Day 16, July 27...Dawson Creek to Fort Nelson, BC

I got an early start leaving Dawson Creek this morning and headed up Hwy 97, the famed Alaska Highway. Actually, that was about as exciting as it got.  The first 75 miles or so are 4-lane expressway with lots of traffic.  After 100 miles or so, the highway went down to two lanes (plus occasional passing lanes) and traffic dropped off quite a bit.  The scenery is rather pretty, mostly rolling hills and lots of trees.  The only wildlife I saw was a couple crows feeding on some yellow-line-yummie in the middle of the road, but the weather was clear, if a little chilly, and a nice day.  I took some pictures along the way to give you some idea of what the terrain looks like:

This was just north of Fort St. John, maybe 75 miles north of Dawson Creek:

This was taken about an hour further down the road:

I stopped for lunch at the only food between Ft. St. John and Fort Nelson at the Bucking Horse Lodge, conveniently also the last place to buy gas for the next 125 miles or so.  Good Burger, though.

And across the road was this:

I've seen these off the side of the road since Grande Cache two days ago.  With road construction and an oil, gas, and coal boom up here, there aren't enough locals to fill the available jobs, so people (mostly men) come in to work, and they have to have some place to live.  These are "Man Camps" and reportedly, some degree of depravity is rampant in them...

Finally, I passed this on the way.  This year is the 75th Anniversary of the construction of the AlCan Highway as it was originally called, and every 100 kilometers (60 miles or so) they have a nice little sigh commemorating the event:

That's pretty much it for today.  Tomorrow it's off to Watson Lake, about 300 miles up the road.  Great trip so far!

Miles Today:  290
Total:           4,461