Dawson Creek 1

Wednesday, August 25 - We got ready to leave this morning, and Collins had a dead battery in his dinghy, so he had to get the battery charger out.  Hopefully, something was just left on, since they didn't unhook the car overnight, and it will charge back up and be fine.  We were headed to Chetwynd today, the chain-saw sculpture capital of the world," and on Mazie's to-do list because of her interest in totem poles.  There is a loop road to Chetwynd, which bypasses Watson Creek But after a discussion at our rest stop, it was decided to continue on to Watson Creek, thereby completing the Alaska Highway, then driving our dinghy down to Chetwynd tomorrow.  That would also allow Collins to get his battery situation resolved.

We drove up and down lots of hills today, and finally came to some ranching and farm country.  We passed a domesticated herd of buffalo in one field, and a few cattle and horses.  They were combining wheat or barley right outside of Dawson Creek.  We talked to some hunters at our rest stop this morning, and they had gotten a bull moose, so I guess that's why I'm not seeing any -- they're killing them all!

We drove through the Peace River valley and crossed the Peace River.  Bridging the Peace River was one of the first goals of the Alaska Highway engineers in 1942, because traffic moving north from Dawson Creek was limited by this crossing, where two ferries with a capacity of 10 trucks per hour were operating.  This was the other suspension bridge on the Alaska Highway, but this one collapsed in 1957, and was replaced by the current cantilever and truss-type bridge.

There was a very nice campground/park right on the bank of this river, but we needed services and laundry facilities tonight, so we passed that one by.  Just after we got set up (2:00 p.m.), a thundershower came through, so we were fortunate that we were already off the road for the day.  We were blessed with a pretty rainbow when it stopped.

We'll be at this campground for a couple of nights to get caught up on our laundry and restock on groceries, and our side trip to Chetwynd.  When we leave here, we will cross into Alberta pretty quick, and change time zones again.  Our next major destination is Edmonton.