Alaska or Bust: And the adventure continues...

Day 4 on the road…

Tonight we are camping in Dawson Creek, British Columbia. In 4 days we have driven 2250 miles. We are now at Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway and will officially slow down beginning tomorrow. Today we were on the road early and drove about 600 miles. I sure am glad we have a travel trailer for this trip, I can’t imagine tenting it like we did last summer. The weather has cooperated but the mosquitoes sure haven’t!!! They have had an abnormally wet spring and summer in north central and northwest Canada, many of the side roads are still flooded out. We were both especially tired tonight and after getting the trailer all hooked up and leveled, etc, I noticed that the microwave clock wasn’t on… that means that the electricity hook up wasn’t working. It wasn’t a problem with our equipment so we ended up having to move camping sites, what a pain, but we have gotten to be very efficient at getting things set up and taken down J

We have had an interesting experience with our debit cards. Even though the bank was notified ahead of time that we would be traveling through Canada and Alaska, they decided to start declining the use of our cards at gas stations, grocery stores, etc. Customer service at the bank insisted that it was the fault of their 3^rd party Visa fraud unit, and of course the fraud unit insisted that it was the bank. After each of us spend an hour on the phone, we think they probably got it worked out. But it was very frustrating when paying international roaming charges to be put on hold forever.

Tomorrow, we are planning to get Tetsa River, about 375 miles. Saturday will be a very short day of only 101 miles to Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park. I plan to spend a large portion of my day relaxing in the hot mineral springs.

It’s now 11:00 and its just getting dusk… very strange.

This is our updated route at the end of day 5 (2550 miles).

Day 5 on the road…

Today we woke up and were on the road by 8:00, but it was actually 7:00. The map we were looking at showed that Dawson Creek was in central time (thank you AAA). We wanted to make a run to Walmart to pick up some supplies… OK, yes I have become a Walmart shopper, but for this trip only. We got there at 7:20, oops – the time did in fact change when we hit the BC border. Instead of waiting, we took our pics at the start of the Alaska Highway and figured we could hit the Walmart in Fort St John about an hour down the road.

Interesting facts about the Alaska Highway: it was built by the US military in 1942-43 to get supplies to Alaska during WW2 and opened to the public years later. The original road base was logs topped with gravel. It is 1390 miles long, when driving north you pass 50% of the population that lives along the highway in the first 50 miles. Most of the population living along the populated beginning of the highway are involved in gas and oil, there are small towns that have brought in trailer complexes as dorms for the energy workers. As the paper mills and plywood plants have closed down, many of those workers have been absorbed by the energy industry. They say building the Alaska Highway was the biggest feat since building the Panama Canal. After a day of driving the highway, I can't even imagine the working conditions 70 years ago...

Today was cloudy and rained off and on all day, we drove as far as Fort Nelson and are camping here for the night. We didn't make it as far as we planned but it was a full day of driving and we planned to slow down so I am happy with how far we made it today. We bought our bear spray today and toured the Alaska Highway Museum. As far as animal viewing goes, a wolf ran out in front of the truck this morning, we believe it was a timber wolf. Shortly after lunch I spotted a black bear on the side of the road. I got to see its hind end, so I guess that counts as seeing a bear, right??

Gas prices are interesting... The is a huge variability between US states and between Canadian Provinces. Alberta, especially the Edmonton area has been the cheapest in Canada at $1.05/liter, today we paid $1.42/liter. In the US, Michigan was by far the most expensive state for gas that we drove through.

I’m beat having traveled 2550 miles in 5 days, a week ago I was just finishing my bike ride in San Francisco… What a week and no wonder I’m exhausted!!

Tomorrow we are headed to Liard Hot Springs, I am pretty excited about this, AND we only have a 177 mile drive. This is kind of a rest day for us, but we will be roughing it! There will be no electricity!! I have gotten really spoiled since all of my tent camping last summer with no amenities.

kate