Sasquatch, Speeding, 1908 Buick & Hot Water

Day 14, 15 & 16

The Prince George to Dawson Creek stretch yielded two places of interest. This is the Bijoux Waterfall. (Thanks to Wendell and Bijou for telling us about this!)

Sasquatch spotted!

Each year a select 12 chainsaw carvers from countries around the world are invited to a competition. The results are set around the town of Chetwynd … the Chainsaw Carving Capital of the World. These are little coyote’s favorites.

   Mile O 

Traffic laws in Canada

     We saw a sign that said “If you hate speeding tickets, raise your right foot.” Another declares ‘Speeding cars are impounded’.

Meet Mary and Johnny … young, audacious and caught! We met Mary and Johnny at the Fort Nelson visitor center. Maps and travel brochures spread out on a table, all their possessions scattered around them on the floor. What can they do for seven days? Yes, their car was confiscated for a seven-day time-out. She is from France, he from Belgium. Their attitude is one door closed, another opened. They had hit the road in a jeep, sleeping in the car or in a tent. Started in Vancouver and driving north 2,500 miles, heading for the Arctic Sea at Prudhoe Bay … they certainly are daring.

Peoples

      We also met at the visitor center, Elena, whose accent is definitely not Canadian. Such a engaging  lady … she showed us on the world map where she is from … a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean on the north eastern coast of Russia (not far from Alaska). Yes Russian. But don’t stop there, she left there 13 years ago and has lived in Germany and England and the Falkland Islands (off the coast of Argentina). And now she lives in the northern reaches of British Columbia. Intriguing! A chance meeting, an instant friend.

     Driving the Alcan Highway is more than places and things … it is the whole world on one road … people with dreams and hopes and courage and friendliness. So far we’ve met Holland, Spain, Boston, Russia, Finland, Belgium and France ... and a score of Canadians and many from the States … all heading north.

1908 Buick

Canadians provide brilliant people as well. Check out this gentleman. Marl Brown, owner of this 1908 Buick … and it runs. He not only has this one, but Fords from the 1920’s and many more amazing vehicles, motors and engines over many acres and an inside museum of antiques and memorabilia. In 1987, he gathered them all into the “Fort Nelson Heritage Museum” and opened it to the public. These pictures are only one of many buildings. 

Boreal Forest

We are in the Boreal Forest – the northernmost of the world’s forests. This forest stretches around the world in a narrow band at approximately this latitude … 59°. (Our home is at 38° latitude). The trees are most remarkable ... the White Spruce are very tall and very narrow.  

Liard Hot Springs

We are in a unique ecosystem … world famous Liard Hot Springs. Because of the hot springs, this rainforest exists peculiarly in the Boreal. 53 campsites (we were lucky to get one of the last 3 sites on June 10 about 4 p.m.)  This picture is the half-mile boardwalk … through the algae, moss, ferns and wildflowers … to reach the hot springs. Hot pic

Stayed two nights here; leaving on 7/12 for encounters north … entering the Yukon Province of Canada next. Our traveling companion is eager to hit the road again. 
By the way … our little coyote still has no name. Does anyone have any suggestions? 

Oh Canada!

O Canada! Where pines and maples grow, Great prairies spread and lordly rivers flow!

Days 11, 12 & 13 – crossed the 2,000 mile mark.

     The freedom to drive along the road and notice some place that could be interesting or even incredible … that freedom to respond and pull over … even turn around and go back ... that is a wonderful madness. Many times on our first two days in Canada, we did just that. We did set a schedule, a plan for how far to travel in a day, where or when to stop for the night. But the option to stray from the plan is what makes our trip extraordinary.

     Driving into Canada at the border in Idaho was touchy … so many people warned us they had the experience where their Roadtrek interior was tossed looking for contraband. Yet Dan’s friendliness and affability won out once again as the border agent asked a half dozen questions about our travels and what we carried and then waved us on.

    
 Our aim was to travel north to TransCanada Hwy 1 and then east to the Icefields Parkway in Banff/Jasper National Parks. But near the end of our travel day, fortuitously a sign appeared: ‘3-par golf and RV Park’. Early the next morning found us out on the most stunningly verdant golf course ... nature, exercise, and an embarrassingly awful score. The languid deer laughed with us as the trees and ponds reached out and snatched our balls right out of the air.

     
     The next day we pulled over to a rest area on the TransCanada to catch a sight we’d seen before three years ago. There we met a young lady who had been sitting there for over an hour waiting for a train to go by ... with no idea that one would even come. WHY would she do that? Because this is indeed an amazing place. The original 4.5% grade train track was prohibitive and many trains were lost (not to mention the difficulty and cost).

     In 1907 they replaced it with a double spiral through two tunnels … a figure 8 path across the Kicking Horse Valley. (See the picture) And again … miraculous chance … a train did come through! (The same good luck three years ago, when we stopped here). The train traveling east from British Columbia follows the track into tunnels that spiral inside two different mountains going east, north, west, east, west, south, east, north, and finally east again heading to Alberta. 

     Oh, that young lady? Visiting from Holland traveling alone in a Class B Travado across British Columbia.

Banff/Jasper National Parks

Marvels like the natural wonders of our earth cannot be expressed with mere words … so a few pictures … (that also fall short of the experience.)

We saw bears three times. 

 Lake Louise

Athabasca Falls in Jasper 

Weeping Wall in Jasper

Peoples ... Visited with the lady from Holland; a student from the Colorado School of Mines … from Australia; and two gentlemen on a hike to a waterfall … from Spain.

Leaving Prince George BC this morning heading north to Dawson Creek, where mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway begins.
(May be a while before we get internet again.)