DAY 20, JUNE 18: I drove 84 miles (135 km) from Grande
Prairie, AB to Dawson Creek (DC), BC. It
was an uneventful drive with good roads through gently rolling farm land
interspersed with small forested areas.
Trees here were mostly birch and spruce.
The spruce were short and spindly in some of the boggy areas and were
not very large in other areas.
Shortly
after leaving GP, I could see the snow-covered Canadian Rockies off in the
distance to the south. I thought as I
drove that it won’t be long before I will be back in them for more spectacular
scenery! I turned into a pullout at
Beaverlodge to take some photos of the famous Beaver that is the town’s
mascot. I did not go to the museum on
the north edge of town this time since I had spent a lot of time there in 2007
and enjoyed it a lot.
My goal was to get
to DC at an early hour since I didn’t have a reservation at the park I wanted
to stay at and I knew they would be pretty busy. I pulled into Northern Lights RV Park and was
able to get the last site available for 3 nights. The ownership has changed since I was here in
2008 and the new owners have really worked to make improvements to the
park. A caravan pulled into the park
this afternoon and will be here for 2 nights.
I spent the afternoon visiting a local art
gallery that had a juried show in progress.
This place had a nice gift shop when I was here on prior trips and it
has gotten even better in the intervening years. I also went to the visitors’ center to get
information on the Alaska Highway where I was informed it was now paved all the
way to Tok except for some areas of construction. We will see…
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| "MILE 0" MARKER, DAWSON CREEK, BC |
After dinner at the George Dawson Inn, I took a drive about 20 miles up
the Alaska Highway to see the historic Kiskatinaw Curved Bridge that I had not
seen on previous trips. The bridge was the
first curved wooden bridge built in Canada and it is now the only curved,
banked trestle bridge left in Western Canada and the only original wooden bridge remaining on the Alaska Highway.
(The 531-foot long bridge was completed in nine months!) It is on the original Alcan Highway and there
are not many of these types of landmarks that one can see now because the
course of the road has been changed over the years. In fact, there isn’t much of the current
highway that is on the original highway roadbed because of “improvements” that
have been made in the intervening 75 years.
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| KISKATINAW CURVED BRIDGE |
I saw my first moose while driving to the bridge; it was a cow eating
alongside the road. The moose spooked
when I stopped to get a picture so I simply pointed the camera in the general
direction of it and took the picture without being able to see what I was
aiming at. It isn’t the greatest shot,
but it preserves the history of my first moose sighting on the trip. Ha! I
then saw a deer a little further down the road.
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| FIRST MOOSE SIGHTING ON THE TRIP |
It is a beautiful night here—the sun set a little before 11 p.m. and the
colors are beautiful on the few clouds that are in the sky.
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| SUNSET IN DAWSON CREEK, BC |
Wildlife count: 1
moose, 1 deer
DAY 21, JUNE 19: I spent the morning doing errands around the
motorhome—most of the time was spent washing the rear end of the motorhome
which definitely needed it. For those
readers who have not traveled up the Alaska Highway, a lot of time is spent
cleaning the exterior of the motorhome while on this trip. Later on, and depending on the weather
encountered, it will likely have to be washed daily at some points—no small
task when you travel alone and are tired at the end of a day’s travel. There will be times that I will want to stay
an extra day just to clean it up and rest up a bit myself. In the interim, I am spending time cleaning portions
of it daily to stay ahead of the grime before I get into the really heavy
“stuff”. I will post a couple of pictures of my car when I arrived in Tok, Alaska during my 2007 trip which will give you an idea of what may be ahead of me. This was the last leg of the Highway in Canada.
The afternoon was spent at the
Alaska Highway House where there is an interesting exhibition on the building
of the Alaska Highway. This was
definitely a worthwhile visit. Construction
on the highway began in March 1942 and was completed less than 9 months later. It was a primitive road cut through forests, over
mountains, through muskeg, along lakes, etc. for nearly 1500 miles opening up a
supply line for military supplies to go to Alaska and to support the military airfields
through Northwest Canada. The airfields served
as waypoints for military aircraft being ferried from the U.S. to Russia during
World War II as part of the Lend-Lease Agreement.
I found 4 geocaches today to add to my Canadian total. I won’t get very many on this trip, but look for them when I can. Light rain began about 1:00 p.m. and continued through much of the afternoon. I had a mid-afternoon dinner consisting of a very good hamburger at Mr. Mike's Steakhouse.
DAY 22, JUNE 20: The day was spent working around the motorhome and getting ready for a travel day tomorrow. I did necessary errands such as paying bills (they don't end just because I am out of the country), responding to correspondence, cleaning some more of the motorhome, getting a haircut, doing some last minute grocery shopping, working on the blog, and doing some planning for the route ahead. These types of chores never seem to end! Tonight, the summer solstice arrives here. For me, this is usually one of (if not the most) the saddest days of the year because it means the daylight hours begin to decrease. On a brighter note, tomorrow I will get on the Alaska Highway to begin the drive north with hundreds of other intrepid adventurers! The Highway is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year which adds to the adventure. It will be interesting to note the changes I see along the way since I was last up this way in 2008. I paid a visit to the owner of the RV park this evening to say good-bye and we agreed to re-connect in AZ next winter.
I found 4 geocaches today to add to my Canadian total. I won’t get very many on this trip, but look for them when I can. Light rain began about 1:00 p.m. and continued through much of the afternoon. I had a mid-afternoon dinner consisting of a very good hamburger at Mr. Mike's Steakhouse.
DAY 22, JUNE 20: The day was spent working around the motorhome and getting ready for a travel day tomorrow. I did necessary errands such as paying bills (they don't end just because I am out of the country), responding to correspondence, cleaning some more of the motorhome, getting a haircut, doing some last minute grocery shopping, working on the blog, and doing some planning for the route ahead. These types of chores never seem to end! Tonight, the summer solstice arrives here. For me, this is usually one of (if not the most) the saddest days of the year because it means the daylight hours begin to decrease. On a brighter note, tomorrow I will get on the Alaska Highway to begin the drive north with hundreds of other intrepid adventurers! The Highway is celebrating its 75th Anniversary this year which adds to the adventure. It will be interesting to note the changes I see along the way since I was last up this way in 2008. I paid a visit to the owner of the RV park this evening to say good-bye and we agreed to re-connect in AZ next winter.
