Alaska 2009 - Day 3

Day 3
Okay so I have to say this: “The Canadian Rockies are spectacular” But, More on that later.
We woke up, and felt pretty good that we were not in someone’s back yard. We were a little unsure about where exactly we were staying. I turns out that the campground that we were looking for was just down the road from where we stayed. But of course we did not figure that out until we were on our way out.

Our first objective was to get gas and then find the visitors center to figure out where we can get the blinkers fixed. We were both a little unsure about how accurate the gas gauge is, and we rolled into Dawson’s Creek below the empty line, 256 miles on the trip odometer. Dawson’s creek looks like a northern town, everybody drives dirty trucks. And when I say everybody drives a truck I mean it, they all do. As we drive around town we stumble upon the Mile 0 marker. This is the start of the Alaskan Canadian Highway. Pictures taken, we move on. The visitor’s center has two museums, but we just need to find an auto repair shop so no time to learn… bummer. The lady helping us was super nice, and I purchased a couple of trinkets as souvenirs. She sent us to the Toyota dealer.

With highlighted map in hand, we make our way through town to the Toyota dealer. They explain that they are too busy to take us this morning, but they can get us in later in the day. We give out sob story about how we want to be moving on. Then the nice lady begins to start calling around town. The calls go like this “Hey Derek, I have some guys that are having trouble with their electric system on their 1982 Toyota, can you fit them in for me?”, “No, okay thanks. See you soon.”, next call; “Hello, Marvin?”, yes it is Linda, I have some guys in here with electrical problems and they need to get them fixed as soon as possible, can you fit them in this morning for me?”, Yes alright I will send them on over. Oh hey can you tell Steve that we had a nice time on Saturday?”, “Thanks, bye hon.” Seriously every Canadian we have met so far has been super nice.

Marvin’s Muffler (he does other work) shop is found. It was not too hard. Everyone is standing around talking cars and smoking. My kind of place. Marvin comes out and greets us with a hand shake. He has us pull in and Steve begins working on LC. He lets us poke around and soon enough we are all chatting about politics, how Americans take all of their energy (oil, gas, wind energy) and how Canadians are too lazy to protest. Their words not mine. The discussion moves to weather, with a wind chill it gets to 50 degrees below and snow drifts as high as a one story house. Anyways for the next two hours we chat. They ask us to break with them as they smoke, we talk more and finally the problem is found. A wire was pinched when the front bumper was put on. The wire had been rubbing and it finally wore though enough to short the fuses out. LC fixed and my pockets $60 lighter (I think a really good deal), we head on down the road. It is now 11:30am and we really need to make up some time.

It is 283 miles to Fort Nelson, so we need to stop for gas along the way. We lay out the plan and drive. It is definitely colder, the trees are smaller, and there is a bunch of Aspen, and Spruce trees that line the road. The road is rough and windy, bot over all good. 230 miles down the road we begin looking for the gas station, it is not there. We keep driving and it is not there. We look at our maps and there is nothing until Fort Nelson. Whoops how did we miss the gas? We missed it. I guess we will need to cut the tie down that holds the gas cans to the roof rack. (Yeah we put the strap on wrong and the only way to get it off will be to cut it off.) Lets push it and see what happens… 256 goes by… we see signs of life. 260 comes and we see more life and finally 268 we hit a Fort Nelson gas station. What the heck. With a little deduction we later determine that the speedometer is off and we are actually traveling farther then the trip odometer is saying.
Fort Nelson is interesting; it is a giant strip mall like town. Everything is on the main drag and is a part of a strip mall. Apparently it did not even have electricity, Fresh Water and phone until the late 1950’s. It became a village in 1971 and a city in 1987. All because of a large gas find. Of note, I used to be the original Mile 0 during the construction of the highway.

Just out of Fort Nelson, we see a lot of logging trucks. I am driving, when all of a sudden a rock flies off of a logging truck. This was no small rock; it was a little bigger around than a quarter. I know because I thought it was going to hit me. It smashed the center of the window, but up high, right behind the rear view mirror. It hit so hard that glass flew into us. I cussed, and the said “my wife is going to kill me”. Wow the smash is big. I always knew that I was going to have to get another windshield, but not so soon. Oh well.

As we keep on driving the roads worsen, but the scenery gets better. Much of the road is dirt or freshly laid dirt and oil. I am not sure what it is called [edit: it is called chip seal], but it is not good until lots of people have driven it. Then suddenly our first Caribou sighting. I get some pictures. Then the Rockies emerge, holy cow they are he and they are just rock. No trees just rock. And did I say huge. They are amazing, you see them and you feel insignificant. You can see the strata, you know that these Mountains are old, and have been pushed up for millions of years… you can just see it. It is so evident. Bam, then two more Caribou, and then a herd of Stone Mountain goats, special to this part of the country. Animals are cool to see, but they are nothing in comparison to the Rockies. The mountains look like huge pyramids. You just feel small.

We finally make it to our destination, Muncho Lake. Yes I said Muncho, with an ‘n’, not Mucho or Macho. I am not sure where the name came from, but our campsite is right on the lake. We have a fire, transfer files around and then bed. Right now I am sitting in my sleeping bag looking out the back window at the lake (10 feet away) with an almost full moon, shinning over the mountains on a calm lake. The fire has died down. This is incredible. My dreams cannot top this. G-night.