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DAY 9: SUNDAY, JULY 8: Today we left Jasper National Park and now are actually on our way towards the Alaskan Highway, The ALCAN, this will be a long beautiful stretch of nearly 1,200 miles, and then we will finally be in Alaska. I can't help thinking what an amazing nine days we have already had and we aren't even to our official destination yet. We were on the road around 10:00 am with lots of miles to cover today. From Jasper it is broken into three parts, Jasper to Grand Cache, GC to Grand Prairie and GP to Dawson Creek, considered Mile 0 on The ALCAN. This drive is called The BigHorn Route in the Milepost book that has become my bible while driving. Very appropriately named because no sooner were we on it did we have a large group of bighorns run across the road in front of us. Two little babies scaled the mountain cliff like it was flat land. Amazing to see! Jasper to Grand Cache was beautiful easy driving thru the mountains, but the stretch between GC and GP was filled many ups and downs in the mountains. Not my favorite kind of riding and probably
One tired dog!
Abby was most happy to have a day of just riding. She has kept on every hike so far. not Aaron's favorite kind of driving, but the roads were good and he did great. GP to Dawson Creek was very uneventful, just like the name states, a prairie. The best part was we finally crossed into British Columbia. Now you need to know on the BC license plate it says, "Beautiful British Columbia" and we all have been saying it in a British accent the whole trip. Try it it's addicting! So at 4:50 pm we could finally say we were there and at the border we also crossed into the Pacific Time Zone so we suddenly gained another hour. We are now three hours behind you guys back home. At 5:30 we made it to the Mile 0 RV Park for the night and the main objective was laundry and updating the blog because I am not sure when I'll get to either again. The campground had a public lake within walking distance, as you can imagine the camper was barely parked and the kids were in their suits and down there. It reminds me of something out of The Sandlot movie. It is obviously man-made because it has a cement bottom and there must have been 300
Dead Elk!
Sorry, I needed to add this so you can see how crazy it looks to see something like that on the side of the road. people crammed in it all cooling off on a hot summer day.
Total Mileage: 341 Miles. Total to date: just over 3,000...Holy Cow!
Plate Quest: forgot again
Wildlife Report: black bear, big horns, mt. goats, Caribou Sign, but no caribou...yet!
Dead Wildlife Report: sorry , but I have to report this grim and odd death toll. We passed a dead bull elk and then right on the BC border a dead female moose. Now when you see those laying on the side of the road it really looks crazy.
Too close for comfort: About 8 miles from Grand Prairie a truck pulling a camper swerved in front of us and suddenly a car tire was rolling down the road at us. We were going down a steep hill and it seriously flew by us and missed us by only a foot or two. Like Aaron said, "That'll wake you up."
The journey ahead: The next few days will be ALCAN travel and so you can follow here is where we are headed.
Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson - 283 miles. Fort Nelson to Watson Lake - 330 miles. Watson Lake to Whitehorse, Yukon - 282 miles and then hopefully arriving in Alaska on Wednesday.
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Tad
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I have been following your amazing adventures each day and wish I was there.
I got to experience the trip from Banff to Lake Louise and still remember it as the most amazing experience that I've had. You guys are doing an excellent job of taking it all in and sharing it with us, thanks. I'm jealous and want you to take me next time. That bull elk looks really close to Aaron and that big rack would probably hurt jammed up his keister. Be careful and we all miss you guys.