Day ten Cache Creek to Seattle - 308 miles

Today marked a milestone in our trip, we made it to the USA! The day started in Cache Creek waiting to get out of the camp ground due to a guy towing a pickup truck who appeared to have done exactly what his truck told him to on the bridge… 

"RAM the bridge" said the truck,
"yes Sir" said the driver

note I don’t know if he actually hit the bridge but he did have to unhook his truck. 

BC continued to deliver the views, we got to see our first of many trains as we followed the railway down. This one was 140 cars long according to Fiona. 

Baby Groot and the long train

The rivers we were following were raging and looked like they would be fun for a white water rafting experience. There were also some cool bridges. This one is called Alexandra Bridge, well worth stopping for. 

New bridge

Old bridge and new bridge in background

explaining how fairies cross

We continued to follow the rivers down and then hit a major highway. Our next stop was for lunch and Bridal Falls, BC. It was a really neat hike up through the rain forest to see the falls. 

Bridal Falls, BC

Following this we headed to cross the border, we were playing a little fuel roulette a game which I chickened out on when the mile estimation went from 44mile to 0 miles. A quick splash and dash and we were on our way again to ‘Murica. The border crossing at Sumas went smoothly and we got to fill up a little over 20gal (24gal fuel tank on Baby Groot) in the USA at $3.54 instead of $4.15 in Canada.  Next on our day was meeting up with the Chelf’s who are currently making their way slowly north. It was great to hang out with them for a little while, The kids most definitely didn’t want the meetup to end. 

Happy to be reunited if only for a while. 

It's always good to see friends, Megan you are so tall!

on the count of three we run! 

After saying farewell for now we hit the road again headed to our camp ground just outside Seattle.  For the next day, the plan is to take a bus into Seattle and have a little explore. Following this we have to decide our lower48 route with as many northern state parks to visit as possible. Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and southern California although would be interesting to visit will be way to hot right now. 

Trip Stats 

Total miles  2477

Bear count 11 black, 0 brown 

Day nine Prince George to Cache Creek - 293 miles

The day started in a lush green area which was heavily forested, as it has been through most of British Columbia. The day ended in an arid area Canada’s “Arizona”. 

Kind of like Arizona!

We had a great breakfast at a coffee shop in Prince George, we then hit the road for some steady driving. Lunch was by Williams lake at the roadside.  

Baby Groot by Williams Lake

The roads were good and mostly smooth with very little in the way of construction.

We found a campsite that has a solar heated pool and Fiona and I enjoyed a refreshing swim when we arrived. 

Heated pool

This is probably our last night in Canada as we are planning to cross into America tomorrow.

Trip Stats 

Total miles  2168

Bear count 11 black, 0 brown 

Day eight Charlie Lake to Prince George - 300 miles

Another sunny day and we got to see yet more interesting things along the road trip. We started off by heading towards the Kiskatinaw bridge. This is a curved wooden bridge which was constructed when the highway was put in back in 1942. It is the only wooden bridge from when the road was put in that is still in use.

Another RV on the bridge

Baby Groot on the bridge

Next stop was the Pioneer Village which has a collection of buildings and replicas from when Dawson Creek was settled. Following this we headed over to Mile 0 of the Alaskan highway.

Baby Groot at the end of the highway Fiona Driving!

Original mile post start which has been relocated

After a short snack and fuel stop we hit the road towards Prince George. I wasn’t sure that we would make it all the way but there are plenty of camp grounds on the way. A must stop is Chetwynd where they have a lot of wood carvings, I believe over 150 at the moment.

About to be knocked down by Treebeard!

Following a lunch stop we continued our journey and ended up just outside Prince George. 

Trip Stats 

Total miles  1874

Bear count 11 black, 0 brown

Day seven Toad River to Charlie Lake - 358 miles

7th July 2018

A lot of driving today for us . Today started with a climb up to summit lake the highest point on the AlCan.

Summit Lake highest point on Alcan

We stopped for a few photos then continued on to Fort Nelson, as you approach Ft Nelson the road improves significantly which meant that our speed also increased. A quick stop in Ft Nelson and for resupplies and we headed out of town to the lowest part of the AlCan at the Muskwa River.

Lowest point on the Alcan.

We had lunch then continued on to our stop for the night at Charlie Lake, there is a memorial here to some soldiers who lost their lives on a barge whilst building the AlCan.

Stats

Total miles  1574

Bear count 11 black, 0 brown

Day six Watson lake to Toad River - 208 miles

A short day mileage wise but we seemed to packed into the day. We started off by finding a friends sign at Watson Lake Sign Post forest, then we added our spare (front AK) plate to the post just near hers. 

Right next to you Angie!

After that we started south again and crossed over into BC, Canada. We enjoyed taking in the scenery as we rolled along. 

Hello British Columbia

We saw a couple of bears and then after a stop at Liard River hot spring (the water smells - from Fiona). 

Hot "smelly" Springs

We then saw a herd of wood bison. 

Wood Bison in the mirror 

Next we saw a few sheep. 

Following this we saw Muncho Lake which has some really cool colours.
 

Muncho Lake

Finally we got to see some really cool geology.

find the folds

What it really is.

Stats 

Total miles 1216  
Bear count 10 black, 0 brown (Yesterday’s brown was actually a black bear).