Journal Notes - Campbell Highway

Journal Notes - the Campbell Highway

June 13, 2003 - continued

The southern terminus of the Campbell Highway is in Watson Lake at the Signpost Forest. The road is paved for a few kilometers and passes the Watson Lake airport and the actual lake named after Frank Watson. The weather is still cloudy and cool (8°C/46°F), although there is no sign of the previous day's snow. Today's destination is the Simpson Lake campground.

Simpson Lake is situated among some low forested hills. The weather is cool and damp with the lingering aftermath of the cold front that passed through two days ago.

Simpson Lake is fairly well known as a good fishing spot. It seems to be popular with the locals. On the night I stayed there, about 6 sites were filled and we had the only non-Yukoner plates.

When you stay at a Yukon Provincial Campground, you can either use pre-purchased campground permits or you can buy a permit at the campground and place your $12 fee in the envelope for deposit. I pre-purchased 6 campground permits in Watson Lake for use in my stay. This saves one from the need of making sure you have the correct currency for a night's stay.

As I walked Diesel around the campground, I stopped to talk to a group preparing to go fishing. They had two dogs who came by to greet Diesel. Both were large labs, but one of them was missing his right front leg. He would get around just fine walking normally with his hind legs and hopping with his single front leg. The dogs wanted to do their natural greeting of sniffing each other. Diesel greeted the four-legged dog but would not let the three-legged dog get near him. The look and movement were just too strange.