Alaska 2008

It is interesting to note how time modifies memories... or is it that I am getting older? No need to flood my mailbox with responses to that question. I remember the Alaska Highway having a long, steep grade going down to the Peace River in Taylor, BC and a corresponding upgrade on the other side. In my mind, today's trip was going to be relatively flat with occasional hills. My memory was wrong! The first part of our trip out of Fort Nelson was relatively flat and straight. After that initial start the road had numerous hills and curves. It was not as hilly as yesterday's trip, but the hills did manage to slow us down a bit. We managed to make the run with only one fuel stop and made it to Dawson Creek in a little over five hours.

As we drove south from Fort Nelson, we noticed that we had a lot more traffic going in both directions. The area from Fort Nelson to Dawson Creek is part of British Columbia's "Oil Patch." There are a number of gas processing plants and pipeline compressing stations along the route. Many of the trucks encountered on the road were hauling equipment and pipeline. There were a number of trucks carrying wide loads, mostly large cylinders, that are probably destined for the processing plants. This increase in traffic probably explains why we saw no animals on or near the road today. There are plenty of animal crossing signs on the highway, but I guess the animals know better than to come out during the day.

When we arrived in Dawson Creek, the skies were partly cloudy and the temperature was around 70°. Shortly after our arrival, the sun started to disappear and it soon became quite cloudy and then started to rain... something new for us. I'm not sure we can count on a sunny ride tomorrow.

Dawson Creek is "Mile Zero" of the Alaska Highway. For us it is the end of the highway after 1250 plus miles from where we picked it up in Tok, AK. This is a tourist mecca with several campgrounds (at least three large ones within 2 miles of this campground), hotels, museums, two visitor centers and other tourist related venues. On our 2005 trip we spent a couple of days here and took in some of the attractions. Since the weather has turned back to what seems normal to us (we have to get over that), we focused on doing the laundry and reading.