Jasper, AB to Ft. St. John, BC

This was a driving day. We need to make tracks to get to Alaska on time. The weather was decent, but cloudy. It got better as the day progressed.

This morning the odometer reads 2100 miles with another 2500 to go.





We first headed to Hinton for groceries, gas, cash, and coffee. Mission accomplished, we backtracked a bit to Route 40 which is a 200 mile trip through Grande Cache to Grande Prairie.

The first leg to Grande Cache was a bit rough at times, but overall good.

A replica grande cache (large cache) in Grande Cache.

On the north side of Grande Cache there was a large coal mine which feeds a power plant. Since we were quite remote, I wondered where the market was for the electricity. The power lines along the road gave a clue as we both headed towards Grande Prairie.

After Grande Cache, the road was very smooth; we made good time and didn't get lost, well, not badly lost. We were cruising along approaching Grande Prairie when we encountered a roadblock and got shunted off to a road not in the GPS. We followed some traffic for a while, then pulled over to rethink. A pickup pulled over in front of us and the driver walked back to talk. He said you might need some help because my wife said "They must be be lost. No one with Alaska plates would be on this road leaving this small town headed that way." He got us going again, and was just one example of very friendly people we encountered.

After ~2500 miles of driving, we reached the beginning of The Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC.

We spent the night in a Rotary Club campground on Charlie Lake just north of Ft. St. John. It was a good campground, even better for the very paranoid as it was surrounded by chain link fence topped with barbed wire. Were they were concerned about keeping us in, or the others out? We managed to escape the next morning.

On the drive we saw evidence of two industries - wood products and energy with the latter dominant. We passed scores of gas wells, compressor stations, work camps, and all the support businesses for them. We didn't encounter any new pipeline work, but there must be a lot underground to connect all the wells.

Descending into Ft. St. John we saw the first well marked pull-off for truckers to check and adjust their brakes. We didn't understand until we started down the long steep grade to the Peace River. Later we saw a number of similar 'adjust your brakes' pullovers.

At the park, we had WiFi for the first time since Banff. An email from our son said that we would be experiencing a partial eclipse of the sun where we were. Having forgotten my #14 welder's glass for this event, we made do with a pin-hole camera made with safety pin, paper cup, and paper plate. The photo doesn't do it justice. We could see that there was a partial eclipse, but that's about all. It also got very cloudy which didn't help.

Today's miles: 390, total 2482, more than half way!

It is exciting to do each day's 'ventures, but it means we're one day closer to the end. I'd like to keep going.