Rain, You Gotta Love It Because of the constant downpour, I never left the motorhome from the time we filled with gasoline in Jasper on Tuesday, cloudy but no rain, until stopping for a rest break this morning, Wednesday, some 24 hours later, and Kay only exited once to make sure we didn’t hit anything pulling out of the tight camping space—one of the advantages of a self-contained motorhome. It continued raining until just before we pulled into Northern Lights RV Park in Dawson Creek, BC. The drive today had the most ascents and descents yet, with some long 8% grades, and among the most severe we’ll experience the entire trip. Consequently, our speed was about 50 mph, and the resulting mileage pretty good at about 10 mpg. I spotted a black bear on the north side of the highway just after passing through Grand Cache, one of our few animal sitings for the day. On the drive, a front-end loader was in front of us for a short distance, and we were wondering what he was doing on the highway. We passed him and in the next mile we knew. There was a pretty big slide off the mountain because they had had such a huge amount of rain—over a foot of mud, rock, and debris on the road. They had an emergency crew on the road and we drove over the mess. The water was still raging down the mountain after we passed.

We stopped in Grand Prairie, a city of about 50,000, to top off the gasoline tank, and find Costco. The Costco adventure included driving through town, not finding Costco, finding a place to turn around, and driving back out of town towards Alaska. As luck would have it, on the highway towards Alaska, we spotted the Costco but did not stop, filled the gasoline tank, and returned going south to shop at Costco, only to find they didn’t have any of the items we wanted, then headed back north. After leaving Grand Prairie, we saw several elk ranches, and either a caribou or reindeer ran across the road in front of us, as we entered into British Columbia. The rest of the drive into Dawson Creek was uneventful, except that the rain stopped just before we arrived! Several of the other caravaners had washed or were washing their motor homes, but we opted not to—it’s just going to get dirty again! Our site was relatively level, we hooked up electric, water, and sewer, and Kay washed clothes while I cleaned the inside of the motorhome after several days of rain and cold. The RV Park had great wi-fi, so we read emails, caught up on the news, and posted the last 3 legs of the pre-rally trip. We had our introductory “Explore the Yukon and Alaska, 2009, Caravan” meeting in the evening, which included a pretty decent dinner. Five new folks attended that had not been on the pre-rally trip. As a side note, one of the couples, in fact the one we followed the first day or so, broke down near Grand Cache with a water-logged filter, and their diesel pusher was pouring smoke with little power. They limped in to an Esso plant, called a mechanic who was supposed to show up at 4:30 PM, with the intentions of ordering and having over-nighted a new filter since one could not be obtained locally, including Edmonton. When it arrives and is installed, they will catch up to us in Dawson City tomorrow afternoon. The “tail gunner” motorhome stayed with them.

Day 2 in Dawson Creek, BC (Thursday) It rained again last night, hard, and temperatures cooled considerably—highs today were only in the 60s. Our day started with yet another meeting, this time to hear a spiel from a representative of the Dawson Creek tourism group. She did a great job introducing the area, and especially the Alaska Highway. We heard from the stranded couple; the mechanic never showed up! They were too late in ordering the new filter, so will order it this AM, hoping to arrive tomorrow. After the meeting, we had an early lunch of leftovers, and took off to see the sights in Dawson City.

There are at least three Mile “0” mileposts, and we had photos taken at all of them. Of course, the original was run over and destroyed by a drunk driver. The 1,500 mile Alaska Highway was constructed under the auspices of the US Army Corps of Engineers in only 8 months through wilderness, muskeg, tundra, with many river crossings, and in temperatures ranging from -70 to 90F during 1942. I was and remain quite proud of a wonderful 31+ years with the Corps, and commented that they could still do work like this if all their encumbrances were removed. We visited the Alaska House, viewing quite well-done displays regarding building the Alaska Highway, and saw a great PBS video chronicling the construction. With lots of daylight left, we drove the first few miles of the Highway to an old original section of the Alaska Highway, crossing the historic curved (9%) wooden Kiskatinaw River Bridge (531-feet long, about 100 feet above the water surface, and a carrying capacity of 20 tons); this bridge is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use today. It is a civil engineering landmark, recognized by both ASCE and their Canadian counterpart. Kay commented that she didn’t realize that the ALCAN highway was built during those first few months/first year of WW II when we were getting our seats kicked by the Japanese. They had even invaded the Aleutians where her Dad served. So the push to build the highway was for national security but also a way to boost morale for the war effort—we were winning in the wilderness against all odds. Quite a story! Also 3 black battalions distinguished themselves on this gruesome front. It’s a very impressive story. We wandered around downtown after visiting the Alaska House and found many murals depicting former days in B.C. and in Dawson Creek. They were huge, fitting entire building walls, and were wonderfully done. Kay thinks the Arts Council sponsored them. We really enjoyed them and will be including several pictures/videos in our log.  Richard and Virginia (our tail gunner), and Ron and Hazel (the stranded folks) finally limped in late this afternoon. This could make a great story in and of itself. Suffice it to say, a trucker stopped by on each of two different runs with offers to help, and the last time made a stopgap filter using a T-shirt and duct tape, allowing them to limp in to Dawson Creek; “duck tape” the greatest invention known to man!

Day 3 in Dawson Creek, BC (Friday) There was no rain last night, but it is in the forecast. We saw everything in the Dawson Creek area we wanted to see yesterday, so today was a “catch-up” day for us. Kay washed clothes and made a huge pot of chicken spaghetti. The Riffels got the parts to repair their motorhome, repaired it themselves, and are now ready to head north to Alaska. We had a group picture made at the Visitor Centre Milepost “0”; we’ll get a digital copy from someone. After a brief stop at Walmart, we returned to the campsite, had lunch, and readied the motorhome and car for tomorrow’s (Saturday’s) trip to Fort St. John. We will have another meeting tonight at 9 PM to discuss our travel day tomorrow. Oh no, it’s started raining, thundering, and lightening, and the forecast calls for rain the next several days.

Our Recommendations for Dawson Creek, BC We may not have done everything there was to do in Dawson Creek, but we pretty much covered the town. First and foremost among our recommendations is the Alaska House, and while there, the PBS video on building the Alaska Highway. We also recommend a walking tour of the City Centre. This area is the location of one of the historic mileposts, and contains many historic buildings, including the Alaska House. Most of the alleys have recently painted murals on the building walls which are really neat, and there are interpretive signs at various locations in the area explaining the historic sites. Also worth a stop is the Visitor’s Centre, for photographs of the other historic Mile “0” marker. While staying in Dawson Creek, it’s definitely worth a 17.3-mile drive up the “new” Alaska Highway to see the wooden Kiskatinaw River Bridge on a section of the “old” Alaska Highway.

Campground Northern Lights RV Park, Dawson Creek, BC. Electric, water, sewer, cable, and wi-fi. Tight parking, but adequate. We would stay here again.

Driving Statistics
Beginning Mileage: 11,786.1
Beginning Time: 6:30 AM MDST
Ending Mileage: 12,014.4
Ending Time: 12:00 Noon MDST
TOTAL MILEAGE FOR THE DAY: 228.3
CUMULATIVE MILEAGE: 2,622.9