We began at 7:30 this morning (Mountain Time) leaving Edmonton, Alberta. Oddly enough, the two hot air balloons we saw the night before still appeared to be up in the air...either they were up all night or they were just going up again. Anyhow, after we got out of Edmonton, the first place we stopped was...Tim Hortons. We got half a dozen assorted doughnuts and I got an orange juice while Joe got an iced coffee. I didn't think the doughnuts were that bad, but Joe was not impressed. Neither was the iced coffee to his liking. So, now that we've had our Tim Hortons experience, we could press on...
Today's drive began continuing through the hilly, semi-agricultural areas northwest of Edmonton. The hills became steeper and the farms more spread out the further we got to Edmonton. After a few hours we arrived in the city of Grande Prairie, which was designed and looks exactly like an American city. Lots of big box stores, fast food restaurants and car dealerships lining the bypass around the town. Grande Prairie was situated in a broad valley between the surrounding hills and had many farms surrounding it, so the name was appropriate. We stopped at a Wendy's for lunch there.From Grande Prairie we headed north toward Dawson Creek and the start of the Alaska Highway. They had signs in town that pointed towards "Alaska" so it was easy to know the way. As we left town, we got our first glimpse of the Canadian Rockies on the horizon. They were only identified by the fact that the odd white smudges on the horizon didn't look much like clouds, so we concluded they must be snow-covered mountains. As we got closer we saw that we were correct. But first we had to wind our way through the ever more hilly and ever more dense forests approaching Dawson Creek. We crossed the border into British Columbia just before reaching Dawson Creek.
For a city that I had always pictured as rustic and deep in the forest with a small mountain stream running through it, Dawson Creek looked more like a city from southwestern Wisconsin. Surrounded by farms on hills and just the main highway winding through a small downtown. Joe got a picture of the sign saying "You are now entering the Alaska Highway", but apparently the ceremonial "zero mile" milepost is somewhere off the highway and in the downtown area of Dawson Creek. Therefore we didn't get to see that specifically. But, needless to say, it was an exciting moment after we got gas and headed out of Dawson Creek.It was a short drive to the city of Fort Saint John which was on the shores of a very large lake. Most of that drive was much like the rest of our earlier driving today with hills and some farms. The number of pine trees and poplar/aspen trees started increasing, though. As the road was now down to two lanes, it became somewhat difficult to pass other vehicles on the highway.
The speed limit is 100 kph, which works out to somewhere between 60 and 65 mph. However, large trucks and RVs and people towing things tend to go more slowly and often you'll see a lot of people passing one poor slow moving vehicle. After we left Fort Saint John, things really started changing. The road was going up and down and up and down all of these hills through a very dense forest of tall, spindly pine trees and occasional aspen and poplar groves. The highway itself has all the trees removed in a hundred foot wide swath on either side of the road, so the forest did not come all the way up to the road. However, it is a dense and dark forest beyond the road.As we moved on, we went through several small towns or outposts with just a gas station and small convenience stores. Most of the time, though, there is nothing. It was very fun to drive it (particularly after Saskatchewan the day before...) and the scenery was amazing. Every time we came across the top of a hill we could look out over the other hills to the
mountains in the west getting closer and closer. There were a few very steep gorges leading down into river valleys that we had to traverse and which required me re-shifting my car to a lower gear, but in between it was usually clear enough and easy enough that I could leave the car on cruise control for extended periods. Finally, 2 hours or so north of Dawson Creek, we pulled into a relatively straight stretch following a river valley and were presented with these sweeping vistas of a range of mountains to our west. This was on a great stretch of road where there was 104 miles between gas stations (or any other sort of outpost). Just us and the other cars on the highway and the scenery. Amazing.The road, while not heavily traveled, still had its fair share of cars. Every few minutes or so one would pass the other way. There were also some cars we became very familiar with heading in
the same direction as us as we watched them slowly approach in the rearview mirror or watched them slowly move further away from us after they had passed. The road itself is in very good condition. While the stripes and paint have worn off in some places, the surface itself was surprisingly good. I don't recall any areas where the pavement was in bad shape. I wouldn't say that the drive is lonely, particularly with all the traffic we passed. However, it's amazing after driving 104 miles without having any sort of real substantial buildings or other places to realize just how far away from things you really are. There are a lot of areas where there are cuts through the forest where they've put a pipeline or random microwave towers for communications, but for the most part it's just land and trees as far as you can see...After traveling within view of that range of mountains for a while, the road turned away and the mountains disappeared behind some hills as we headed towards Fort Nelson. Aspen and pine forests continued for another hour before we finally arrived in Fort Nelson. It's an interesting little outpost way up here in the middle of nowhere. The nearest other
town is dozens of miles away and there's only one road into and out of town. But for the main little strip where the highway goes through town, there's a lot--several gas stations, three hotels and a bunch of restaurants. After going through wilderness for the previous several hours, it's somewhat of a shock to see all of these modern conveniences. We checked into our Super 8, which is one of the fanciest budget hotels I've ever seen. Right next door was a restaurant called Boston Pizza which we had seen a few times before in our trip and so we decided to eat there. Apparently the restaurant (which is just like an Applebee's or something like that, but with their own special pizza) is purely Canadian and is from the Edmonton area...no idea what that has to do with Boston. However, the food was very good, and the atmosphere just like we were in an Applebee's or so down in the US. So odd out here.So we walked back to our hotel, enjoying the strange, relative warmth (it's 66 degrees out...oddly the warmest I think it's been anywhere on our trip...and this far north too. Must have something to do with the mountains...downslope heating or something...) and, at least to my observation, the pervasive silence. I'm sitting in our hotel room with the window open and it's so quiet outside...no background sound of traffic, no people playing basketball...just quiet. And I sit and it's just strange...sitting in this little bastion of modern conveniences surrounded by miles and miles and miles of forest and nothing else. Just a little oasis in the middle of a vast wilderness. It's very quieting and humbling for me. I rather enjoy it...
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