Some Rain, Some Deer, but no Reindeer

P-Rock, wondering where the he!! summer is.

Day 7 – Whitecourt, AB to Buckinghorse River, BC

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Man, what a day. This was a day jam packed with stimulation of every type. We woke this morning to a cold rain in Whitecourt – but that didn’t even phase your intrepid travelers. We were both mentally and physically prepared for our 440 mile journey that was destined to end at the edge of the Canadian Rockies.

As we rolled out of Whitecourt the rain intensified and after awhile subsided, even though the skies remained low and cloudy. Temperatures hovered in the low 50s for most of the day. As we rolled up Route 16 toward Grande Prairie your P-Rock was running lead when all of the sudden a fawn sauntered across the road right in front of me. I looked across at the southbound lanes and mother Bambi was right in the middle of the asphalt. After successfully missing the fawn I signaled the southbound traffic to slow down, hopefully saving a messy fate for mother deer.

Grande Prairie proved to be a very welcome sub-destination. When we rolled into town we were all but frozen, so we stopped for gas then went to a local restaurant for our usual brunch. Of course I tempted fate and again had a Mexican scramble. I am happy to report that there was a much better result this time! The waitress at the restaurant (Stephanie) was great and helped us to find a hardware store where Blackie and I cobbled together a suitable fix for his highway peg. The skies cleared just long enough to get the fix installed and we rolled out of town as the rain once again started.

We rode through much rain all the way to Dawson Creek, Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Dawson Creek is a pretty cool town. Blackie and I stopped there for photos, and then proceeded to the visitor center for a necessary break before embarking northward on the Alcan. Unfortunately, the Men’s necessary room was occupied by a young gentleman’s father (we never did get to meet him). We waited for at least 15 minutes and then decided to commandeer the women’s room (at the urging of another female visitor, thank you) so we could get on the road. Frankly we had no desire to check out the men’s room as I suspect our gentleman had eaten one too many Mexican scrambles.

The Alcan started out calmly enough, but got interesting very fast with a few steep grades (Blackie will undoubtedly post some photos, I did not have my camera out) and a steel grate bridge that was a terror to cross on motorcycles. As we progressed north the scenery improved further with higher mountains and more intense terrain in every direction. We rolled into Buckinghorse River right about 5pm and settled in, had a nice “Buck” burger dinner and then retired to Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. We “had” internet access for a time (it died), and even two IT professionals (who successfully broke into the lodge router) could not resurrect the DirectWay satellite connection needed to file this post in a timely fashion.

Lastly, I am thinking that PJ’s needs to start up a Canadian corporation. I’m already on the survey and here’s the results:

Thunder Bay Ontario – YES. Great place for a PJs.

Winnipeg, Manitoba – YES. May be a harder sell, not a lot going on in that town.

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – DEFINITE YES. Happening town dying for wings.

Whitecourt, Alberta – Maybe. We saw 30 cent (Canadian) wings for wing night at the Mountain View Steak and Pizza. But competition makes you stronger.

Dawson Creek, British Columbia – YES. Another happening town. See:

As of now, we’re not sure when you’ll read this, but hopefully it will be soon.

P-Rock – Jones-ing for Jail Time for Breaking and Entering a router.

Addendum: This is a quick picture of our spartan room. I’m adding this at 5:30 am because it is light outside (Has been since before 5am) and because the pillow is more suited to road patch than sleeping.