Beginning of Alaska Trip

After spending the night in a motel in Grande Prairie I went to Fleet Brake and visited with staff that I had only ever talked to on the phone. Also Marty from Calgary had just flown in that morning and I got to say hi to him. I then got on the bike and headed for Dawson Creek and Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.

This giant Beaver oversees the town of Beaverlodge.

Mile 0

There is a wonderful tourist information place here and the people who work here are great for information. They gave me gas stops, motels, campgrounds and all kinds of information I needed. They have a museum there and a movie on the building of the Alaska Highway. Very interesting.

 

They were getting all fixed up because Google was coming to do an expose'.

 

 

The tall plant is a castor bean. It made a nice centre piece in the flower arrangements.

I left the center and headed out stopping at the Mile 0 Campground Where the UMCI rally would be on my return. I was delighted to find that there was a Pioneer Village there and in one of the old buildings a family was trying to make a go of the Mile One Café. They were working 2 jobs and I think the motorcycle club really overwhelmed them with their patronage. The food was great and here is the cook and Leha the young lady trying to make a go of it.

Following are some of the other old buildings in the village.

 

 

The Cafe' is in the white building next to the church.

 

One of the beautiful flowerbeds in the village.

After having a nice lunch of hamburger and fries I carried on to start my journey to Hyder. I found a really nice campground just north of Ft. St. John at Charlie Lake.

I got set up in the campground and went to this Pub next door for a lovely dinner served to me by a lovely waitress from Australia.

 

Some of the beautiful terrain I was riding through.

The gorgeous fields of fireweed I mentioned previously. Gorgeous gardens all along the road. My next stop was Liard Hot Springs and despite warnings of the numbers of bears near here I put up my tent across the road from the park and then had to walk this boardwalk to get to the springs. I had to do it twice however as the first time I did not take my camera.

I was taken by the gorgeous vegetation surrounding this place and could not believe how hot the water was. I did however get some horrendous insect bites. I now have a sticker on my bike that says. There is not a single mosquito on the Alaska Highway. They are all married and have raised very large families.

To the right is the HOT end. Not many people make it that far and those that do take a rock off the bottom and throw it up on the shore. The temperature is almost boiling at that end and then as it travels down it goes over a divider and gets cooler around the bend.

 

Changing room

Neat old tree by the boardwalk

Beautiful white flowers in the marsh

The next morning I stopped just down the road at Coal River for fuel. This is a Coal River Frisbee courtesy of the bison who roam the area. There are several herd who can be found along the road.

Riding on one passes into the Yukon and the next major attraction is the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest. I remember when it was a single post with signs and mileages to major places like San Francisco, but no longer as it has grown into a veritable forest.

 

 

 

Just west of Watson Lake I turned south off the Alaska Highway onto the Cassier. and will continue on from there. Happy to finally be catching up on my journies.