Thursday, March 13th
2014
(Quesnel, BC –
Dawson Creek, BC: 347 miles)
We slept in, getting up at 8:00 am.
There was frost on the car. Estimated 23 degrees. Small breakfast,
pack our stuff and leave Quesnel, BC (apparently living off logging
industry). Before we left the motel I saw probably 15 trucks with
lumber. All messy, dirty snow along the road, kind of sad. There was
not much between Quesnel and Prince George (“metropolis” with
85000 people). We drove about 75 miles without stopping or seeing
really anything super interesting. Yesterday (in one of the visitor's
centers) we were told that a week ago it was minus 20 degrees and
horrible weather. More clouds than yesterday. Still, some sun and
pretty pleasant weather. More snow. So many logging trucks. The car
got really dirty. Prince George – a town, drive to a visitor
center, few magazines and the lady talking with really interesting
accent. J. felt sick whole day. Piles of dirty snow. Sheets of ice.
Art gallery – some strange video artist and few pieces from First
Nation artist (do not remember the names). We took a detour to drive
through the campus of the Northern British Columbia University –
apparently moose was seen there licking the salt from cars. Oh … in
the morning, loading the car, I was watched by big Swiss rum carrying
dog (saint Bernard) who was in the back of the car parked next to me.
Strange. No moose there. We got lost a bit in the town, got gasoline
and coffee and left. More and more driving. Several feet of (mostly
dirty) snow along the road. Pretty much every park closed. The result
for us: nothing to see along the road. After complaining about the
lack of “majestic sights” we drove for a while through some
incredible area with amazing views of snowy mountains. Again, no
wildlife. Later in the day we saw some deer and possibly elk (in
great distance).
Later the surroundings got somewhat
boring again. Flat. Some small settlements. At one point we had
almost 150 kilometers without any services and pretty much nowhere to
stop. 100 kilometers (km) is about 62.1 miles. Also crossing some
mountains, more snow and dirty walls of snow along the road. Water
(from melting) on the road. A bit tricky driving. Chetwynd - smaller
town about 60 kilometers from Dawson Creek. In travel brochures
(because of so many chain saw carvings) the town has slogan “carved
to success” or something similar. At the end of winter (right now),
the town was looking pretty sad and dirty. They had a lot of carvings
though. About half of our trip we had really nice road – much nicer
then Michigan. The other half of the trip the roads had bunch of
holes and bumps and it was less pleasant driving. Kind of long and
not very exciting day. It is still hard to believe that we are
driving to Alaska. At 4:30 pm we arrived to Dawson Creek. Visitor
center: closed. Gallery next door: open, some interesting pictures,
also pictures from 1940s when Alaska highway was built. The town was
again really messy and dirty (all the snow melting, salt, gravel).
The mountains with the snow in the distance are really pretty, the
“close” experience is somewhat messy and dirty from the normal
life when roads have to be cleared and snow pushed away. A block into
the town we found (in the middle of the intersection) famous “0
mile post” of Alaska highway. Tomorrow we are officially starting
to drive on Alaska-Canada highway (ALCAN)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Highway.
We got few things in the grocery store and had “Boston Pizza”
(seems be Canadian chain) for dinner (average pizza, steep price).
Night in Dawson Creek, British Columbia (apparently nothing to do
with television show Dawson's Creek). Well, so far so good.
And ... greetings from GREAT WHITE NORTH to everybody.
