Day 9 – Friday, May 29, 2009
Start: Jasper, Alberta, Canada
End: Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada
Trip Miles Today: 326
Total Trip Miles: 3454
Today was another early riser. I woke up at 5:00 am, probably because the sun was already coming in the window. I’m getting pretty far North now and the daylight hours are dramatically lengthening. The sun now rises before 5 and sets after 10 PM.
I had breakfast at the hotel restaurant then did my quick pack and was on my way at 7:30. It may have been the coldest day yet. The TV said it was 37 deg. F though the thermometer on the bike showed the same 40 as yesterday. No worries. Put on all my kit, cranked up the heated vest and grips and off we went!
I began to see wildlife almost immediately. First elk, then some bighorn sheep standing in the middle of the road! A truck coming the other way scared them off before I could snap a pic. I saw more animals in the first hour than I saw the entire balance of the day.
It was an hour ride from Jasper to Hinton, where I stopped for gas before entering Alberta Hwy 40 - The Bighorn Highway, the “Scenic Route to Alaska.” If this is the “scenic route, then the “not-scenic route” (which goes through Edmonton) must be really dreary. I suppose that I was spoiled by yesterday’s vistas on the Icefields Parkway, so probably nothing today could have possibly compared favorably. It was nice enough but pretty plain. Mostly rolling foothills with snow capped peaks almost always visible to the West. It seemed there was more traffic than yesterday too. Much of it was industrial in nature. This part of Alberta is dominated by the logging and oil/natural gas industries. Lots of working trucks with familiar corporate names like Weyerhauser, Halliburton and Amerada. All seem to be in a big hurry! I also saw lots of signs for animals – Elk, bighorn sheep, caribou but actually saw very few animals after the initial burst of activity coming out of Jasper.
I arrived in Grande Cache and both gassed up and stopped for another cup of coffee. Grand Cache does not look like much on the map but is actually a fairly thriving little metropolis. I was concerned that I might not be able to buy gas there and would be forced to run a 200 mile segment without a fill up – turns out my concerns were for naught as there was plenty of gas to be had. I continued Northward up toward Grand Prairie which marks the Northern Terminus of the so-called Bighorn Highway. As the highway wanders Northward, the pavement gets better but the scenery gets worse. Mountains, then to foothills, then back to Prairie. This was my riding day.
I arrived in Grand Prairie about 1:00. There I got gas and took a longer break to tend to first eating, then to a couple of bike maintenance items. While I stopped here I put the bike up on the center stand to both lube the chain while it was hot and to check the oil level. Using the center stand requires that I remove the luggage bags. There is just no way I’m gonna get that thing up on the center stand with that much stuff loaded on the rear. Both items tended to, I was on my way again, this time Westward some 80 miles to Dawson Creek, BC and the beginning of the Alaska Highway.
While passing through Grand Prairie I saw a number of road signs pointing to the nearby town of Peace River. This should be familiar to those of you up on popular culture. Peace River is the hometown of Jillian, the current season hottie and star(let?) of ABC-TV’s reality show “The Bachelorette.” Don’t even ask me how I know this stuff!
I finally entered British Columbia and arrived at Dawson Creek shortly after 3:00. The next obvious potential stop point was a LONG way down the road so I decided to stop here overnight (as was always my plan.) Hopefully it will be a quiet night. The weather doesn’t look quite so promising for the next 36 hours or so. If forecasts are to be believed I will get out of here in the morning in the dry but will, soon enough, be in rain showers for the balance of tomorrow and into at least the early part of Sunday. Hey, I can cope with that – as long as it doesn’t get too cold! Hopefully more tomorrow, assuming I can find an internet server in Fort Nelson, BC. Thanks for reading.
If you want to see more pictures from my Alaska Motorcycle Adventure, posted daily, just go to http://jackb1.smugmug.com/
If you go to the RevZilla Motorsports blogsite at blog.revzilla.com you can see more pictures and find more info on my ride.
The 2009 Ride to Alaska for The Austin Hatcher Foundation is supported by
RevZilla Motorsports at RevZilla.com and by Hermy's Cycles in Port Clinton, PA
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