Day 13 Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC 436 miles

Got gas ?

Having thawed out we get our gear packed and loaded.  While loading up I meet a couple of guys on Harleys.  They're heading north too and are surprised that my wife is with me.  I hadn't noticed but we haven't seen any other bikes traveling two up.

We are ready to hit the Alcan Highway, also called the Alaska Highway.  The start of it is here at Dawson Creek, milepost 0.  We find milepost 0 with no difficulty, in fact it would be hard to miss.

After taking the required pictures we seek out the original milepost 0.  What ! The one above is not the original,,,?  Nope.  Seems like this one was erected after the original got knocked down by a drunk driver, so,,,,now they have two.  Go figure.  

Did I mention it's still cold.  We stop by a local Wal-Mart to look for warmer gloves.  It seems that they've already been put up and replaced by swim trunks.  

We press on further north on a pretty good highway.  The texture of the highway itself is rough, like maybe someone got chintzy and cut back on the tar they mixed with the gravel.  We see moose and bear.  Sometimes they stay still like a model at a  photoshoot and sometimes they are more aloof.  The moose are entertaining, their quick gate looks slow since they are so big, sorta like watching a C130 flying. 

Model

Model

Aloof

Model

Aloof

At the road constructions sights we noticed that a lot of the workers are women.  Not just the flaggers, but bulldozer operators, truck drivers, etc.  I've drawn the conclusion that since road construction here only occurs in the summer months that the men are all working full time jobs somewhere and the women take these jobs for part time jobs in the summer. 

Kathy spotted this walking through the grass so I turned around and she was able to get a pic.  I think it may be a Sandhill crain.

The distance between gas stations can be a far stretch on the Alcan highway.  We had stopped to lend assistance to the two Harley guys, evidently they had ran low on gas, but luckily they had extra gas with them.  It was then my turn, when my fuel light came on I still had about 50 miles to the next station.  With 5 miles to go I ran out of gas too.  I pulled over and put another gallon of gas in the tank from my backup fuel supply.  I am sure glad I carried extra gas.

We started looking for a place to stay and found Northern Rockies Lodge.  A small dated cabin with a heater that didn't work but it did have a comfortable bed.  We were tired and slept well.   Tomorrow, the Yukon.

Dawson Creek, BC to Muncho Lake, BC pictures