Sam And Saundra's Year Long Adventure - Part 118

Sam And Saundra’s Year Long Adventure – Part 118

Canada

6/09/09-6/10/09  – Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada

Dawson Creek.  Highway marker ‘0’ on the AlCan Highway. Counting mile posts so that you know how far you have traveled and how far you need to go.  The highway was built by the United States and Canada for war reasons in about 1942.  What a massive feat for then.  In fact, it is still a massive feat for today.  Just keeping it in constant repair - ignore trying to improve it.  The war now is with the dreaded winter.  This road is considered by some as the ‘Last Big Road Trip’.  We are almost up for it, but not quite.  We decide to spend a couple of rest days here in Dawson Creek, working on the trailer and Brutus.  The park has wifi – most of the time.  It has electricity, water that is drinkable and a dump.  We consider ourselves very high maintenance. 

The Road To Dawson Creek

We have little choice but to spend some time here, since there is a major wildfire charring the road just past Liard Hot Springs. This just happens to be our next planned stop.  The road is mostly closed, with occasional escorts through the fire area. The road Travelers that made it to Dawson Creek before us are backed up at and near Liard, and the firefighters are biv-wacked there.  So we stay here. We shop and look over this rather small town that is in the bend of a river.  The river was the main road in many of the northern ‘outposts’ in ‘eon’ days.  There is a dry–docked riverboat that had been in use in yesterdays.  Now there are speedy boats and pontoon planes for tours and fast go.  Sam says they are too expensive.  About $900 per person, if any fishing time is desired.  We both smile.  We have a fold-a-boat!  Brutus got a thorough cleaning. We walked and visited the AlCan Highway Museum.  They gave us a lot of useful information, including a brochure of all of the private RV parks along the road.  We already had other books, including the Canada/Alaska Milepost book. 

Aw! Come On! Is That Really You?

One interesting bit of info:  When Canada decided to go metric from regular measurement that sane people use, they were downright serious about it. They removed all of the mileposts.  Every mile post. They then placed historical milepost along the AlCan highway.  They also placed KM posts about every 2 to 20 KM’s.  Made total sense to me. Well, back then.