The sun was shining today when we got up, another good start. We made a plan to leave Dawson Creek by 9:00 and try getting a late breakfast somewhere on the road. We headed down the street for gas and to do some tinkering with Kevin's radio. He wasn't able to talk or hear us, so he and Eric took everything apart and started to diagnose the problem. This turned into an hour long operation under a gas station roof. I walked around and chatted with people asking about our trip and of corse the Georgia plates. Eric figured out a way to get everything working using what we had. We got on the bikes and headed south toward Jasper, Alberta. We only had to do 326 miles but getting a late start and stopping for lunch made for a long day. We had great scenery once we left the flat farm lands. The mountains began to rise and the canyons dropped out to the sides.  I figured we would see more wildlife due to the remoteness of the area and the terrain.  We saw was one large moose and a couple deer, but no bears today. As we were driving closer to town, the clouds got dark and the rain started falling, we put on all the rain gear and drove for another 40 miles through scattered showers. We pulled into a large town called Hinton to eat dinner since it was around 6:30 and we were all starving. Jasper, where we were headed was another 40 miles and it's a ski resort town so things would most likely be very expensive. We found a Holiday Inn that was affordable but very nice. I rode the exercise bike for about 15 minutes to get some blood flowing and then grabbed a shower. Now I am sitting in the lounge with a Canadian Beer typing.  There aren't too many pictures today but I will make up for it tomorrow.

The skies today continued to impress. The clouds were big and the perspective was massive across the horizon. Lots of green here due to all the snow melting and the good rains they get. Wildflowers line the roads, and hundreds of lakes are spread throughout the area. Tomorrow should be more amazing as we climb up into the mountains and head south toward Banff.

I'm tired of rain but having a good time seeing North America. It also feels good to know I'll be heading home in a couple of weeks, sad but I really miss my wife Angela. I love that I have done this trip and seen all that I have, but I look forward to the day when I won't be living out of a bag and I will get to sleep in my bed. I still have to the Key West portion, which will be the final leg of this massive undertaking.

                                   Surgery



                                   Big skies. Waiting for Montana. 
                                   Mounties
                                   Big beaver in Beaver Lodge




                                   Dusty logging road

I woke up this morning only slightly rested, looked out the window and saw more rain. I was not excited about putting on our mostly dry clothes and boots. In fact my boots were never dry, they still had puddles in the bottom. As time went on and we slowly dressed for our day, the rain came to a stop and the clouds began to break. Sunshine will recharge your sprits real quick. We made a couple trips downstairs to load the bikes and get everything out of the room. As we were loading the bikes the other three guys showed up. The were staying in a hotel just around the corner.  So we all gassed up as a group and hit the road leaving Fort Nelson and headed toward Dawson Creek. We began the drive on an amazing stretch of the Alaskan Highway with long straight sections of rolling hills and very green forrest. About an hour into the ride I spotted a young black bear running across the road, so I slowed to a slow roll and grabbed my camera out of my coat and snapped a quick shot as he ran into the woods.  I sped up and rejoined the bunch. Not too far after that, I was at the back of the group and spotted a very large black bear running along side of the road. I told Kevin that I wanted to stop if he did. Before we left the hotel he set up his big camera for shooting wildlife along the road, so I assumed he was going to get a good shot as I looked on. The huge bear walked slowly up a hill, at one point he stopped and turned to look at Kevin as if he were a tasty morsel. Kevin was unable to get a good shot because of a grassy hill in the way. He was a beautiful sight but he got away. The three others never stopped so we had the road to ourselves to search for more wildlife on the road. We stopped for lunch at a place called Sasquatch Crossing. Very odd concept but the food was good and people were funny. We pressed on after a few photos with the Sasquatch wood carving. Mostly just highway miles after that until we saw a sign for a curved bridge on the old alaskan highway. Why not stop to see a curved bridge?  It was nice to get off the main road and see some old sights. The bridge was a very cool design and shape, curving across the Yukon river. We got some photos of us crossing the bridge, back and forth. We headed out and got back on the main road into Dawson Creek. The town felt huge compared to what we had been used to, chain restaurants and motels lined the streets. We even got stuck in a little BC rush hour. Our first stop was the Alaskan Highway sign that marks the beginning, and mile "0". We had done almost 1000 miles on this highway in the past three days, so it was nice to see it end with the sun shining on us. We got ourselves a cheap motel to try and catch up on out sleep. I haven't figured out tomorrow's ride but we will be headed toward Jasper, Alberta.

                                   My bear photo on the move.


                                    People here use gravy for the fries. It's good.
                                   Curved Bridge