We got up around 6:30 am as she wanted to do laundry before we left. The motel had a laundry on site.
Headed out to Route 2 towards Grand Prairie. We then connect with Route 43 and started for the British Columbia border.
Today was a day to deal with road construction. We have faced it before but nothing like today. The first was near Dunvegan Provincial Park (Alberta), in the mountains. We know we are in a construction area and then we see that sign that tells trucks to gear down - a 7% grade down. We can't see it yet as we need to go around the mountain top and then head down. Not too bad so far, a transport is in front of us and NOT behind and we go down between 60 and 40 kms /hr - not bad. But we see the river way below the two mountains and a bridge to cross - probably about 1/4 or 1/3 up the mountains. Of course there is lots of construction equipment along the way so we mostly have one lane. We go across the bridge and then start up the mountain on the other side. We have two lanes at first so we go with the flow and pass the truck. But we just keep going up, narrow to one lane, a drop off to the right we don't want to think about and we catch up to the traffic ahead. This little "convoy" is led by a transport hauling two trailers and we keep going up and up and up at 20 kms/hr., praying all the way that the truck's engine can and that ours can too! We stopped at a picnic site shortly after and got out of the car just to be sure our legs would hold us up! Yes,they were working ok.
The next construction site covered about 40 kms. and we had to sit and wait - a 30+ degrees day and then got to move at a high of 80 but a lot of 50kms/hr sections - at least no bad hills here. Forget your time schedule though.
Sometime in here we got to Dawson Creek and took a picture at the 0 mile of the Alaska highway, Route 97 - the pleasant spot of the day.
Then we got to Taylor. Here we see signs that it is a 10% grade down and advisories to check your brakes. It was a trip down we won't soon forget. She had her stomach in her throat all the way! The view was absolutely spectacular but hard to really get a look when total focus in on going down and coaching the brakes to be good and hold tight. Fort St. John soon followed so we stopped for the night at the Caravan Motel. It was warn so I stretched out on the floor.
Should also mention we were in farm country today - lots of haying going on and we saw a raindeer farm.
Headed out to Route 2 towards Grand Prairie. We then connect with Route 43 and started for the British Columbia border.
Today was a day to deal with road construction. We have faced it before but nothing like today. The first was near Dunvegan Provincial Park (Alberta), in the mountains. We know we are in a construction area and then we see that sign that tells trucks to gear down - a 7% grade down. We can't see it yet as we need to go around the mountain top and then head down. Not too bad so far, a transport is in front of us and NOT behind and we go down between 60 and 40 kms /hr - not bad. But we see the river way below the two mountains and a bridge to cross - probably about 1/4 or 1/3 up the mountains. Of course there is lots of construction equipment along the way so we mostly have one lane. We go across the bridge and then start up the mountain on the other side. We have two lanes at first so we go with the flow and pass the truck. But we just keep going up, narrow to one lane, a drop off to the right we don't want to think about and we catch up to the traffic ahead. This little "convoy" is led by a transport hauling two trailers and we keep going up and up and up at 20 kms/hr., praying all the way that the truck's engine can and that ours can too! We stopped at a picnic site shortly after and got out of the car just to be sure our legs would hold us up! Yes,they were working ok.
The next construction site covered about 40 kms. and we had to sit and wait - a 30+ degrees day and then got to move at a high of 80 but a lot of 50kms/hr sections - at least no bad hills here. Forget your time schedule though.
Sometime in here we got to Dawson Creek and took a picture at the 0 mile of the Alaska highway, Route 97 - the pleasant spot of the day.
Then we got to Taylor. Here we see signs that it is a 10% grade down and advisories to check your brakes. It was a trip down we won't soon forget. She had her stomach in her throat all the way! The view was absolutely spectacular but hard to really get a look when total focus in on going down and coaching the brakes to be good and hold tight. Fort St. John soon followed so we stopped for the night at the Caravan Motel. It was warn so I stretched out on the floor.
Should also mention we were in farm country today - lots of haying going on and we saw a raindeer farm.
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