Into The North

After leaving Jasper, I drove to Grande Cache, AB and spent Friday night in a hotel. I knew that it was time to start racking up some miles and I was anxious to get to the Alaska Highway. The first stop on Saturday was in Dawson Creek, BC, the town where the Alaka Highway starts. I picked up BC, Yukon and Alaka maps there at the visitor center. I drove another 140 miles and decided to camp at Pink Mountain. At the camp, I shared the fire of 2 guys on motorcycles that were also headed to Alaska. One was driving a Goldwing and the other a HD Road King. They are from Holland and work for Holland America Cruise Line and currently live in Seattle. Their names were Arnold and Ronald and at first hearing their slight accents (of course they speak perfect English) and names, they reminded me of the old Saturday Night Live skits in which the 2 Arnold Schwartzenegger sounding guys said they will "Pump you up." Wonderful guys. Very friendly and were great company for the night.

With the longer daylight the further north I get, I've gotten into a habit of staying up late and leaving late the next day. That's caused sometimes by trying to catch up on the blog. So, I got up early and headed down the Alaska Highway. The first couple hundred miles are relatively flat and you can make good time, but after Fort Nelson you get to the Northern Rockies and the scenery is great. I saw my first moose along the highway, but when I slowed down to get a picture he ambled back into the bush. I also saw 3-4 black bears and lots of Bighorns during this drive. North of the Northern Rockies Park there is a sizeable Bison population and I saw a lot of them near the highway.

At the visitor center in Dawson Creek we were told that there was a forest fire in the Liard River area and that there could be 2 hours delay as the traffic had to be led through the area. They have the fire under control now. The road was actually closed for 2 days because the fire jumped to both sides of the highway. The fire covered over 100 square miles and we had to be led for about 5 miles though the worst part. The smoke is in the air for a couple hundred miles. I made it to the town of Watson Lake, Yukon Territory yesterday evening. The internet and cell phone coverage is getting sketchy up here. But getting to the Yukon is special to me and I've been listening to Jack London's "Call of the Wild" for the last 2 days to get me in the mood. I drove 475 miles yesterday and have now driven 3600 miles on the trip.

When I stopped to take the photo at the Yukon sign, I met 2 Harley riders who have ridden from Dallas. They actually had been up to Yellowknife near Great Slave Lake and had to ride 300 miles on a dirt road. One of the guys is on his 6th motorcycle trip to Alaska!

I think I've got about 800 more mile before I hit Alaska, so I better quit now and get down the road.

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Part of trip: Alaska or Bust

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