FORT ST JOHN, BC 6/1-6/3/08

We arrived in Fort St. John yesterday after a long (?) 47 mile drive from Dawson Creek. We decided to stop at FSJ so that we can visit a nearby town (60 miles away) called Hudson's Hope. We were told the trip to HH would be scenic and we'd see lots of wildlife. In addition, there are 2 dams in HH that we wanted to tour. We arrived at FSJ and we all realized Ralph and Diana (who drove over 3000 miles from Pennsylvania to British Columbia in 10 days) needed a rest. We spent the 1st day in FSJ picking up a few staples (did I mention that food is EXTREMELY expensive here?) and finding the least expensive fuel station (did I mention that fuel is EXTREMELY expensive here?). Fuel prices have continued to rise with each successive town we visit. This seems to be the pattern, which is over and above the normal daily price increase, there is also a price increase as you move further north on the Alaska Highway.
Which leads me to another point. It dawned on me that many of you might not understand the geographical logistics of our trip. It took me a long time and lots of maps before I actually understood the route our trip would take. So, I'll try to explain it...
We entered Canada about 60 miles east of Vancouver in a small town called Abbottsford. The highway we took from the border up to Dawson Creek is called the Trans Canada Highway. We traveled approximately 700 miles on it. Dawson Creek, Canada is the beginning of the Alaska Highway, which continues for more than 1500 miles through British Columbia, the Yukon, and eastern Alaska, ending at Delta Junction, AK. There’s some dispute that the highway actually ends in Fairbanks, Alaska by locals. So, you’ll see pictures of 2 different monuments that claim to be the end of the highway, and they are actually 95 miles apart!
There is much history regarding the building of this highway, which was accomplished in the 1940's. It was a combined effort by the Americans and Canadians and, needless to say, quite a difficult undertaking due to the extreme weather and remote aspect of the area. The distances on the highway were noted with mileposts and to this day, although the physical posts no longer exist, the attractions, landmarks and towns are still denoted by them. Funny how Canada uses the metric system (liters, kilometers, etc), but the highway uses miles..hmmmm.
So, there's a lot of history, national pride, points of interest and beautiful vistas along this 1500+ mile trek. But, this will only be part of our trip. We are expecting the total trip (in the motor home) to be approximately 5000 miles from Seattle, Washington, with many more additional miles to be traveled with the truck. We are discussing taking the Dempster Highway up to the Artic Circle, a trip that is both rugged (guaranteed to cost you a new tire or two) and scenic. We're not sure if we're ready for it, but we're discussing it!
So, back to today's adventure.....
We left at 6:15am in order to try to see some wildlife on the road. The best time to find animals out and about is dusk and dawn. Well, silly us, we awoke before 5am and it was already light. We missed sunrise by more than an hour. Since we are so far north, we have extremely long days...the sun sets well after 11:30pm and rises at 3:30am...And, I understand the days will get even longer as our trip progresses. The summer solstice (June 21st) is the longest day of the year, and in Fairbanks, there’s more than 22 hours of daylight, and the other 2 hours of the day are actually twilight, not darkness.
I keep digressing, back to today's story.
We were fortunate to see a coyote in a field as we drove to the first of the 2 dams. We have visited quite a few dams in the USA, and unfortunately, since 9/11 you can't get too far into them anymore due to security precautions. We were fortunate to be able to get into the powerhouse today. The first dam, the smaller of the 2, had a wonderful visitor center and film about the making of the dam. This dam (Peace Canyon Dam) is fed from the other, larger dam (WAC Bennet Dam) upriver. We decided to visit the smaller one first and then headed up to the larger one (about 15 miles away). We took a bus tour 500 feet underground to see the actual working of the dam. This is the season where electrical demand begins to diminish in the Province and therefore, a time when maintenance is able to be done on the inner working parts. We were fortunate to see a lot of the ‘guts’ of the dam, which helped me understand much more easily how water produces electricity (too long of an explanation to get into here).
At the end of the dam tour, the guide told us we could drive along the rim of the dam-it was quite awesome to drive it, and be atop a facility that harnessed immeasurable gallons of water so that we can flick a switch and turn on a light bulb.
So, the day was eventful, educational and a great opportunity to see another part of British Columbia…
Tomorrow we head 260 miles down the Alaska Highway to Fort Nelson