6/14
Continued on Rt 1 and then branched off on Rt 3 to Yellowknife. Crossed over the Mackenzie River; the Deh Cho Bridge (deh cho is Dene and means “big river”) is a marvel. It was built in 4 years – the crews continued to work through extreme weather conditions. The state-of-the-art deck system is one continuous structure running the entire length of the superstructure, the longest such bridge in North America, and cut the mass of concrete required by 30%. The further north we went the more scraggly the spruce trees appeared, probably due to the extreme winter conditions and poor soil. There was more and more exposed bedrock as we proceeded towards Yellowknife; the land reminded us of Newfoundland which is basically a big rock covered by a dusting of soil ( the Yellowknife Golf Club issues players a square of astro turf to place the ball on when taking shots since the fairways are mostly sand and rock, and the greens are pure astro turf; also, if your ball gets stolen by a raven there is no penalty to replace it). Wood buffalo all over the place, the Mackenzie Bison Sanctuary, which Rt 3 cuts through, hosts a herd of about the same size as that in Wood Buffalo National Park.
We passed numerous camps of morel mushroom hunters. Extensive forest fires last year have given rise to an abundant crop of the mushrooms which bring $10 – $20 per pound. Tempted to stop and try our luck but the hunters would probably not look kindly on it since it is their livelihood and not ours. Camped at Fred Henne Territorial Park in Yellowknife. Good strong cell signal so the Rogers hotspot works fine.