Sunday, July 31, 2011

Day 3: Why British Columbia is Better Than The Yukon

July 29, 2011 - Today we had breakfast at Toad Creek in beautiful British Columbia. While the trip to the lodge was fraught with frustration; the breakfast helped calm me down quite a bit.

During the early morning trip we passed a wide variety of animal life, which true to Bruce's modus operandi he stopped to take pictures. While I am all for wildlife photos I was trying to sleep from a rough night of driving and I swear that every time the brakes were applied I woke up with a start.  However, he managed to get some amazing shots.  Bruce has more images too, but I'll post them later.

There were bison everywhere!

I don't know how Bruce got them to line up.

On top of that, the gas gage was below empty before we arrived at Toad River. I didn't want to get stuck on the skinny, windy road so when Bruce wanted to take a picture of a caribou I kept driving.

The Toad River Lodge, the only place to get gasoline for hundreds of miles.

Frustration ensued, but we got over it easily enough I think. We've been three days together in the truck so it was bound to happen.

Road Quality and Fauna

Even though the roads through the Canadian Rockies were skinny; they were more well kept than those on Yukon. In the Yukon driving the roads was like being in a small boat in rough seas. Frost heave patches were huge and placed everywhere it seemed.  Additionally, the amount of animals that we saw on the trip was minuscule compared to the first hour within British Columbia. It may have been because of the time of day we traveled.

British Columbia, however, had nice even roads. It was like driving on the roads back home. I love these roads, especially after Yukon.
The amount of animals that Bruce and I saw was astonishing! Keep in mind that Bruce saw more than I did, just because I was trying to sleep. Together, we saw two herds of bison, several bears, a moose, a squirrel (no funny comments now), caribou, and a whole slew of mountain goats; the first day!

Welcome to Fort Nelson!

We didn't stay long in the town of Fort Nelson, located in the lee of the Rocky Mountains. We stayed long enough to drive through on our way to Dawson's Creek.  Fort Nelson was originally started as a fur trading community but is now geared to serve truckers and other people traveling the Alaska Highway. Diesel prices are the same in this community, and the main street is lined with long haul truckers.

Dawson's Creek

Almost seven hours from Fort Nelson is the town of Dawson's Creek. Unfortunately for an hour Bruce decided to gloat over the fact that his stretch of the drive was flat, open, and with out a deadly drop to sharp rocks on either side. I just shut my eyes and took a nap.

I look forward to Dawson's Creek, there is a bed waiting for me there.

2 comments:

Lindainak said...

Well another comment from me. Many years ago in my hitchhiking days I spent two weeks in Fort Nelson. A truck driver gave me his key to his cabin while he continued trucking and I stayed there for 2 weeks and relaxed before I went on my way.

Thomas "Two-Bears" Sorngrym said...

Fort Nelson was okay. That was very nice of the truck driver to give you the key to his cabin.

This part of Canada is very pretty. I wouldn't mind coming back again to stay a little bit longer.

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