North To Alaska - Week Three

North To Alaska (and back)

Summer 2008

We are home in Fort Worth

"Check out the new web site: www.drivingusa.us "

jackwharris@drivingtoalaska.com

Week Three

6/30/2008

Leg 12: Edmonton, AB, to Valleyview, AB

Live Weather Update for Valleyview

http://www.wunderground.com/global/stations/WCXVW.html

Alberta - 43 North Countryside:
Where the rivers meet; thats what Whitecourt, AB is called and here is a photo of one of them:

This is the Althbasca River that we crossed today. The other one is the McLeod River. Valleyview and "Sherk's RV Park is right down the road a few miles. This RV Park is the best we have been to as far as the layout and space between vehicles. It has some beautiful birch trees that are about 75 to 80 feet tall that removes any possibility of a satellite signal. The farther north we go the lower the elevation the dish needs to lock on.

.What a fantastic stick built rail road bridge just before Whitecourt. Tomorrow we're off to Dawson Creek, where the Alaskian Highway begins. See you then.
Addendum---more photos of our RV park and the tall birch trees.-Hi-Res Photos

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7/1/2008
Leg 13: Valleyview, AB to Dawson Creek, YT
Live Dawson Creek weather:
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=dawson+Creek
The Drive
Many fields of Canola Crops.
                                           7/2/2008
          Leg 14: Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson
                      Live Fort Nelson weather.
http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/findweather/getForecast?query=Fort+Nelson
7/3/2008
Leg 15: Fort Nelson to Coal River
      When we pulled into Coal River the first thing we did was to pull up to the gas pumps at the RV Park. As I got out of the Tahoe I heard the familar sound of a gasoline powered generator running in an out building next to the office. I was thinking if that's the source of the power for the park......what else is in store for us. Coal River is down in a hole....no TV stations...no cable....no sat......no internet......no phone.....not even a radio station would come in. Good thing we had a full supply of movies on hand.
       We had some very interesting neighbors with alot more serious problems than ours. Three guys (about as old as me) from the Chicago area on motorcycles (2 Gold Wings and a Harley) that were thinking of moving to this area had some maintenance problems. The Harley's alternator wasn't working so he was just running the ignition on battery and they were pulling fuses to shut everything down so as to have as little drag on the battery as possible in hopes of making it to Whitehorse.
    One of the big things up here are buffalo burgers......frankly, I'll pass, but we did see plenty of buffalo and a small herd on the way up here.
                                       7/4/2008
               Leg 16: Coal River to Watson Lake
        Coal River was a change from the original planned stop because Fireside (a few mile away) has had two major fires in the last few years and it takes a long time for these areas to come back. Actually I don't know how long Coal River will make it. The fella that assisted us at the gas pump said they only make about 16 cents a gallon and the have to pump alot to pay for the generator running 24/7. He said they can make about $200 a day on the RV spots plus what ever they can sell at a small lunch room and gift shop.

                   Sign Forest at Watson Lake

                                        7/5&6/2008
                Leg 17: Watson Lake to Whitehorse

Driving to our RV Camp we came across some vehicles on "display" from pre-World War II and the time the Alaskian Highway was built.
These were on the entry road to the RV park in Whitehorse.
The Whitehorse RV camp is literally carved out of a hill.  Go To Week Four

Leg 12: Valleyview,AB, Canada Distance: Approx 210 miles

There is a heat wave in Valleyview. Actually it doesn't feel too bad to me but the folks here are complaining about it. It' was about 80 degrees when we pulled in about 3PM.

We finally used up our first bottle of propane. That only took about a year. We don't use very much propane, just for the refrig. when we're moving and for cooking and hot water. What little heating we have needed is handled by an EdenPURE Ceramic electric heating unit. It uses very little electricity and unless we were going to be in some really cold weather it is perfect for our needs. While I was getting our propane service out of the way, I picked up a new "T" handle for the black water dump valve. The old one departed the scene some where between Calgary and Edmonton. The RV shop clerk said they usually go through about 3 or 4 bags of those each year. I put the new one on with some "lock-tight" sealant. We'll see how long that works.

The road to Valleyview was great! Here's a photo of what it looked like most of the way:

This is Alberta-43 North. About as good a' road that we've seen the whole trip. Along the way, naturally, we passed some interesting scenes and Linda tried to get some good shots (I wasn't stopping) so here's a few to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

We saw several fields like this....my research disclosed that these are canola plants. The seeds are havested to make canola oil. See their web site:

http://www.canola.ab.ca/CLC/history.html

This is also a booming oil economy in the whitecourt-Valleyview area.

Leg:13 Valleyview to Dawson Creek

Distance: Approx 165 miles Well today we experience our first maintenance problem. Setting up here at the Northern Lights RV Campsite, we shered the pin on the electric jack, so we are just going to hang on the hitch and swing by the RV repair shop in the morning and see if can either get it repaired or get a new shear pin. Either way it is no big deal. Actually, we could disconect if it was necessary. I have two backup jacks, one hydraulic and one electric, but it would require me finding some more blocks to get the trailer up high enough to drive out from under it. Anywhy, it must safer to do the repair while the trailer is on the hitch instead of a jack.

The trip up from Valleyview was pretty short, and easy. We just beat the beginning of the "Canada Day" parade. Everyone was lined up on both sides of the main drag as we came through. We waved as we went through and everybody waved back.

This was float for the parade that waited for us to go ahead . The idea for this is"The Best Breakfast In Dawson Creek" and its a group of kids dressed up as breakfast.

Parade goers waiting for the first float.....its us!

Leg 14: Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson

Distance: Mile 300 on the Alaskian Highway

Dawson Creek, where the Alaskian Highway begins, left alot to be desired. Internet bandwidth was too small to update the web site and there were no RV service centers where we would have a half decent chance of finding a part or replacement for the tongue jack, which is now a manual operated jack. However, manually it works easier than the original manual jack that came on the trailer.

The major areas we passed on the way to Fort Nelson were Pink Mountain, the Bucking Horse River and the Prophet River. On BC's license plates is says "Beautiful British Columbia" and they are right.

High above the Prophet River.

Fort Nelson to Coal River

Coal River to Watson Lake:

The best part about this leg of the trip was to see just how big Teslin Lake was. We drove the most of the north shore. It is really long.

7/6/2008: We're here. That's it. Its' rainy, cold, muddy, and crowded. A tour of motorhomes (about 17 very large delux motorhomes) just arrived and this place is so crowded it is a major event just watching everyone jockey their rigs around the campground. We do have a new "Best ofCamp" though.I will get that up on the site as soon as possible but I think it may be as late as when we get to Fairbanks. Internet access is just to "iffy" around here.

Here we are at the end of the line, parked next to one of the nicest motorhomes I have ever seen.