the AlCan Highway...finally!!

Thursday, May 19^th

            We left the mountain country for a while and made it to “Grand Prairie”. We tried to save a couple bucks and set the MLS at the fairground’s camp ground where the petroleum expo was taking place…yeehaw!! We went into town to check out a really nice park with great bike trails going around a lake that we wanted to ride. We found a great RV park right there and decided to go back…hook up…and move there. Of course it started to rain so we paid the price of moving and setting up again in the pouring rain (note to self…don’t be a cheap ass…er…I mean frugal).

           

Friday, May 20^th

            WooHoo !! Sunny skies !! Took care of business early (laundry, shopping, post office and getting an oil change for my baby) and spent the afternoon riding the trails. We planned on not traveling today so we just enjoyed the park and staying put.

Saturday, May 21^st

Big day today !! We officially began our trip on the AlCan highway. Mile “0” for the trans Alaska highway is in “Dawson Creek, British Columbia” and as such has always held a place of mystic for me. I was as excited as Spaz is when she gets to play Frisbee just to see the markers and monuments to this engineering wonder. The Highway was began in 1942 by the U.S. military to help prepare our countries defenses. We spent the night camping 100 feet from a river in a campground that hasn’t changed much since it opened in 1949. We BBQ’d some pork chops, both sat on the same side of the picnic table and almost lost our dinner as our porker asses came close to flipping the table…chops and all…only our cat-like reflexes saved the night. Speaking of nights…the sun doesn’t go down until after 10pm which is hard to get used to.

We crossed the only original wooden bridge left on the AlCan

Sunday, May 22^nd

            Drove into the Canadian Rockies with more rain, fog with about 200’ visibility and Lori on the edge of her seatbelt with her eyes closed. We stopped early, about 1pm in Fort Nelson. I had read about a museum there and it was a good day to spend some time there as it POURED all day. Fort Nelson has history with the fur trapper trade and was established by the Northwest Fur Trading Company back in the early 1800’s. The museum had tons of cool stuff to look at but the highlight had to be spending a couple hours talking with the owner – Marl Brown – who is and looks like an 80 year old trapper. Marl has been there for most his life and has one of the coolest car collections you will ever see, AND they all run. He has many 1920 something Model A’s and a 1908 Chrysler that in 2008, he drove up the AlCan from Fort Nelson to Whitehorse. He showed us a 1927 Mercury flatbed truck that in 1979 he drove up from North Dakota with a model A on the flatbed and towing another.

 

 

He is one of those rare characters you hear stories about that pioneered this rugged country. He also had a crazy bike that he took out and rode, you gotta watch the video to believe. Marl was a treat and a highlight for us thus far. We left us with a hug for Lori and some great memories for me. Only about 650 miles more to Haines!!

Monday, May 23^rd

            Today we crested the highest point on the AlCan highway at 25 mph in fog that cut the visibility down to less than 100 feet. Oh, and the road had no lane striping painted on it as it curved up then down at 8%. And this is the good, improved highway, can’t imagine the road that was 20-30 years ago. We only traveled about 120 miles cause we have plenty of time and we found a great campground where we backed the MLS to within about 60’ of a beaver pond with a HUGE lodge and dam. I am writing this on the picnic table watching the SUN set and getting ready to grill some beaver…I mean…chicken. For any of you Google Earth Geeks like me…punch this Lat/Long into a placemark and find us at Toad River RV park N58.844361° & W125.231389° (be sure to have the Lat/Long set to decimal degrees under the “tools – options”).

Beaver lodge from the back window