SNAFU - June 2nd

Flagger

Follow the Pilot Car

Need to separate the vehicles

One of our heroes

Slowly taking the slack out

Is it secure?

Leaving CR-V behind 

Keeping pace

Excavator

View from CR-V

Brake lights. Good sign

The other hero

We disagreed about the need for a narrative. Linda thought the photos could stand alone. Here is Carole's version of the story.

It was another one of Linda's bright ideas.  She decided we should take a short side trip to Atlin, BC.  It’s British Columbia's northernmost and westernmost settlement. For years, it has been known as the "Switzerland of North America". There are some Yukon Government campgrounds on the way down so we wouldn’t have to take the camper the entire way. You can see the US Army influence from the 1940’s in the names of the campgrounds. One is SNAFU, acronym for Situation Normal All F___ed Up.

We got on Hwy 7 to Atlin.  And again found road construction.  What happens is that people build the roads and the permafrost thaws, heaving the pavement into an awful mess.  Then the road crews come in and scrape off the top layer, pack sand down and resurface the top.  This lasts for a while until the permafrost rears it’s ugly head again.  Mother Nature always wins.

We got stuck in the sand.  First we had to unhook the vehicles.  Not easy when the tow bar is at an angle. Then they brought over EXCAVATOR to pull us out of the sand that was not sufficiently packed down. They hooked us up and slowly pulled us beyond that section.  All this as the traffic behind us sat waiting with the Pilot Car to be escorted through the one lane road.

It was an ordeal. Once out of the mess, we were happy to stay at SNAFU Campground for the night.  We felt it was fitting.

SNAFU Lake was lovely. We got a great campsite with a view of the lake. As we were backing into it, who should show up but our friends Dick, Patti and Wojie. They had decided that Johnson Crossing did not have what they wanted in a campground, so they were also going to Atlin.

They had been sitting in the line behind us, listening to the road crew’s radio talk about this big rig getting stuck in their construction project.

It was great to be parked next to them, although the campers look like Mutt and Jeff (another 1940’s reference for you). Patti came to the door in a short while, bringing a bouquet of Saskatoon Berry flowers and Aspen leaves to cheer us up.  We slept well that night and the next morning headed to Atlin. On the way we passed TARFU campground which stands for Things Are Really F___ed Up.