We were very pleasantly surprised at how great Hank slept in
the tent which also meant we slept great in the tent. We did not stop as much
today but saw some very beautiful country. The scenery changed from rolling
plains to unbelievable dense forests with trees double the height of what they
are in Colorado. We also crossed many rivers that were at least 50 feet wide
which the Canadians like to call “creeks”. One minor driving mishap occurred
when we got off the highway to get gas in Grande Prairie, AB. The gas station
was a little ways off the road and it was time for Katie to do her 2 hours of
driving after the stop. As you may recall, on Day 1 the time I spent driving
was entirely on gravel roads through construction zones and on Day 2, I got to
drive in a torrential thunderstorm. Since we were on a 4-lane highway
approaching the Alaska Highway, we figured it would be a good time to do some
“easy” highway driving. The Canadians decided that instead, the on ramp back
onto the highway should become a gravel country road leading to farmland with a
microscopic sign partway down it to make a sharp left turn to get back to the
highway. Needless to say, Grant did some great coaching of how to back up a
trailer in order to complete a U-turn on a very narrow dirt road with steep
ditches on either side while I white-knuckled it and ranted about why they
would make an on-ramp become a treacherous dirt road.
One of the "creeks" we crossed
Once we were back on the correct road, we arrived in Dawson
Creek, BC which is the official start of the Alaska Highway. We were stopped
for some A&W and pictures when we met a family from Wyoming moving to
Alaska. They were very nice and made us feel very fortunate about our traveling
situation as they were traveling with a very large UHaul truck towing a
Suburban, a pick-up towing a camper, and 4 boys between the ages of 5 and 14.
The man’s name was Mickay Acy(?) and was going to be a mechanic in Eagle River
which is just north of Anchorage. The youngest boy adored Hank and would not
leave his side. When I asked him if he was excited to move to Alaska he said
that no, he wasn’t because they couldn’t bring their dog. I felt bad for him
and asked him if he’d seen anything neat on the trip to which he replied there
were “lots of really great playgrounds”. Darn, we missed those!
Enjoying some A&W in the sunshine, happy that rig behind us isn't our's
Hank in the shade of a caboose
One of the many really big wood grain elevators
The roads on the Alaska Highway were surprisingly in very
good condition and we had no problems except for some 10% grades Grant
navigated expertly while I grabbed the Oh $#!& Bar. All I could think about
was poor Mrs. Acy driving the giant Uhaul truck with the Suburban in tow and I
was VERY thankful Grant was driving. There were signs to be alert for various
forms of wildlife but the only thing we might have seen was a moose off in the
distance in a lake. This may have been my first moose sighting ever or it may
have been a tree branch.
We found a RV campground with showers to stop at in Fort
Nelson, BC around 7pm We had barely begun setting up the tent when guess who
rolled in. The giant UHaul and camper pulled into a spot near us and not two
minutes later the youngest boy came running over to Hank again. I’m not sure he
remembered we had already met as the first thing he said was, “Hi I like your
dog. My family is trying to move to Alaska.” I couldn’t help but notice the
“trying” and could only imagine the conversations that must have been had for
Mr. Acy to convince his wife that Alaska was a good idea.
1,908 miles down, 1,512 to go!
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