David writes...

After spending the morning looking for a mechanic (it is a very busy time of the year), we found Justin down by the river doing what looked like an annual inspection on a Dehavillad Beaver.  He said he'd had already heard about our problem, and would stop by before the end of the day.

As that silly thing called work is looming in my near future, Earl and I talked about it and I decided to go on to Watson Lake and call when I got there.  By that time the mechanic would have looked at it and we'd know if it was going to be simple and fast or....

At Watson Lake, I called back.  The mechanic came by late in the day and said he'd look at it first thing in the morning.  I decided to wait still thinking and hoping it was going to be something simple and Earl would be in by noon.  

Earl got a room at the airport.  Turns out our friends Dave and Judy were on their way back down the highway and spent the night there too.  

Watson Lake is great because they have a camping area that you can taxi your plane too.  I taxied over and set up camp.   When your camping in the summer in the north, you deal with the bugs with Deet.  What is hard in a tent is that you can't pull the shades...

Watson Lake is a lake as well as a small town on the Alaska Highway that is famous for their Sign Post Forest.  Apparently, during the summer of 1942 when the highway was built, a U.S. GI, Carl K. Lindley of Danville, Illinois, got sick and was sent to the infirmary.  While recuperating, the commander assigned to him the responsibility of repainting the signpost which had different signs pointing in different directions with the number of miles.  This post was important that summer as there were numerous convoys of troops and supplies going in different directions as they built the highway.  Homesick, Carl attached a sign pointing to his hometown with the number of miles.  Others followed his lead and people are still doing it over 60 years later.

The town started counting the signs once a year each year a few years ago.  As of last September, there were 49,777 signs from around the world.  The lady there said they estimate that there is well over 50,000 signs now.  Quite an impressive sight!

Some of the 50,000 plus signs at Sign Post Forrest at Watson Lake, Yukon.

Camping under the wing at Watson Lake...can you say "bug spray?"