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Monday, May 30, 2017

We made good use of the friendly visitor centre again on Monday. We were able to pick up a lot of good literature that will keep us busy over the next weeks. After taking some pictures of the Alaska Highway sign, we headed across the street to the historic Milepost 0 sign and then into the Alaska Highway House for an hour long PBS documentary of the building of the Alaska Highway. This year marks the 75th anniversary since the highways was opened. It took the army only 8 months to build the highway – when you see the kind of conditions they experienced and the terrain they had to cut through, it was quite the accomplishment considering many of the men had no engineering or machinery background. We’ll be travelling on quite a different highway than the one they opened in 1942 – and even very different than the one travelled by Joyce’s parents in 1997.

Another gorgeous sunset tonight – we missed seeing the northern lights on Saturday night! We don’t know if they were out here, but they certainly were in many parts of BC just after midnight. It’s hard to get used to it staying light so late – sunsets are close to 10 pm and will only get later as we travel north.

We decided to stay an extra night in Dawson Creek so we could take an extra side trip to the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. It was about 350 km circle route that we took on Tuesday. We had another warm day with lots of sun for our drive. The roads were good and we arrived at the Dam in the afternoon in time for the 2:30 tour. We had the tour guide to ourselves – it is definitely still slow for tourists here. The dam, along with one on the Peace River just south of it supplies 1/3 of all the electrical needs of BC. The dam also is celebrating a special birthday – 50 years since it was completed. It was also interesting to hear them talk about the detrimental effects building the dam had on the indigenous people of the area. Now, 50 years after the dam was built they are trying to acknowledge how building the dam, flooding the land for the reservoir impacted those who relied on the land for their lives. The indigenous people lost valuable hunting and fishing grounds as well as many of their homes and communities. There was a 15 minute film highlighting this and the tour guide started the tour with an acknowledgement that the dam was actually on treaty land.

We spent Wednesday at the trailer getting things ready for our trip north in the morning. Next, the Alaska Highway trip begins….

Friday, May 26, 2017

We made good use of the Visitor Information Centres or VICs as they call them in Alberta. We stopped in Lethbridge to get an Alberta highway map and a great book with all the campgrounds in Alberta for a quick reference point. We also got great directions of how to get through not only Calgary, but Edmonton also.

The wind finally shifted and our fuel mileage has improved. Still seeing lots of sun and other than a bit of rain through a bit of Montana, it was been great. We continued using small town parks – found some nice ones and so far, even on a Friday night, we had no problems getting a site later in the day. Our last night in Alberta, just northeast of Edmonton, we travelled a couple of miles off the highway to camp right beside a lake. We were treated to a beautiful sunset over the water.

We decided to stock up on some groceries before crossing into BC. Tax in Alberta is only 5% compared to the 13% in BC. Although most groceries are non-taxable, anything else we pick up while shopping has been beneficial with the lower tax rate. We won’t likely see the grocery selection again for quite some time so we’re taking advantage of getting some of the fresh vegetables and fruit here. I expect we’ll be using some of the dried stuff soon.

Finally on Sunday, May 29th, we arrived in Dawson Creek, BC and the start of the Alaska Highway. Our plan is to stay 3 nights and head out on Wednesday to begin the trek north. It is sunny and warm – mid-20’s and we have parked the trailer at Mile 0 Campground.