Day: May 10, 2009

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Distance is Relative

It was at about 60km shy of Dawson Creek that I saw my first sign announcing Whitehorse, 1,500km away.

At this point, 1,500km seems like a hop, skip, and a jump.

By the most direct route, Whitehorse is 5,500km from Ottawa. I don’t believe in getting from A to Z without passing by the whole alphabet, so I’ve put about 7,000km on Miranda since I left Ottawa in September.

1,500km from Ottawa would take me to Madison, Wisconsin, a distance that I’ve driven in three days; two very easy, one very hard (+1,000km).

So, sitting here at Mile O with just 1,500km to go, I anticipate a leisurely week of meandering through the muskeg, knowing that I’ll be there soon enough and don’t need to even think about my June 1st deadline, while I’ve heard my  neighbours at the park say that they need to ‘ride hard’ because Whitehorse is ‘so far away.’ *shrugs*

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Dawson Creek!

This was a short, easy driving day with a definite end goal, the Mile 0 RV Park in Dawson Creek.

I stopped once to stretch my legs, at the entrance to the Peace River Valley:

rest area at entrance to Peace Valley tourism region

rest area at entrance to Peace Valley tourism region

Arriving in Chetwynd, Chainsaw Sculpture Capital of the World (I can’t make this stuff up!), is incredible (I need some new adjectives); the town rises seemingly out of nowhere! I had hoped to dump there, but was cursed by one of my biggest pet peeves–single signage. That is, there’s a sign indicating that there is a dump ‘that way’, but once you go ‘that way’ there are no further signs. So, I gave up and resigned myself to full hookups in Dawson Creek. Chetwynd was a surprisingly full service town with a lot of big name stores. It is considered to be the ‘most livable small town in BC.’

Moreover, my house battery is behaving strangely for the first time since I installed it, so I wasn’t comfortable with the idea of doing two or three more nights without hooks.  The issue is that my voltage was only at 12.2 when I parked last night when, after a full three nights on plugged in at 15A, it should have been fully charged at 13.2v! Very worrisome…

I pulled into Dawson Creek just shy of noon this morning and am comfortably settled in the okay, but nothing spectacular, and quite noisy Mile 0 RV Park. Staff is unfriendly. Hookups and wi-fi are good.

Now that I’m all caught up, I’m off to explore. 🙂

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Prince George to the Other Side of the Pine Pass

I left my friends’ place late Saturday morning:

the best non-advertised campground near Prince George :)

the best non-advertised campground near Prince George 🙂

Getting out Prince George was harrowing. Instead of using my common sense that told me that highways 16 and 97 north would intersect with signage at some point, I used Majel. She led me down a road with a bridge with a 2m clearance. Miranda needs just over 3m. Thankfully, there was a crescent road right before the bridge, so I was able to turn around effortlessly, get back to the 16, and ignore my GPS all the way to the 97 north. 🙂

I stopped for gas at a Mohawk station that sanidumps.com claimed had a dump station, but it was closed. 🙁

My next big stop would be Dawson Creek, about 400km north. I decided to go halfway to arrive in Dawson Creek mid-day Sunday and stay through to Tuesday morning.

The drive was lovely and fairly easy. Lunch was had at a rest stop on the Crooked River:

Crooked River from rest stop

Crooked River from rest stop

There was a couple in a large class A parked here with me. They pulled out before me, but our destinies would be matched for a time…

During the lunch stop, I decided to get over the Pine Pass and then stop for the night at the first suitable rest area.

Pine Pass is the lowest and most northerly highway crossing over the Rockies. Everyone I spoke to in the past few days told me to beware this crossing, that the climate would change quickly and that the going would be treacherous. I’m getting tired of people working me up like that because the Pine Pass was easy peasy to cross!

There was a beautiful rest area just after the summit:

Azouetta Lake, just past the Pine Pass summit

Azouetta Lake, just past the Pine Pass summit

The couple from Crooked River were there and I was asked where I planned on spending the night. We had both had the idea to stay right there as the views were spectacular, but the high winds coming over the pass worried us. We therefore decided to rendez-vous at the next rest area, about 40mi (75ishkm) north.

So, that’s where I spent Saturday night, at the West Pine Rest Area:

West Pine rest area

West Pine rest area

It was just going on four when I pulled in, so I went for a quick walk to stretch my legs, gabbed with the couple for a bit, then just crashed with a cold beer. What a tough life I lead. 🙂

The evening was pleasant, if a tad noisy, and I slept way too well, awaking this morning at 8!!! The couple was long gone and I was equally eager to be on my way. Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway was just 200 km away.