British Columbia

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Mile 0

Like Moosejaw, Dawson Creek is a faded old town milking its heyday for all its worth. Even though it sits at Mile 0 of the Alaska highway, it is not the place to place to stock up on supplies and enjoy one last taste of civilization. Locals recommend heading about 75km up the Alaska Highway to Fort St-John, a larger community. It is still a ‘must stop at location’ for history buffs or if only to catch a glimpse of the famed Mile 0 markers:

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The town is quiet and sleepy. Some folks, like the managers of the Mile 0 RV Park where I’m staying seem jaded to all the folks who come and go while others, like the gals at the tourist info centre or the wonderful manager of Read’s Books, recognize that giddy tourists like me are not only the lifeblood of this town, but also the source of memorable stories.

The city, like Dawson City in the Yukon, is named for George Mercer Dawson, a Canadian scientist and surveyor.

George Mercer Dawson, from one of Dawson Creek's many murals

George Mercer Dawson, from one of Dawson Creek’s many murals

Dawson Creek was originally a farming community, but soon became a railroad hub until it was invaded by American troops in the dead of winter of 1942. That invasion will be described in further detail in my next post, but to show that I’m not exaggerating:

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Most of the town being shut tight on Sundays, I only did a walking tour yesterday afternoon. It was disappointing and I quickly gave up. Most of the landmarks on the tour have been destroyed and I got tired of markers saying that ‘such and such was located here in Dawson Creek’s hey day.’

I then went home, refilled my Nalgene water bottle, and set off to walk part of a trail that starts about a block from the RV park and which goes straight through town. Some stretches were quite desolate while others had me going through shanty towns.

Dawson Trail

This morning, I visited the railroad museum that gives a bit of general history of Dawson Creek.

Dawson Creek Visitors' Centre and Museum

Dawson Creek Visitors’ Centre and Museum

This exhibit gave me pause. It makes note of the ‘old-style’ Canadian money:

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Old-style?! Heck, I remember how unimpressed I was when these ‘old fives’ were replaced by the blah new version, as well as the kerfuffle when the dollar bill was replaced by the loonie! The former was only about ten years ago and the latter about twenty years ago (already!!!). It’s a bit shocking to be thirty and to see familiar things become antiques! 😀

The rest of what I did and saw belongs in the next post, so keep reading! 🙂

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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.

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Out and About In and Near Prince George

Prince George, located at the confluence of the Fraser and Nechako rivers, is called BC’s Northern Capital. It is a beacon of civilization in a vast and empty land of black spruce and open blue sky set against snow-capped mountains. Prince George’s primary industry is lumber, followed closely by tourism.

Yesterday had me move from the Bee Lazy Park to my friend’s place of work (10km north of the RV park) where I parked Miranda for the day while I went exploring for a few hours.

There wasn’t much ‘touristy’ stuff that interested me. The town is renown for its railroad museum, but I was feeling very ‘meh’ about that, so the only museum I did yesterday was The Exploration Place. This small museum is a hodgepodge of mostly hands on exhibits. It didn’t take long to tour, but is still worth a visit. I paid for the ‘deluxe’ entrance that included a simulator ride. Having ridden one in Las Vegas that had me racing down the Strip in an Enterprise shuttle with Klingons firing full phasers at us and another that had me assimilated by the Borg (I’m Geek!Girl and proud of it! 😀 ), I didn’t have very high expectations for a small town, small museum sim ride, so I was very pleasantly surprised by the fun, ten minute ‘under water’ ride.

stained glass windows at The Exploration Place

stained glass windows at The Exploration Place (blurry because of no flash)

I turned from the stained glass to find these guys! Yes, I jumped!

I turned from the stained glass to find these guys! Yes, I jumped!

I then stopped to watch a movie that was straight out of my childhood. I’m fairly confident that it was my first viewing of it that gave me the bug for the north:

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There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Nechako River

Nechako River

I spent most of the afternoon at home (in a parking lot; love this life!) watching a movie before following him out to his spread, about 25km from town. It was a rather dizzying drive here (so much so that I asked for help back to civilization this morning!), but it was so worth it! I was especially grateful for the offer of cold beer once I was squared away. 🙂

Today, I decided that some hiking was in order, so I set off along the desolate Yellowhead highway, heading east back towards Edmonton, to visit the only inland rainforest in the world.

The views were, well:

Yellowhead Highway heading east towards McBride

Yellowhead Highway heading east towards McBride

Unfortunately, the trip was for naught; I should have brought my snowshoes!

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The trip wasn’t a waste, though. The drive really gave me a taste of what I’m going to encounter soon enough; endless stretches of monotonous solitude broken by fantastic scenery.

One final thing to say: it’s only May and I’m only in Prince George, so I know that I need to make some serious window covering preparations for the 21 hours of daylight that the Yukon gets in June. It felt like high noon at 6PM tonight and things are only going to get worse! Or better, I suppose, if you can sleep when it’s bright daylight out… 🙂