Alaska Highway at last

On the Alaska Highway at last!  We've been putting in long days in order to traverse most of BC and get beyond the familiar into the real North, and today we started down (or up?) the Alaska Highway.

Leaving the urban south, we have sped through booming mill towns and into the thriving oil patch, where Tim Hortons outnumber MacDonalds, Starbucks are nonexistent, and pickup trucks rule the road.  This is definitely Christieland, and it's clear that her message of jobs and development of resource industries resonates here much more than in the lower mainland.  It's also the land of the grammatically and numerically challenged - McLeese Lake welcomes you with 'Please Drive Safe', and the cashier at the Williams Lake tourist office was flummoxed by the necessity to round 57cents in the absence of pennies in the til.  

North of Prince George we crossed the Pacific/Arctic watershed divide.  After following the Fraser upstream for 2 days, we turned north as it headed east to it's origin high in the Rockies.  At Summit Lake, 740 m above sea level, rivers begin to flow north, as does all the water from here on in our trip.  Last night we camped at Crooked River Provincial Park, 60 km north of PG, high on the central plateau.  It's clear that we're high - there's still snow along the ditches, and the temperature was 6 C. this morning in the camper!  

Today we dipped into the Rocky Mountain Trench  coming down from the central plateau just before climbing over the Pine Pass - rather an anticlimactic crossing of the Rockies compared to the southern passes, but another milestone geographically.  We always find the geology and geography of the province fascinating, and I must admit to an obsession with tracing all the BC rivers each time we meet one.  All those childhood hours with the atlas is showing!

Tonight we are alone by a tiny lake north of Fort St John.  Norbert is out on the lake in his belly boat hunting the next fresh trout while I catch up on my writing.  The sun sets about 9:30 here, so there's no rush for dinner.  A red squirrel is sitting on the top step looking at me as I type and the red wing blackbirds are trilling their evening song.   Life on the road has resumed, tranquil and easy.  May all of you have such good fortune.

(Written on Mon. May 27, posted in Fort Nelson Public Library, May 28)