My Trails

I left Grande Prairie quite early and drove to Dawson Creek, mile zero of the Alaskan Highway. I took all the obligatory pictures of the sign post, looked around in the museum, and watched the movie of the construction of the highway back in the early 40’s. I hadn’t pictured Dawson Creek as so large. In my mind I thought it was a small town, but it is really quite a large city with all the big box stores and fast food. I may have purchased a coffee at Tim Hortons.

I was not impressed with the highway north out of Dawson Creek. All along the road for a hundred miles is gas and oil industry. Every side road I looked up had cleared out areas of pipes and tanks and buildings. I think I read in the Milepost where taxes from the gas and oil industry are helping to fund the Alaskan Highway. The industry must be booming because there were even signs up asking for workers for the oil fields.

Because it was Sunday I figured there wouldn’t be much truck traffic. I was wrong! Semi trucks carrying pipes, tanks and machinery were the majority of vehicles on the road. There must be good money to keep those trucks rolling 7 days a week. And the drivers have no patience for us vacationing RVers driving the speed limit.

The road crossed the Peace River shortly north of Dawson and I got my first taste of 8 and 10 degree hills. I wanted to take a picture of the grated bridge but there was no place to pull off. After about a hundred miles, the oil fields thinned out and I met few trucks.

I put a few liters of gas in Minnie at a campground near Pink Mountain. The gas cost $1.30/liter but I wanted to make sure I had enough to reach Fort Nelson tomorrow. It is a sinking feeling to be on this desolate highway and be low on gas.

The road keeps getting rougher the further I go. I lost the divided highway a few miles past Grande Prairie. Now I have to rely on turnouts and passing lanes to let the locals get by. They put up little signs by the road that look like bumps to let you know if the road is bad up ahead. It seems to me that the regular road is just as bad as the signed places but I slow down anyway.

I found a side road at about milepost 200 where I will spend the night. I can see snow covered mountains off to my left, so it won’t be long now until I’m in them. The weather has been beautiful – sunshine, light winds, and perfect temperatures. With the good weather and sparce traffic, once I got past the oil fields, I kept going further than I like. I hope I find a campsite soon where I can take a few days to rest.

On a good note, I saw three moose today munching on bushes along the side of the highway. They are fun to look at but nothing you want to run into. They are a big animal.

Tonight we are in Grande Prairie, Alberta at yet another Walmart. I was going to stay at a campground or RV park to fill and dump, but I found a rest area with a free dump so there is no need to pay to park tonight. This Walmart has a small parking lot with limited room to stay out of the way, but it will do for one night.

When I left Edmonton I drove within a couple miles of the largest mall in the universe. From what I hear it is a veritable Disneyland of stores and attractions. If I had a female traveling with me or some teenagers, I would probably have to check it out. I didn’t think I needed anything and man-made attractions are not why I’m doing this trip so I went on by.

The terrain on the drive up here was nice. After I drove a few miles past Edmonton, it changed to trees and rolling hills. There was less traffic and the whole way was on divided highway. Canada seems to be very clean. The highway sides don’t have a lot of trash and it looks like they keep the grass trimmed. They have a lot of what they call “roadside turnouts” which are nothing more than a pullout along the road with several trash bins. Maybe that is why the roads are so clean.

I got gas again here in Grande Prairie. I was getting pretty low by the time I got here and $100 have me 3/4 of a tank. This trip is going to be expensive! Tomorrow I should be in Dawson Creek and the start of the Alaskan Highway. I have a map that is almost three feet square, portraying Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, and Alaska. Of the two feet from the border of Canada to the middle of Alaska, I have done 4″. It is a long drive to see some pretty mountains.

I drove to Edmonton today. The traffic was pretty bad all the way. I thought I would see a lot of camper trailers going north but there were very few. From Lethbridge to Calgary and a little beyond I could see the snow covered Rocky Mountains off to my left. After I got through Calgary, the terrain was mostly flat farmland in all directions – I could have been driving through Nebraska!

I filled up with petrol in Calgary for $1.07 / liter. First time I’ve ever run a gas pump past $100! I was a little discouraged that the bank where I exchanged my currency gave me so many $100 bills, but I see now that they will be easy to spend.

Now I see what they did with all those Canadian pennies they don’t use anymore. The melted them down and put them inside their Toonies! I’m slowly getting used to the currency and the metric speed and distance. I’m just thankful that no one changed time to a decimal division; can you imagine if there were 100 minutes in an hour?

I’m outside a Cabelas tonight. I’m hoping once I get north of here the traffic will thin out some. I should be close to Grande Prairie tomorrow unless I slow down and take a rest.

I’m still at Lethbridge Walmart along with several other RVers waiting for the wind to let up. It was so bad last night that my fridge flame blew out and I awoke to a fault code on the display. I talked with a few of my fellow travelers parked beside me that confirmed they are just waiting for the wind to calm down before pushing on north. Tomorrow looks like a good travel day.

Another cold morning in Butte, Montana. I packed up early and headed up interstate 15 for 170 miles. A quick stop at Butte Walmart for a couple grocery items, a gas fill up in Helena, and a break at a rest area, were the only diversions to the drive. There is a neat canyon just before the rest area that follows the Missouri River for a while. There were signs at the rest area that told about the Lewis and Clark expedition camping near there in 1806.

I am at a town park in the little town of Cascade, Montana. I am the only one here but maybe someone else will come in later. I arrived by 2:00 so it is still early. This is a nice little park with a dump station, playground, and picnic tables. One sites on the internet said there was electric but that has been taken out and the bathrooms closed. I don’t need anything but the dump. I will take a good long hot shower tonight.

The weather has turned lovely. The elevation is only 3400 feet here, so lots warmer. It was so nice that I walked down town and asked at a bank if they had any Canadian money I could exchange before I went across the border. All they had was $40. They said I may have to exchange at the border because even banks in Great Falls might not have any. My bank charges 3℅ transaction fee in Canada but maybe it will be worth it to use the convenience of my credit card. Don’t you hate it when you get behind someone at the pump that has to go inside to pay cash before they move? They always have to buy a .79 cent drink as long as they’re in there.