Day 5 - Fort Nelson

Day 5 - Fort Nelson, BC
West End RV Camp

Up at 4:30 and in for a hot shower.. I met another early riser from Vermont, that was back for his sixth visit to Alaska.. he planned to head up the Dempsey Highway from Dawson City in the Yukon to camp within the Arctic Circle.. almost tempted me to follow along, but I decided 400 miles of gravel road was a bit aggressive for me to attempt at this stage.. he had made the trip to Alaska in a camper, in a car, in a pickup, and now in a Class "C" RV.... Also had registered for a 33 mile hike on one of the many historic trails up here.. seems that there is nearly unlimited opportunities for adventure in this region and it takes several trips to just scratch the surface.

My trailer hitch, "ball lockdown", was frozen so I could not disconnect the trailer from the Jeep.. I had been driving for 4 days without disconnecting it, and the grime from the road had taken its toll.    I got my can of WD-40 and pumped it full, finally breaking it loose.   At future stops, I am going to disconnect it when I stop just to make sure it does not freeze up again. I also noticed some friction marks showing up on the fold-down sections of the trailer, as areas rub together when the trailer bounces on the road.   I am using extra cardboard that I brought along as separators when I close it to see if that will help and also put a towel between sections when I lay them down. But I have seen a 5th wheel pull in the last campsite that had half of the side held together with duct tape... they must of had a close encounter with something unpleasant.   I guess that is life on the road. Bring lots of WD-40, cardboard and duct tape if you ever take this trip.

I was on the road by 6:00 again... finally headed up the Alcan..   I appeared to be the only one on the road and for awhile thought I must be going the wrong direction. Evidently the "crowd" was sleeping late or having a big breakfast, so I was in the lead.   At about 20 miles out of Dawson Creek, I began seeing wildlife.. a couple moose running along the road, and later several deer just grazing.   After about two hours, the white mountain peaks appeared on the horizon to my left and seemed to follow me along.    Suddenly the road turned and as I came over a hill, the white peaks were much larger and directly in front of me.   I noticed by the car compass that I was headed west right toward them.     They disappeared and then re-appeared as I rolled through the valleys, up and down some long steep grades...   the road was quite good, so traveling at speeds in excess of 60 mph was easy... I found myself rolling along at 75 mph one time but backed it off to about 55 mph for the rest of the day.   I seldom met anyone on the road.. just me, the mountains and wildlife.. even the radio station faded away as I headed NW.   The road would change to a rocky surfaced asphalt, and then back to the smoother surface.   A nice quiet drive.

As I passed through small towns, I noticed that gas prices were no longer advertised. I finally stopped to top off, and found gas had risen to 62 cents per liter, and later in Fort Nelson went to 69 cents.   As I got farther north, I noticed that the texture of the forest seemed to change, with the trees growing very tall and narrow looking.. the tallest white birch trees that I can ever remember seeing.    The light green leaves of the Birch mixed in with the dark green Canadian spruce, made for some spectacular scenery... the type best captured in a painting as it did not look real.

I got to the West End RV Park around noon... it was near empty, so I got my choice of spots.    The quality of parks has been dropping, and after looking over the showers in this one, think I will skip it for this stop.   There was a nice Laundromat, to I took this opportunity to change and wash all my clothes.   Then I celebrated by finding a small restaurant downtown where I had some great Chinese food. By the time I returned, the RVers were rolling into the park.   I must have been about 2 hours ahead of the crowd, and by late afternoon, the once empty park is filling up fast.   Early stops are probably going to be necessary for me to ensure that I have a place to stay in a full service park.   Tomorrow I leave early for Liard Hot Springs, which will be another short day...

Total mileage traveled so far is 2116 in 40:09 ET.   The camp manager said he would let me come to his place and hook up my modem this evening, so I am going to try to get over there and take him up on it before he changes his mind.    It has turned into a very busy camp.

Photos