tomorrow. Paulette found our missing map tonight, which will help greatly as our northerly map doesn't go much south of Ft St John.
After all the driving activity Gustavus seems weeks behind us already.