June 8-9, 2006 - First Two Days on Alaska Highway

We drove the first part of the Alaska Highway on June 8th, from Dawson Creek, BC to Prophet River, BC, for a total of 226 miles.  We saw three moose and a couple deer but didn't get any pictures.  We camped at Lum'n'Abners and it was cheap, $10 + $0.70 tax Canadian.  The sites had good 30AMP power and sewer but the water was turned off.  Since they were running water hoses on the ground between the lower buildings we figured they had a major water line break.  Here is our campsite:

Our neighbor was on a bike:

 

Our other neighbor was in a rental motorhome:

Here is the view at the lower buildings, including a cafe, the Alaska Highway and the buildings on the other side of the highway:

The mosquitoes were amazing here, even covered with bug spray they kept trying to find a spot we missed to bite.  Another camper said he had been to Alaska multiple times and this was about the worst he had been in.  A father and daughter taking the road on a tandem bike decided the mosquitoes were too bad to cook outside and went to the cafe for both dinner and breakfast the next day.  Evita really liked the smells and birds around but came in after fifteen minutes because of the mosquitoes.  

Bill did try to get on the internet here, but being at the edge of the satellite footprint he couldn't hold a strong enough signal to pass the tests.

By morning all the other campers but the two sets of bikes were gone by 7AM.  We were the last to leave. 

We fueled up in Fort Nelson and chatted with another couple from Washington State that were also filling their motorhome.  Then we headed on down the road, this is the most scenic part of the Alaska Highway since it goes through the Rocky Mountains.  At one summit they had a really nice place to pull off and see the views:

On the way down the summit we saw "Indian Head Mountain":

Most of the scenic pull outs were busy or too small for us so we were unable to stop and take pictures.  In Stone Mountain Provincial Park we took bad pictures of caribou and stone sheep while moving.

After 176 miles we stopped at Poplar Campground in Toad River, BC.  We had full hookups and were able to get online.  The campground plug was a 30AMP one, but when we tripped the breaker Bill found out it was a 20AMP breaker so we really had only 20AMPs.  It doesn't sound like code to have a 30AMP plug but only a 20AMP breaker, but that is the way it was.  The power was coming from a generator which we could hear quite clearly, but it became white noise after a while.  It was another beautiful day in the low 70s so we opened up some windows and ran two loads of laundry.  Here is our campsite:

You can tell the TransitShield is not doing well, but it is full of bugs.

We were only about 25 miles away so we drove back to Stone Mountain Provincial Park for pictures.

This part of the Alaska Highway is known for the cinnamon rolls every place has.  We bought one and made French toast out of it for dinner, an old favorite of Diane's.  It was quite good.

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