I wanted to be… a lumberjack!
Leaping from tree to tree, as they float down the mighty rivers of British Columbia.
The Giant Redwood. The Larch. The Fir! The mighty Scots Pine!
- Source:Lumberjack Song lyrics by Monty Python
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Out of America at Eastport / Kingsgate border cross from the Panhandle north Idaho Hwy 95 “going metric” alongside the Moyie River. First “Welcome” and “Come Again!” community of Canada :Yahk. Survey stop Moyie Lake Provincial Park headwaters for the Moyie River. David McCullough’s voice reads 1776 in a fresh dog swim scent. Across clear Kootenai River flowing to its future home: Lake Koocanusa. Past Skookumchuck but before Canal Flats on Whiteswan Lake Forest Service Rd, a soak stop called Lussier Hot Springs. 
Temperature descends in stone lined pools to the frigid Lussier River that rushes tribute to the Kootenai River. Alces (the Genus and species name of moose) Lake and Whiteswan Lake nestle campgrounds where at Pack Rat Campground, a dinner picnic table allows a moose view meal. Whiteswan Provincial Park 5 star.
Breakfast menu: Chocolate Chai Tea, scrambled eggs, hash browns avec Pack Rat Peak sans Alces (sp) before a second soak stop at the springs and off north deeper into the land of the “Loonie” and “Toonies”. 
At Radium Information an overheard conversation while using free wifi sends itinerary into the sink. According to info desk, campgrounds in Banff and Jasper are not open as of yet with the exception of Banff. Further the Palomino pop up is considered a soft shell and is strictly not allowed in campground as “the big bear are rumbling and bumbling hungrily about the valley”. Dr Suess aside, info advises 
Glacier Icefields Visitor Center parking lot allows “overnight parking”. Through the narrow cliff gates into Kootenay National Park, passing grazing bear, through Banff National Park into Jasper National Park, all under a series of snow covered Mt.s and peeking Peaks: ie(s). Stanley, Waputik, Catarack, Andromeda and Athabasca. Eschewing the crowded and slanted “overnight parking” lot instead “Overnight Parking” at Buck Lake trailhead facing a south stare down with Catacomb Mountain.
A.M. routine punctuated with sweet preamble to Buck Lake. A pair of orchid Pink Lady Slipper giving homage along the trail to the range reflected on the lake surface. A few old friends in the form of Anopheles and Culex sp(s) mosquitoes make their first appearance. Athcabasca Falls roars a surround sound as the powerful rapid river water slowly carves at the rock walls of the narrow canyon. There are tour buses parked and multi accented groups snap pics, stare with awe, smile and permission to pet Golden Era.
Quaint Jasper at the valley junction, a location with historied tourism, a train stop for the CPR continued to this day. Busy Jasper information stop, patient park rangers dispensing data, opening maps, a room of open laptops, a swirl of languages watched from the street by the totem. Big Horn Sheep cross the lot perhaps giving the Miette Hot Springs the yellow goat eye of envy. A cup of hot soup, soak and float followed by a stop and stare down with Fiddle Mountain. Out of Jasper National Park to the William A. Switzer Provincial Park.
Gradually increasing the frequency of the intermittent windshield wipers indicating a steadying rain until out of the wet a bicyclist waves. Satoru San biking the world but, paradoxically, running low on water gifted forward with full gatoraid container. First camper for the year at Pierre Grey’s Campground. A night rain and dans mon sommeil “Je danse avec le vent, la pluie.
The morning puddles of the service road, forest rain scent dripping from the pine. Grande Cache information stop, a museum with an outdoor display of preserved lookout cabins. Bits of snow accompany increasing precipitation. Where there was news of a fire burning, now, a snow. Out of the windows of Philip J. Currie Dinosauer Museum articulated fossils blank stare at the blizzard. Dawson City Days Inn shelter and a boat bailing.
Oh the toque is on appropriate for the continued wet mixed precipitation. F250 “Leukolugs” encased like an icebreaker.
Fort Nelson, the gateway to the ALCAN, km zero. Photo op swap with “Jim and Judy” traveling in a “Minnie Winnie”. Magically as the km race past, the weather begins to break, thinning clouds, a little piece of blue, patches of sun move across distant foothills, pieces of ice crack away and rattle away disturbing the psyche of Golden Era. Off with the toque, the goretex, on with the sunglasses.
Remains of a motel, a cafe, rusting gas pumps, rotting buildings with broken glass reflecting Mt St. Paul in Stone Mountain Provincial Park. Golden Era finds a friend in Willie, a squatter in this wreck. Another camper pulls in and Eddie, traveling from Wisconsin recalls memory of a long past visit. Willie speaks in a heavy Polish accent. He has wintered here slowly burning pieces of the buildings for heat. At the Summit Lake Campground, someone flies a drone recording the jade water. It is Victoria Day weekend. 
There has been a string of “Minnie Winnies” and they seem to be increasing in number like tribbles.
Muncho Kaska for “big water” and yes, big water, but Muncho Lake at depth lies a massive jade jem, coloring, from the deep lake a magic blue. Golden Era contrasts this color swimming into the cold water. Michelle, a park operator at Liard Hot Springs advises to “watch out”
for the bear while on the boardwalk to the hot springs. Under cloudless sun sky, a soak and float. Concrete steps to the sandy hot pools fed by the springs. Outside Connect, a bear. Inside Connect (“the cheapest gas in Yukon”) bald face hornets buzz about the fuel pumps. Proust and the Squid USB book. Atlas A side road for camp at the Smart River confluence with the Swift River.
Teslin Bridge, Teslin Lake, Teslin the Yukon.
Atlas Obscura entry Watson Lake sign post forest stop. Wandering in locations “Minnie Winnie” “Jim and Judy” are replacing their sign that they had left some years past. Commenting on the numbers that are sighted yields the “Minnie Winnie” story. Apparently there are some 900 “Minnie Winnie”s migrating on the ALCAN. Bear, bear here, bear Ursus americanus but also woodland buffalo, moose, big horns all grazing along this ALCAN. A camp at the confluence of the Smart River and the Swift River, Smart ends here. Kat Arney leaves me hungry for more “Herding Hemingway’s Cats”.
Whitehorse, YK, the historic hub, still a quick stop for fuel, supplies…lo “Minnie Winnie”, “Jim and Judy” redundancy. A flash twilight zone thought that there are “Jim and Judy” as clones in all the “Minnie Winnie”s. The frequency of sightings has become premised with profanity. 
Takhini Hot Springs sore bone soak. The Yukon beauty reflecting a hard land, reflecting waters, snow bordered blue skies poked by mountains vast, distant, and crumbling little communities, wrecked work vehicles remnants of US Army ALCAN construction left at locations like Destruction Bay. Congdon Creek tumbled rounded granite rock makes a Kluane Lake beach.
Mixed ingredients of history, flora and fauna, makes the site visit of Kluane Museum of Natural History at Burwash Landing. Yukon english derived word alleged to mean “from the settlement of gold” but possibly another word connotative of frost heaves.
