Watson Lake to Tok, Alaska!!!!!!

Today has been a very long but gratifying day. I woke up at 4 am under a beautiful light sky with pink wispy clouds. It was 37 degrees and time to hit the road. Traveling at this time has obvious benefits: no other drivers, and some special wildlife viewing. My first gift was watching a porcupine lumber up a hill on the side of the road. It looked like an over confidant tank. Not long after, I saw some snowshoe hares along the road, then a bigger gift: an arctic fox with a hare in its mouth. (sorry, hare) The fox had some sort of problem and was using only 3 legs to walk, but was quite effective nonetheless.
 I enjoyed watching the mountain scenery change while listening to the Jackson 5, (no, I am not kidding), Ferron, (Driver), John Denver (Windsong), Don McLean, Queen (Greatest Hits) Tracy Chapman (Crossroads) and back to Fleetwood Mac.
There were a couple of dumfounded looking Canada Geese, and several arctic ground squirrels. (some road kill, some not yet)
I was excited to see the mighty Yukon River later on, and walked down to greet it. Another gift awaited: a beautiful beaver swimming! I delighted in its presence and the heavy flow of the river was very interesting.
There is major evidence of the spruce bark beetles havoc, as many acres of trees are black and standing dead.
Everywhere, I saw dwarf fireweed, aka "river beauty". Lovely!!
I stopped at the Takhini Hotsprings outside of Whitehorse and floated around in the hot water. I prefer Liard, but this was relaxing until the hoard of school kids came with their noises and pool games.
Afterwards, the sight of the Kluane Range from afar, then approaching closer and closer was quite a spectacle. I had a veggie burger in Haines Junction, (very good pickles) and marveled in the beauty of the snowy mountains even closer. I wish I could have stayed there, but had to push on.
The last part of todays arduous trek was a bit of grunt work. The last 200 miles going into Alaska from Yukon are the most challenging. The road is often like a roller coaster--has huge potholes and unevenness, loose gravel, dust, etc. It goes on and on and on....I feel sorry for the motorcyclists and bike riders.
The scenery is so spectacular, however, especially mystical, Kluane Lake.

Alas, after 700 miles on the road, I met my goal of reaching the Great Frontier. If I wasn't so tired, I would be ecstatic!!!