Day 30 - Ft. Nelson, BC to Ft St John, BC. Rain and tedium. Just a boring day!

Day 31 – Saturday, June 20, 2009
Start: Fort Nelson, British Columbia
End: Fort St. John, British Columbia
Trip Miles Today: 255
Total Trip Miles: 7123

As much as yesterday was just about a perfect day, today was about as non-descript as they get. A paltry 255 miles through the “Land of the Interminably Boring Straight Roads.” Ok so there were a few sweeping curves now and then but, as can somewhat be seen in the map shown, I’m back in the prairie. There is very little creative to be said about today. It started out with drizzle that turned into a full-on rainstorm for just over an hour through the middle part of the ride. Fortunately the rain presented no real problem as the roadway is well drained, traffic was light and I had appropriate rain gear. That being said, I did re-prove the well known (to motorcyclists) scientific fact that rainwater is inexorably drawn to the human crotch - regardless of what rain gear you might wear. I take no credit for this discovery. This fact was discovered long ago, and previously documented by the journalist Peter Egan (among others.) Today there was no scenery to speak of and wildlife pickins were slim. No moose (though there were signs indicating the presence of same), no bears, only a solitary whitetail deer, and the odd ground squirrel. Nor did I see a sasquatch, despite the presence of warning signs for them (him?) too. All in all just a day that I needed to get through in order to position myself for the next leg.

I am looking forward to tomorrow. First I’ll cover the 47 miles to Dawson Creek and arrive back at Mile “0” of the Alaska Highway. This will complete my Alaska Highway round trip: Mile “0” to Alaska and return to Mile “0”. After Dawson Creek I’ll get on a new (for me) route and head basically South and West. I'll head back into the Northern Rocky Mountains on my way to Prince George, BC. via the John Hart Highway, Canada Route 97. I am confident that this will be WAY more interesting than today! Two days later, on Tuesday, I plan to be in Portland, Oregon. In those two days I’ve got to cover over 700 miles but there are a couple of routes to pick from so I anticipate working that out in the next 24 hours.

Tonight is the eve of my Birthday and I am celebrating by having microwaved popcorn in my hotel room while doing laundry. Is life good or what?

Thanks for being along with me on this portion of the trip. Hopefully more stories and pics tomorrow.

Jack

There are many more pictures from my ride at http://jackb1.smugmug.com !

The 2009 Ride to Alaska for The Austin Hatcher Foundation is supported by RevZilla.com , Philly's Premier Destination Motorcycle Gear and Apparel store and by Hermy's Cycles of Port Clinton, PA.