Northern Trails And Tales

We had a good drive from Whitecourt to Dawson Creek, covering the distance in about five and a half hours. The morning started out cloudy but quickly turned partly, then mostly, sunny. And temperatures soared, probably up to 70 and maybe a bit more. There is a lot of rolling country some of it as flat as the prairies, and checkerboarded with farms, but things get a bit more hilly as you approach Dawson Creek, which you reach by dropping into a river valley. There are some wooded areas, and we saw a moose and a couple deer. There are still lots of cattle and an occasional working oil rig can be seen from the highway. Out of view there is a lot of oil exploration going on and the Sagitawah RV Park we stayed in last night has pretty much been taken over by workers from the oil fields. They are easily recognizable by the trucks they drive which are so mud encrusted it’s impossible to determine the make or model. The mud is literally two inches thick— on the sides of the trucks!…..Perhaps the most interesting thing we saw today was the Kleskun Hills where the erosion of glacial drift, mostly clay,sand, and gravel has formed interesting terracaes and land formations whose names i don’t know. It’s an area rich in dinosaur tracks and particularly aquatic fossils, from roughly 70 million years ago…. On the political front a number of issues are hot right now. Folks are reacting to the loss of the Liberal government, pro and con. The Provinces are debating revenue sharing and not coming to any agreement. The taxpayers of Alberta are particularly incensed that they are sending money to Quebec, which they claim are able to provide better services than Alberta— on Alberta’s dime. The papers are full of letters warning citizens not to give up any civil liberties as it won’t make the country any safer and it’s just what the “enemy” wants. And, many sure as hell don’t want to be like the United States. The death penalty gets some play, and the game wardens in Saskatchewan want to carry guns now that they have a Conservative government….. Alaska feels a lot closer. We are sitting on Mile 0 of the Alaskan Highway , roughly 1500 miles from Fairbanks, our first major stopping point in Alaska. Tomorrow, it’s off into the forests as we head to Ft. Nelson. Our wildlife sightings should pick up considerably. The Alaskan Highway is vastly improved from WWII days when it was constructed in just nine months but it’s still pretty rough compared to what we’ve become accustomed to. However, the stretch we’re covering in the morning is in nice shape, and the weather is supposed to be superb, so we hope to enjoy ourselves and have some interesting reports for you tomorrow— if we get on the ‘net…. For those keeping score, we are now on Pacific Time, three hours behind you Nutmeggers….