Hinton to Toad River Lodge
Starting the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek
06.09.2022 - 09.09.2022
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Canadian Rockies
& The Alaskan Highway (Alcan)
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After the long weekend ended the busy campground at Hinton suddenly became almost completely empty. We spent a day relaxing in the empty campground. A grey crane bird visited our campsite, Echo was in such a shock that he even forgot to bark.
The next morning we left towards Dawson Creek where the World famous Alaska Highway starts with a Zero Mile Signpost. There are two main routes to Alaska from Canada, one of them is called Alcan. This is we use Northbound. The other one is called Cassiar, we plan to explore that Southbound in a few weeks. Now we enter the land of long drives in the remote Northern territories. No cell signal for hours, no townships for long miles. We fill fuel wherever it is available.
Our first stop after Hinton was a kind Harvesthosts couple near Grande Prairie where we did some shopping to refill our supplies. Then we stopped for a good midday rest at the Mile Zero signpost at Dawson Creek.
Next day we have reached Pink Mountain which was a small and somewhat rundown campsite. They were out of gas (only diesel) and the electricity was quite unstable at the small site we stopped by. It was ok for one night but nothing more than that. The next morning we were able to fill up our car and left.
The scenery is very nice and a lots of hills are up and down which kills our fuel economy. We have seen a large black bear just next to the road for the first time! It was sitting in the grass peacefully and everyone was very happy in the car!
Later we have seen elks as well.
The road condition was quite fine until then except one unfortunate accident (which happened a few days ago). A big truck hit the bridge and caught on fire at Sikanni Chief and the bridge was damaged. So there was single lane traffic and after we have stopped the traffic control guy came to our car and told us a wait time of about an hour to be expected. As he only talked to us I got out of the car and walked backwards to tell the news to fellow travellers behind our car. Right after us in a black unsigned car there was a law enforcement officer in a uniform and he was not so happy about the news. When I returned to our car he stepped out of his car, talked briefly to the guy managing the traffic lights and suddenly our one hour stop was gone! The control guy radioed the other end and a few cars (including us, the policeman and a few more) were let through. We could not be happier skipping the one hour stop.
Our next stop was Toad River Lodge. This was a much better location with nice views, free firewood and a nice steak in the evening crowned with the Georgian red wine we got from Kanadabanda's Lázadó.
We press on to North to make sure we enjoy some time in Alaska before the snow arrives.
Posted by divatmotoros 13:05 Archived in Canada