Day 8- Dawson Creek, BC to Toad River, Yukon, Canada

11 pm at night

11pm at night

Day 8: The Alaska Highway a.k.a. Coolest ride ever

Dawson Creek has grown so much froom what I remember about 10 years ago. There is a Walmart and several fancy hotels. Wierd, not the north I remember. Just a couple football tosses outside of the town limit sign the rain started. I was thinking to myself, well at least it is not windy. Then the wind started and the temp dropped.... none the less, I was riding the Alaska Highway and it is awesome. We must have stopped every 50 miles, to get gas, duck tape hand warmers to my hands and socks, get the water out of my helmet and so on.

When the sun finially broke, early afternoon, I stopped to get gas because we were right outside of Fort Nelson and it was closed on Sunday. No worries I thought and added gas from the can in the truck. Not enough though, I ran out like a mile away from town. Dang!

Subway for dinner/lunch, about 6:30. I changed my socks and re-applied my special Canadian addition toe warmer and we were off. We tried to get to Liard Hot Springs but came up short at Toad River..... (about 400 miles short of our planned desitnation for the day). Walked in and found an open door so we plopped our stuff down claiming the room. For you Methodist, it is just like the (original) rooms at Beersheba Springs but with a bathroom and a sulfer smell.

This has been in the making for years. I got the bike maybe 3 years ago, the jacket a year ago and the cool travel partner about 5 and a half (the best 5 and a half years ever) and it is all unfolding in front of me.... right now. Hard to absorb all of it. The wildlife, scenes and how enourmous everything seems.

Went over three bridges that were like a grate, you could see through..... It is almost as bad as the groved roads. I was really scared. The roads were kinda bad..... gravel and potholes, for about 10 miles, but the most part really good. Some are even freshly paved for us.


Hopefully Skagway tomorrow. I spent a summer there and loved it.

PS, our room has a painting in it that we have a home. It is meant to be.


Day 8 cont.
Greetings from Toad River.
We got a late start (imagine that) and from the beginning we new we weren't going to make our original destination- turns out twe didn't make our secondary destination either. But that's ok because we're on an adventure!!!
It started raining about 10 mile into our drive today and rained for about the first 120 miles. And it's kinda cold here- even the locals say it's cold so i know i'm not being silly. It's in the low 50's i think. I even had to turn the warm air on in the truck- poor me right.... ha
The best part of the day- besides just being on the Alaska Highway- we saw our first bears- FINALLY!! We saw 2 black bears, one grizzly, 3 moose and a handful of caribou. The bears were all small but still fascinating. We entered the Rockies today and there was one stretch of the road wound round the mountain on one side and on the other there was a giant drop... like the ones in the movies. Aside from the grey overcast, the view was gorgeous.... windy roads, rocky riverbeds, wild animal..... i love it!!!!
We met a really nice guy today who told us we were weird because sam's on the bike and i'm in the truck, and then he also told sam that he wasn't very prepared because sam doesn't have the electric jacket to keep him warm. whateves. we've seen him several times today too- i think he's sam's new BBFF. Poor guy is just lonely.... can't bring me down dude, i'm the adventure of a lifetime!!!
Oh, our room in this little lodge has two twin beds- i'm mary tyler moore and sam is dick van dyke. love it!!
-Jolie