Author: Rae

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Grocery Shopping North of 60, Take One

Watson Lake has one grocery store, ‘Watson Lake Foods.’ It is small, but fully stocked, with a decent selection of ‘ethnic’ type foods. I was happy to find my first loaf of Russian black bread since Ottawa (!) at a fantastic price of 2.50$ as well as, for a treat, a package of pre-made gyoza (Japanese dumplings), for a reasonable price of 5$. I didn’t have any sticker shock whatsoever as I wandered the aisles. Convenience and junk foods were a bit higher than down south, but not significantly so, and fresh produce was comparably priced. I picked up Gala apples for 1.19$/lb, which is a bargain! Cheese is ludicrously expensive, as it is in BC, at a couple of dollars higher than there, but I got some blocks approaching their best by date for very good prices and will freeze them. One thing I noticed is that they’ll have a product, say unsweetened cocoa, but in only one brand and size. So, while I’m used to paying 3.99$ for a small off-brand tin of cocoa, I  had to pay 7.99$ for a large tin of Frye’s brand; no big deal of course but I’m sure some people would have sticker shock at that even though the unit price is comparable.

I got everything I needed and a couple of treats and still met my bi-weekly budget of 75$ without feeling any sort of pinch. The north has yet to be financially intimidating!

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Bannock

If you’re Canadian, chances are that you’ve made bannock at some point in your life, probably in summer camp or as part of a school outing. I used to make it whenever I camped, but sort of forgot about it as the years went by. I picked up a recipe for this quick bread at the Fort Nelson Museum last week and have had a craving for it since!

This morning, I looked at the multigrain bread I normally have for breakfast and felt mildly queasy. So, I decided to whip up a batch of this bannock for a welcome change of pace. Of course, bannock tastes best cooked over an open fire, or, in a pinch, a cast iron skillet, but this morning’s batch made in a non-stick frying pan was most satisfactory.

Ingredients

(can be halved)

4 cups flour

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

3 cups water

raisins (optional)

Method

Mix dry ingredients. Add water and mix dough to a drop consistency.

the dough will be very wet

the dough will be very wet

Melt cooking fat or heat oil in a frying pan until hot.

Drop tablespoons of mixture into hot fat.
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Fry until brown all over.

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Suggested toppings: honey, butter and jam, or, this morning’s sweet treat, real Quebec maple syrup.

The bread is very light and chewy. Unlike my former favourite quick bread, biscuits, bannock is great cold.

You can, of course, adjust the quantity of fat. I’ve been burning a lot of calories these days, so I didn’t go lightly on the olive oil this morning, but normally I wouldn’t use any fat at all in my non-stick skillet. I would also normally do half whole wheat flour, half white, but I was out of whole wheat today.

I didn’t count how many cakes a half recipe made, perhaps a dozen or so. Total time from getting the ingredients out of the pantry to flipping the last cake out of the pan: fewer than fifteen minutes.

I never keep eggs in the house, so these are going to become my alternative to pancakes. They’re so good! With raisins, they can easily be eaten as is. Next time, I’m going to add some nuts, in addition to the raisins, to turn the bannock into a great hiking snack.

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Endless Sunshine

The weather has been improving daily. In fact, the last three days have been nothing but sunshine, with increasing warmth. I’ve been going out with one less layer every morning. Tomorrow, I’ll be graduating to a tee-shirt!

Even though it apparently still gets dark in the middle of the night, I have not seen darkness in about a week. I go to bed in full daylight and get up in full daylight.

After a long, dreary winter, one’s first instinct is to get as much sunshine as possible. The first lesson the north has taught me is that you must crush this instinct in order to get a proper night’s rest. Even though it feels so very wrong to do so, I shut all the blinds in the rig sometime between 8:30 and 10:00 PM to simulate dusk. I’ve covered the windows in the sleeping loft, so it’s quite dark up there. But if I have to get up for any reason during the night (glares at the cats), then my night is shot–the brightness in the rest of the rig wakes me right up. But I have been sleeping better than I would have expected.

That said, the days are starting to have a timelessness that is most confounding. It is easy to get caught up in things during the course of the evening and the next thing you know, it’s going on eleven o’clock! I actually find myself watching the time a lot more now that the environmental time cues are being stripped away.

During the day, however, that sun is oh-so-welcome! I’ve spent the last three days outside from 10AM to 4 or 5PM. I’ve been going through sunblock in record quantities, but I’ve still gained quite a bit of colour and I’m sure any vitamin D deficiency I contracted through the winter has been remedied. 🙂

To think that on Sunday I found myself trying to accept the fact that spending my summer in the Yukon meant having no summer yet again. How quickly the weather has changed!

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Happily Moiling Away

Looks like I’ll be in Watson Lake through at least Thursday.

I did a good day’s work today and have projects lined up for tomorrow , Tuesday, as well as Wednesday. There could be more work ahead, we’re all just taking it a day at a time. Today was not nearly as boring as the following might sound: I sorted recyclables.  There was counting, hauling, and clambering around involved and the day went by quickly. I wouldn’t have wanted to do two days of that, though, so I worked a bit longer than the owners thought I would just so I could finish up. Tomorrow, I have to move some dirt around, something I’m very good at. 🙂

I’m happy to be doing a variety of chores and to be outdoors. The weather is steadily improving, the staff is friendly, and I’m getting a taste of what is entailed in operating a major spread.

Hopefully, the water will be turned on in the park tomorrow as my fresh water tank was fully emptied at lunch today. I can haul water from the restaurant for washing up and doing dishes, but I’m looking forward to a proper shower! I checked the weather and tonight should be our last night below zero. The park owners are optimistic that we’ll have running water tomorrow, as well as a functional laundromat. My holding tanks are doing well, though, at only about half full each, which is remarkable since I haven’t dumped since I left Dawson Creek!

The territorial parks will be opening shortly and I hope to start staying in them when I can’t work for rent. Soon as I can get the generator to be trustworthy, I would like to try to stay my full limit at a park, two solid weeks without hookups, just to see if I can do it.

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Sign Post Forest and Wye Lake

I drove into Watson Lake this afternoon to take a gander at the town, especially the famed Sign Post Forest:

A tiny sample of the more than 65,000 signs in Sign Post Forest

A tiny sample of the more than 65,000 signs in Sign Post Forest

The Sign Post Forest was started by a homesick GI building the Alaska highway in ’42:

The original sign post (reconstructed)

The original sign post

What struck me as I walked through the forest was from how far some of these signs had been hauled, including all over Europe and the Americas:

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In case that's not clear, these folks drove from Guatemala (C.A.=Central America) to Alaska. WOW!

In case that’s not clear, these folks drove from Guatemala (C.A.=Central America) to Alaska. WOW!

Or not hauled, but the people still came from across the sea (and were quite creative):

A Sterilite container lid marked up by a family from Holland

A Sterilite container lid marked up by a family from Holland

I was also surprised to discover that I couldn’t stare at one section without seeing a sign that reminded me of a place I’ve lived or visited:

Mt. Baldy is the ski hill near Oliver and the first time I set foot in Virginia was to visit Arlington.

Mt. Baldy is the ski hill near Oliver and the first time I set foot in Virginia was to visit Arlington.

Fond memories of camping at Lake George (upstate New York) with my family

Fond memories of camping at Lake George (upstate New York) with my family

I lived near Bobcaygeon for nine months and enjoyed showing my dad the sights in this quaint village.

I lived near Bobcaygeon for nine months and enjoyed showing my dad the sights in this quaint village.

Menomonee Falls was one of my many stops on the Great Road Trip of '05

Menomonee Falls was one of my many stops on the Great Road Trip of ’05

Nepean (green sign, bottom right above the yellow) is home of the Ottawa Municipal Campground, from whence I set off my RVing journey

Nepean (green sign, bottom right above the yellow) is home of the Ottawa Municipal Campground, from whence I set off my RVing journey

Trying to remember what brought me to Wiarton all those years ago

Trying to remember what brought me to Wiarton all those years ago

I stopped in Black Diamond when I was touring Kanaskis Country in September '08

I stopped in Black Diamond when I was touring Kanaskis Country in September ’08

There were several more that stuck out at me, and this was just from random browsing without doing any in depth scanning. Visiting Sign Post Forest was a real trip down memory lane!

The Watson Lake Visitor Info Centre is located in the heart of the Forest. Staff is very friendly and helpful. I was surprised that they were open so late on a Sunday! There is a small gallery there about the building of the Alaska highway as well as a movie. Unlike the similar exhibits in Dawson Creek, these were Canadian-centric. I was surprised to learn that the U.S. did not wait for Canadian approval to start work on the highway. So, the Americans really did literally invade Canada! Thankfully, we’re pretty laid back… or Prime Minster Mackenzie King knew we couldn’t afford to go to war against the U.S., again, for invading us, again (even though we kicked their butts last time, but that’s another story altogether–Google the War of 1812).

I took a picture of this sign because find the sentiment to be so true:

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You don’t miss comforts if you’re long enough without them.

It was getting on dinner time by this point and I had a twenty minute drive back home, so I just stopped quickly to check out Wye Lake. It’s time to point out here that you don’t actually see Watson Lake from the town, only Wye Lake! As for Wye Lake it was named because it occurs in the centre of the ‘Y’ in the roads around it.

Wye Lake

Wye Lake

The other main tourist attraction in Watson Lake is a planetarium called the Northern Lights Centre, but it won’t be open until at least Tuesday, so I’m not sure I’ll get to see it this time around. The rest of what’s to be done in the area involves being out in nature: hiking, hunting, boating, fishing, that sort of thing. Watson Lake is a full service community with a few restaurants, a bank (CIBC, yay!), a grocery store, a few gas stations, ample choice in accomodation, a good hospital, an RCMP station, etc.

While at the Visitor’s Centre, I met some gals on a long weekend road trip. When I got home, I decided to have dinner at the lodge and as I was eating the gals traipsed in in search of good grub. They asked me to join them and we had a blast talking about my travels. That’s one nice thing about being a solo traveler; you get to meet so many wonderful people!

With dinner, I continued to discover the local brews, finding the most perfect beer ever: Midnight Sun Espresso Ale by the Yukon Brewing Company. Beer and coffee together in one beverage. Perfection. 😀

Thankfully, it’s getting warmer!