Day 226 – 22nd July 09
Posted by TravellingStrom on July 22, 2009
Wednesday – Fort St.John, British Columbia, Canada
I had another great night’s sleep, which means I woke up again without being eaten 🙂 Apparently the last bear sighting in this park was about a month ago, so no real need to panic, as long as I do not get complacent, who me! So, after breakfast and packing I went into the camp office where they told me there was internet, but I had not been able to get it from my site. This meant I sat here for a couple for hours to do some catching up, until about midday, as I needed to charge some gear as well. There was power at the sites, but only for large 15amp plugs and I had no adaptor.
After this effort I fuelled up and headed north, but not far as I had been told about a place called the Sulphur Gates which was a short dirt ride north of town.
After all the reading it was only a short walk to the river lookout, the Smokey River that is.
In the second picture above, you can see where the clear river joins the Smokey River at the top, but to get a better view I need to put the hubs in and climb some pathways.
After that, back on the road after the dirt section, it was very dusty, especially when a semi went past!
I noticed I had picked up a hitchhiker, rather than have him fly up into my face, I threw him overboard about 30kms from home 🙂
The road north was uninspiring, it was just a fast ride, but I had to stop at some construction work on a bridge and noticed the very cool automatic traffic lights. They have a timer built in and obviously just work to a 3 minute timescale from both ends.
I kept on going and if I had any doubt about which way to go, I just looked to the sky for directions 🙂
More pretty straight roads, then I spotted a beaver that was looking at me, I think this was at Beaverlodge 🙂
Shortly I arrived at Dawson Creek, this is where the Alaskan Highway really begins. It is called the zero mile town as it is the start, but really a place up the road called Sasquatch Crossing was the original zero mile town. When they built the road from both directions and they joined up, they changed the zero marker to here.
This was a big town of about 50k people, so I moved on, I decided to head to Fort St John, but on the way I took a small detour to see this old bridge, it is quite an impressive achievement 🙂
On I go and see a lot of bikers around, they are all heading the wrong way, but I guess Sturgis happens in a few weeks, so maybe they are all heading down for that? I go through the town of Taylor and the bridge deck is horrible metal which makes the tyres track real funny.
Not long after I arrive in Fort St John. Here I decided to get a motel and the lady at the visitors centre found a reasonably cheap one and I set about charging everything I had 🙂 As I had had a late lunch about 3pmI was not that hungry, but I could do with a beer 🙂 Now, I asked a couple of local chaps who told me about a few pubs around the area. I had some decision making to do here, because they were in opposite directions. I could turn right and walk 3 blocks and across the highway to the bar next to the Super 8 motel, the prices there would be based on tourism. The other choice was if I turned left and walked 6 blocks I would arrive at a titty bar. Hmm, decisions, decisions, well, let me work this out from a different angle, if I go to the bar across the main highway, I may get a bit drunk and have to navigate the traffic on my way home, this is a safety issue, weras if I turned left I could get mugged at the titty bar. Hmm, well, it would be more fun to be mugged by a semi naked girl than be run over by a truck, so I turned left 🙂
Between me and that bar was another bar where I stopped for a rest, this is where I found out I was in a different time zone and had gained another hour, so it was quite early.
After this it was on to the titty bar which I do not remember much about, except the nice bits, lucky I have photos eh!
Needless to say it was a late night, early morning and I really enjoyed myself, back to the tent from now on though I think 🙂
Day 263 miles and 423 km
Trip – 26,420 miles and 42,519 km
Cheers
TravellingStrom
TravellingStrom 
Nick said
This entry needs more pics. Lots more pics. 😉
TravellingStrom said
Which entry are you talking about?
TS
TSV-Strom said
Richard, I’ve started getting the half photos (turn up square if landscape) on my new netbook. Running at 1024×600 so width of page shouldn’t be a problem. If I right click and view the iamge then it shows the full width.
Pete
TravellingStrom said
Thanks Pete, I have no idea what is going on, unless WordPress have changed some settings.
I will try something different when I get a chance.
Cheers TS
TravellingStrom said
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I’m writing an article and I think you can help me with some issues, please take a look http://fruitless.commonlib.org
Pardon my monkey thumbs, TravellingStrom
ybg said
By the way, your little hitchhiker looked like an Asian Long Horned Beetle. That were accidentally introduced from Chine about 15 years ago and they’ve managed to cross the country from both ends. They devastate the forests, so the next time, don’t be so kind. Skqarsh’em.
Great pics, but I think one has a smudge in the middle. I can’t read what she’s got on her tee shirt.
ybg
TravellingStrom said
Ahh, OK I will kill everything, hmm, I see what you mean about the smudge 🙂
Cheers TS
samuel livingstone said
call me when you get near vancouver
778-924-2400
sam
TravellingStrom said
OK, thanks for that, in August sometime.
Cheers TS
Art Wallace said
Campbell Hwy after Watson Lake… Are we collecting the NWT over there then maybe onto North Klondike Hwy?? :o) How was your stay @ Liard?
TravellingStrom said
I have done th ecrap Campbell Highway, or dirtway, I am having a rest day then on to Fairbanks and the Dalton north
Liard was full of mossies, big bastards too, but the camp ground was good.
Cheers TS
Art Wallace said
Yes, I remember the skeeters there, too. Black flies paid us a visit as well and they were actually worse! Good luck on the Dalton… Best advice I’ve heard about that road is don’t get in a hurry. As you also know the weather’s going to dictate the ride. Most look for a 3-day window of clear weather; although, it changes pretty quick esp north of Atigun Pass.
Dunno if you can use these but here are some links for affordable lodging. Fairbanks- http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=412307
Roughly halfway between Fbanks & Prudhoe- http://www.boreallodge.com/
Haven’t stayed at either place but both come highly recommended. Of course, your oprtions are pretty limited in Prudhoe. As far as I can tell these are your choices- http://www.prudhoebay.com/Lodging.htm Expect any one of them to be expensive as Hell (over $120/night).
Cheers!
-Art
TravellingStrom said
Thanks for the links, I will check them out. Last night I met some Swedes who had just come from up there. They advised staying at Coldfoot, then do Prudoh Bay in one hit, up and back in one day, about 10 hours of very hard good gravel they reckon. Fast ride, around the 110kmh mark, hopefully it will not rain before I get there.
Cheers TS
Art Wallace said
Coldfoot is OK if you don’t mind spending 4-star prices for a bed that’s older than you are-LOL. I hear it’s a bit of a shite hole; although, I’ve been told the truck-stop puts on a good feed! The Boreal Lodge is in Wiseman which isn’t much further up the road from Coldfoot. Much better accomadations & easier on the wallet, too!
I see you’ve updated with more entries… Looking forward to reading those! Especially the Campbell “Highway” entry… Funny what passes as a highway up there, isn’t! ;o)
TravellingStrom said
Well, the Swedish chaps told me to go this way, I will work it out in the end 🙂
Biker Jackets said
The bridge that caused your tires to track weird? yeah, we have a few of those in Chicago. I understand that they are designed to “try” and prevent ice and snow build-up, but they can cause some track drift with cars. It’s just not as noticeable until you cross them on a bike.
Considering the black ice hazard during winter on bridges, anything that can ease that situation is just something to be tolerated. I just have to keep it in mind when I’m doing my bike riding…which is always in non-winter months.
TravellingStrom said
Thanks, whatever, I hate them!
Cheers TS