Alaska Hotel Dawson Creek

Reached BC (Back to Civilization?) and started meeting loads more vehicles on the roads; BC also paved the lower part of NWT’s road to Fort Liard to show those northerners how much more money they have to spend.

Bought supplies, including cheaper beer, in Fort Nelson but decided against staying in a motel at ridiculous rates. So we ended up staying at Andy Bailey ...

... Haines Jct and camped at Kluane RV Park. This was more like a parking lot with little or no services, but a welcome place to rest from the drive.
7/21/09........Left Haines Junction early Tues. morning so we could find the "Glass Dr." in Whitehorse to fix our bullseye. Woody called him about lunch time and he said he'd meet us at the Walmart parking lot. All fixed and ready to roll by 1 pm and on our way to Watson Lake. Another "parking lot ...

... here someday, this will be fun. For the rest of you, just skim through it, and don’t get too bored.

The East Access to the Alaska Highway actually starts in Great Falls, Montana, then goes north through Calgary, Red Deer, and Edmonton, Alberta, and northeast to Dawson Creek, British Columbia. It has available side trips (that is where we learned about the Canadian Badlands, Drumheller, and Lethbridge). We had wanted to do all seven of the Canadian ...

... paid $1.69 per litre for diesel. (we just paid .95 in Dawson Creek) Anyway, back to the mountains, it was a overcast day and the clouds were settling in. Bill said not to worry, the clouds were above us, well, we got above the clouds, could not see the drop offs and the trip went well. We could see the road good, except in one spot, so up, over and around the mountains we went. (temp 62 deg) getting colder. We stayed at Sikanni River RV park. We ...

... and either had to back in the exit or pull in only part way. We decided to pull in only part way and face the backing up part this morning.

We were ready to leave around 7:30. It took a lot of jockeying around to get the rig out of the campsite. The ground was wet from the rain, so Art had to give it enough power to move, but he had to be careful not to hit any trees at the same time. Keep in mind that we have a car hauler on the ...

Today was definitely a step back in time and a history lesson. We spent the day visiting Museums and exploring the unique town of Dawson City.

Alaska Highway House Museum - The Story Behind the Highway
We watched a movie about the building of the "Alaska Highway" which was completed in 1942. It was built to secure land transportation needed ...

... on the announcer's booth. It looked like a group of men, and a few women, mostly in their forty's or fifty's enjoying a day of exercise and bonding between themselves as well as with their horses. There was prize mony, but no one seemed overly concerned about who won what. Everyone was very complimentary of each other when things went well, and it seemed to be "no big deal" if the exercise went bad. I came close to running out of gas ...

... to happen when you try to follow a GPS in an area you don't know. But the funniest thing was literally the last cache for the day, we almost skipped it because we couldn't find a trail then we found it. We got to the location where I found the cache, pulled it out, and while I was trying to put it back I found a second, then as I was attempting to put them back a SQUIRREL jumped out, jumped on my arm and then lept to the nearest tree branch. I of course a little shocked let out a ...

Enfin c'est parti. Une journée de 588Km, la pluspart du temps sur une route à 4 voies. Défilement de plaines et de collines en passant par Grande Prairie pour arriver finallement en Colombie Britannique à Dawson Creek, l'entrée du Alaska Highway. Nous sommes au Mile 0 et à compter de maintenant tout ve être en relations avec ce point de départ. Il n'y a pas grand chose à voir ...