| After we had sorted out
the tyres and the oil change we headed down to Teslin where we had camped on
the way up. We spotted this as we left. |  |
Immediately after the campground is a bridge over the river. We never made
it! As we pulled out on the road there was a huge bang and our engine suddenly
sounded very sick. There is no mechanic in Teslin, we were faced with returning
to Whitehorse 110 miles to the north or going on to Watson Lake 170 miles to the
south. We were strongly advised to return to Whitehorse.
Well we sounded like a tank but we seemed to pull OK so we headed back for
over two nervous hours. The RV repair place said 'It's the engine, go to Ford'.
Ford said 'Can't look at it until the end of next week'. They sent us to
Fountain Tyre who listened and said 'Sounds beyond us'. They sent us to Horsman
Mechanical where Terry and Riley sorted us out. We had blown a spark plug out of
the engine stripping the threads in the aluminium head. Apparently these engines
are prone to it and they had a kit to fix it. They couldn't do it until the
following afternoon and they recommended checking the other nine which took us
to lunchtime on the 16th.
 |
The engine from the inside of the cab with the doghouse removed. It is a
6.8L V10 engine and the cylinder which had blown was almost at the front on
the right hand side. The most difficult to reach of course. |
| It wasn't any better from
the front even with the air filters removed. But they did us an excellent
job and it didn't turn out as expensive as I had feared and at least we
found someone who knew what he was doing. The plugs had been changed about
5000 miles ago by a Ford dealer in Dawson Creek. I will be having words! |  |
 |
So we set off from Whitehorse south again, pausing to admire the mural on
the wall of the Transportation Museum by the airport. This mainly celebrates
the building of the Alaska Highway in 1940. |
| They also have some
railway bits since the WPYR used to come as far as here. This is the 'little
engine that did' - but I don't know what. It is a 12T 0-6-0T Porter tank
engine and was built in 1888. It was used at the Coal Creek mine about 54
miles north west of Dawson City. |  |
 |
We didn't go round because we were now running rather behind schedule. So we
just looked at the outside. This was once a sternwheeler but looks to have
lost its paddles. Maybe they are being renovated. |
| Next door is the Beringia
Museum covering the ice ages when the Bering Straits was a land bridge. The
mammoths are unfortunately plastic. |  |
 |
So we headed south once more towards Watson Lake hoping to get as far as the
junction with the Cassiar Highway. |
| Normally everything
passes us as we only travel at 90kph (55mph). It is rare that we pass
anything. The back wheels on this vintage car were wobbling quite a lot. We
are a bit sensitive to that at the moment. |  |
 |
This is the bridge at Johnson's crossing where the road to Ross River turns
off. The bridge is quite spectacular from this view but looks very ordinary
when you cross it. |
We were just 9km short of Teslin when there was an almighty bang and we were
leaving a trail of bits. Rapid investigation revealed we had lost the tread from
a rear tyre and we were also leaking propane. Teslin was becoming a bad place
for us.
| When the rear tyre blew
it tore the gas line apart as you can see. Tthe red copper tube has been
yanked out of the main gas feed. Fortunately we could smell it so I had
turned the tank off almost immediately. |  |
 |
I had felt that we were stripping a tyre tread which was why we had had all
the tyres checked in Whitehorse. Maybe I was right after all. |
| We found a young lad in
Teslin who could change the tyre and he also fixed the gas line. Jan read
for a while but then got persuaded to throw a stick for his dog and ended up
making a friend for life.
We had to stay overnight yet again in Teslin. |  |
 |
We set off on Saturday morning in some trepidation but made it over the
bridge and down 150 miles to Junction 37 where the Cassiar Highway starts.
This is almost 800km long with almost no habitation or services and at this
stage was not looking good. |
| There is a lot of frost
heave and sections where it had been rebuilt. We had expected quite a lot of
this road to still be gravel but so far we have only found this short
section and it is better than some of the sealed road. |  |
 |
About 100km in we came to Jade City where they sell jade that they mine
close by in northern BC. About 90% of the world's jade apparently comes from
here. The jade is shipped to Asia for carving then shipped back to be sold
here. These carved eagles outside are only wood - perhaps that's why they
look so miserable! |
| Jan bought a small piece
of jade but not this one. |  |
 |
There are odd bits of old machinery from the mine but we couldn't find out
where the mine actually is. |
| Continuing onward towards
Dease Lake we pass this striking feature which is known as Needlepoint
Mountain - for obvious reasons. There is almost no traffic on this road in
either direction. |  |
 |
Dease Lake, although we are still 40 miles from the village and campsite. |
|