Alaska Highway

***FURTHER UPDATE BELOW***

I'm sitting in the Visitor's Centre in Fort St. John, listening to an irate German complain to the counter staff about a "dental emergency" that they must get fixed TODAY because tomorrow is impossible for them apparently (it's 2:30 pm - have you ever gotten in to see a dentist with two hours warning?). They're yelling at the poor girl and making her call every dentist in town and in the next town over, too, in order to get them in to see a dentist, and it's NOT working - poor girl. They're also asking her medical questions and comparing Canadian dental practices to German ones, as if the girl cares.

Meanwhile, Mark is sitting next to me calling every service station in Northern BC and the Yukon, looking for a new part for the truck (again). It's not essential, but we really should get it fixed sometime. We'll keep driving with the problem but it will mean slightly worse gas mileage. Ah well.

We've had a few adventures, and I don't know where the road will lead us after today, but time is short and we must get to Fort Nelson tonight, if possible! I'll write more later - gotta get on the highway again.


***EVENING UPDATE:***

Halfway there!

As I type I’m sitting in our Boler in Fort Nelson after a long day of travelling from Hudson’s Hope, with a pit stop (literally) in Fort St. John.

To date we’ve had numerous sightings of each of the following: Big-Horn Sheep, Stellar’s Jays, foxes, black bears (eight in one afternoon!), moose, deer, and the largest darned black birds I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure what kind of birds they were, but they were black, and they were birds, so that’s what I’ll call them.

The truck and the Boler have both provided some fiascos. The truck has been to the shop three times since we left Victoria, and we’ve ordered a needed part that will be waiting for us in Prince George on the way back down, so that’s at least four times in the garage before we make it back home. Nothing that forced us off the road, mind you, but foolish worrisome things. The Boler out-did the truck by deciding to detach from the trailer hitch, at 100 km an hour, in the middle of the Rocky Mountains south of Dawson’s Creek. Like, four hours south of Dawson’s Creek, but five-ish hours north of Prince George, and not a whole lot of anything in between. We went over a strange and extremely bumpy area of pavement and poof! The Boler was emitting sparks and grinding down the road on its soft underbelly. We pulled over and had a little freak-out, but everything was actually pretty much fine thanks to our handy-dandy safety chains! I love safety chains. I watched for traffic as Mark re-attached everything and put an extra ratchet strap over the hitch to make sure there were no repeats. Then I nearly threw up. We’re pretty certain it was a fluke of our speed (too fast), the road (too bumpy in exactly the right spacing), and something to do with a fundamental frequency (Mark said to say that). Even still, the extra ratchet stays on and we’re planning on installing a larger tow ball at some point so that it’s a tighter fit. Here's a shot of Mark re-attaching the Boler in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.

Passing trucks made the Boler visibly sway - not a good time to be underneath it, according to Mark!

In spite of all those fiascos, we’re actually making decent time and there have been lots of fun parts. We’ve seen some spectacular vistas and weird sights, like the gas exploration rigs, which shoot flames out the top and are in the middle of the wilderness. This part of the country is so remote – there is nothing on the highways between little towns except the occasional wide area on the shoulder with complementary litter barrels. You can drive for hours and see no sign of civilization off the highway at all – just trees, mountains, rivers, and an extraordinary abundance of wildlife.

There’s a chance we’ll hit the Yukon tomorrow, but I have to double-check my maps. It’s still a long way off! Canada’s big!

More later. Time to relax and rest up for tomorrow’s drive.