Dawson Creek & Mile Marker 0

Dawson Creek is the set-off point for the Alaska Highway. We spent three nights here, Wednesday through Friday June 21, 22, 23. We will leave on Saturday the 24^th for our next travel days. I should also mention when traveling the road north in Canada before Dawson Creek we spotted a large statute of a Beaver, just had to pull over, take a “comfort” break and have our photo taken!

On Thursday we toured the Walter Right Pioneer village, which is a collection of homes and shops built in the early 1900s. The stories of the individuals who braved this area and settled it was impressive. I found a cut-out of “Sparky” the dalmatian cartoon-like character we all knew as children. Apparently, he originated here in Dawson Creek before becoming and international symbol of fire awareness!

Later, we had a group lunch and a speaker talked about the Alaska Highway.  It really was quite an undertaking to build all 1,522 miles in just 8 months.  Half of the crew of 25,000 started in Fairbanks and half started in Dawson Creek and they met in the middle. This job was not for the faint of heart as temperatures ranged from 90 degrees above 0 to 70 degrees below zero.

After the talk, we all went to the Mile 0 marker and took photos. Check out the photo of our sticker!  Kristin designed our stickers, and we are leaving them along the way. Yes, these are the ones we left at home and Chad had to mail to us!

 Since some of us had not brought Canadian cash with us, we looked for a bank. We were told Scotia bank would be the easiest to deal with as they are affiliated with Bank of America. There was actually one within walking distance from the Mile 0 marker, so we walked down the street and exchanged cash. I have to say Canadian money is very pretty! The only thing that makes me giggle is a dollar coin is a “loonie” and a $2 coin is a toonie”. Childish? Perhaps, but I still can’t help it.

Tom and I decided to keep walking to the Post Office just another block and buy some postcard stamps as before I left home the hair salon I go to was asking everyone to send a postcard from their vacation. To do that I had to get some Canadian international stamps.

On Friday, Tom and I drove to the wooden bridge on the Old Alaskan Highway. The Kiskatinaw Bridge was built in 1942 and took 8 months to complete. The rest of the construction of the highway continued and the bridge was completed in time for the highway to open. When we got there, we found our friends Danny and Judi had left their sticker on the bridge!  We forgot ours in the trailer.

In the 1960s the Alaska Highway was re-routed, and the bridge was no longer needed. Today you can drive to the bridge and walk the length of it (about 400 feet).

Another thing about visiting Canada, especially by truck is that there is A LOT of math involved, from figuring out the amount fuel costs, since they price it in liters, to the speed limit as it is posted in kilometers. And let’s not forget, once you figure out how much gas is per gallon, you need to then calculate what that is with the daily exchange rate! Yes, we could switch the vehicle to metric, but then the navigation is also in metric and that makes it difficult as well. I’m sure we’ll get the hang of is just before crossing into Alaska!

We are now leaving for a more remote part of British Columbia, with limited cell and wi-fi for the next few days.