July 10 - Hinton, AB to Dawson Creek, BC - 300 miles

WHOOPEE !! We have arrived at Dawson Creek, BC, the start of the "Alaska Highway" (used to be known as the ALCAN Highway).  

This is THE significant milestone to start on "the only road to Alaska".  So, we had to take our pictures with the monument to the start of the highway.  To get here, we have ridden our Gold Wings just over 2,800 miles since leaving Albuquerque!  And Norm rode 1,900 miles from Ohio to get to Albuquerque to join Deane. (As we have been following the Rocky Mountains all the way since we hit the New Mexico - Colorado border, we have ridden through / around / over the  Rocky Mountains for over 2,500 miles!)

Today's ride started out in the rain.  We have been lucky so far to have only sprinkles, until yesterday afternoon.  The rain continued overnight at Hinton, AB, and we loaded up in a pause in the rain.  We then rode the first 150 miles or so in rain, sometimes drizzle, sometimes light rain, sometimes showers.  Then it started clearing, and by the latter part of the day it was beautiful. .  (We were on Alberta Highway 40 along the Rockies north of Hinton.  If you ever come this way, take this highway - it is very scenic.)

Again we rode close to the Rocky Mountains most of the way, with trees starting to get markedly more scrawny and scruffy as we came farther north.  Most of the forests, however, were very thick, with lots of "lodge pole" pines and some spruce.  A lot of the forest area was "tree farms" owned by Weyerhaeuser, and we saw signs recording when each area was last clear-cut, then re-planted.  Interesting!  Then the latter part of the day was in more flat, then slightly rolling, farmland - beautiful fields of mostly green wheat and other grains.

In the Wildlife Report for the day, we were lucky to see a big Black Bear.  Norm spotted him just ambling along the tree line of the forest along the highway, and we turned around to get a better look.  He was quite big for a black bear, and his midnight-black coat was quite sleek looking.

You all have probably wondering what the price of gasoline is as we cross Canada.  the price is between 69.9 and 72.9 cents (Canadian) per liter.  Converting that to gallons and US currency, that is about $1.77 and $1.85 per gallon.  With our bikes getting an average of about 40 mpg, that is not as bad as we thought it might be.

We are kind of "leap-frogging" with other motorcycle riders going to Alaska, so we will know several by the time we get there.  So, that has been fun.  Today we also met a kid riding a BICYCLE from Fairbanks, AK to the southern tip of Florida!!  He has made 1,500 miles so far, and we wished him good luck.

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