Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, BC- Alaska Hwy.
Trip Start
Jul 02, 2008
1
7
21
Trip End
Jul 21, 2008
Fort Nelson,
British Columbia,
Canada
Monday, July 7, 2008
Day 6
Dawson Creek, BC to Fort Nelson, BC Canada
Well, we are sitting at mile 300 of the Alaska highway as of now. Spending the night at the Ramada in Fort Nelson. Today has been a interesting day, but not overly exciting, but you know you can't have exciting all the time.
The morning started out about the same as usual with waking entirely too early for the present time zone. We started the journey from the mile marker 0 about 8 am Pacific time. Our first stop being at the Kistikanaw Bridge which is the longest, curved wood bridge in North America. It one of the original structures from the original Al-can Highway. The drive was 2 lane and paved to the bridge with some gravel, which was the original highway.. The scenery was awesome. In the book "Dead North" by Sue Henry, who writes the Jessie Arnold series about murders in Alaska, Jessie is driving the highway and a kid gets thrown off this bridge and killed. Later in the trip we will be staying at the resort that part of the book takes place in.
Before we even really got out of the populated section of the Al-can we inherited an even larger crack and chip in the windshield. This one on the passenger side. I told mom that she is going to have on heck of a windshield claim to file when we get home. Thats the second windshield crack/chip this trip.
We made a couple of little stops on the way to Fort Nelson, including the pull out for Suicide Hill. Suicide Hill is where the phrase "Prepare to meet thy maker" originated as it was a very step hill.
Below the kiskatinaw Bridge
The original highway ran over this, now days it bypasses this hill. We did off and on see the original Alaska highway running parallel to the current highway, that is when you aren't driving on it.The weather has been very weird today, not sure whether it wanted to be warm or cold, or sunny or rainy. Just one of those days where the temperature fluctuated from about 45- 73 degrees and at times was raining with thunder and occasionally sunny.
We stopped at a museum here in Fort Nelson, Fort Nelson just recently became a city and prior to the 1980's was just kind of here. No real businesses and just considered a unincorporated village. They didn't even get plumbing and refrigeration until the 50's.
While we were in Taylor, BC we stopped by the Lone Wolf golf course and saw the "Worlds Largest Golf Ball."
Today has been a weird geo-caching day, as it seems that either our GPS's aren't calibrated right or something is interfering with them, as we couldn't seem to pin point on any one spot and well, geo wise it was a very off day with only 4 caches found. Oh well, we saw some new things we hadn't ever seen before.
Tomorrows plans consist of driving as far as Liard Hot Springs. We have a room reserved in the Lodge there, and will probably spend a nice little hunk of time relaxing in the natural hot springs. (The Sue Henry book previously mentioned stops here as well) The pools are basically just like sitting in a creek with a board walk going by, totally all natural. No concrete and they say sometimes bears and moose join you. Other stops will probably be Muncho Lake, Summit Pass, Summit Lake, and the hoodoos at Stone Mountain Provincial Park. Tomorrow will be the worst stretch of road as this is the section that is continuously getting improved as it is this section that winds through the Northern Rockies of Canada.
I will be continuing to type out my journal and will post when I am able to but due to the lack of chain hotels and staying in lodges I can't guarantee the next post. But will post the logs when I have access.
