Driving through British Columbia …

This is the view from my rearview camera

This leg will take me from Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, about 285 miles of some of the most white-knuckle driving I’ve ever done!  Here is a picture of the road …. Can you say Ice Trucker?  OMG. The downgrades were the worst.   I was so exhausted when I reached Fort Nelson, I pulled into the first campground (I was the only tenant) and just sat for a long time.  My coach and car were so mud-covered, I couldn’t see out of any of my windows, the mirrors or my cameras, so I was driving blind.  The wipers gave me a little visibility out of the windshield …. But not much.  When people who have done this trip before posted how dirty they rigs got it was hard to imagine just how awful they actually get.  Every time I stopped I tried to wipe the mirrors, but within a couple of miles I couldn’t see again.

So now I have to get out and plug in and pull the fuse on the Jeep.  The snow drift I had to walk through was thigh-high.  I know those of you who actually live in the white stuff are laughing at me, but as a SoCal girl, this was not that much fun.  Here is my coach unit at the campground.

I had a small disappointment when I left Dawson Creek …. I wanted to cross over the Kiskatinaw Bridge but I thought the turn-off sign said “closed” and then realized that was for the campground, not the bridge, but then it was too late to make the turn.  The Kiskatinaw Bridge is part of the original section of the Alaska Highway.  The location of the bridge site, which was near a hairpin turn on the river, forced construction of a curved right-of-way.  Engineers developed this 190-foot wooden bridge with a super elevated nine degree curve to conform with the bend of highway.  It took 9 months to build and is today the only curved banked trestle bridge remaining and still in use.  Hence my disappointment in missing it, but here is a commercial picture.

 OK, so the fun continues … the next morning (Monday) I go to leave and I’m stuck.  Funny thing about parking warm tires on frozen snow …. I eventually had to be towed out of the camp site.  It is 9 degrees.  I stopped for diesel (again $5.25/gal) and paid $2.00 by the minute to hose off my windows, cameras and mirrors.  I tried to clear my jacks, but they were so encrusted I ran out of money.  Next was propane ($52 for 13 gals) – I didn’t realize when I was hosing off the windows that my propane bay was completely full of frozen mud (it is open on the bottom of course).  We had to get cups of hot water and a screwdriver to eventually clear the cap enough to open the tank.

So now it is afternoon and I have conflicting reports on the road and weather heading north.  Yep, off I went.  About 326 miles to the Yukon!