The Short Cut

Day 7

    We decide to take the campground owners advice and take highway 40 to Grande Cache and on to Grand Prairie.  Looking at the map, we were opting to take what looked to be the better roads, not necessarily the fastest route by going towards Edmonton and cutting over at Edson.   We thought the road on Highway 40 looked to be a challenge.  The KOA campground owner said he used it regularly as Grand Praire was where they went to do substantial shopping. Assured that it was a good road, we proceeded.

At 5:00am,our first wildlife of the day, a good omen?

    Although the road was a bit rough in places, it turned out to be a very enjoyable drive.  For the first time we felt like we were actually in the wilderness and on a road that matched our imagination of how this trip would be like.  Winding, turning, very few cars, and fewer houses for over a hundred miles.

    Jim started out driving for first 45 minutes and pulled over on a dirt driveway to change places with Irene.  We think that fate is with us as we noticed a sign, ELLIS’S  in the driveway announcing that what must be a cousin, lived on the property!  Deciding discretion was the better part of valor in a remote area, we chose not to drive down the dirt road and knock on the door.  Moved on.

    We slowed down at one point to watch a deer grazing on the side of the road.  We spotted another one barely in the woods a few yards away and stopped to watch  it.  All of a sudden we had a fawn jump up and cross the road just in front of us.  Apparently mom was the one in the woods and welcomed it to her side. 

    About a half hour later we saw one of the gangliest creatures ever put on this earth.  Yes, I confess now that it was a Moose and they do exist.  This one did not have any antlers and it’s hair was molting.  Basically as we  slowed down to take a picture, the Moose made a move that has become the norm, he turned his back to us and showed his rump.

     Today we had our first foul weather.  We kept running into rain squalls.  We were watching the Virga from a long way off and wondered if and when we would be hit by them.  We drove through maybe 10 or 15 rain squalls that lasted from 1 minute to maybe 5.  We called them natural RV car washes.

    The most outstanding thing about today outside of the animals was the clear vistas we had.  There were not a  lot of high drama views just long range views with vast forests in front of us backstopped my mountains.  At some point, to keep ourselves interested, we timed how long it was between cars passing us on the road.  Longest was 8 minutes. Nobody, nothing, zilch was on the road with us.

    Today we drove a total of 341 miles.  Like a couple of dummies, we did not take full advantage of all the Motor Homes amenities until today.  First, when Irene drove, Jim took a nap.  When Jim drove, Irene took a nap.  On the bed with the curtains drawn.  The room dark.  That is what we call roughing it.

                   Interesting sign on Hwy 40

    

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                           Followed by this one

    Today marked a milestone of sorts. We officially started on the Alaska Highway.  It has always known as the ALCAN, but no more.  Nobody could give us a good answer.  We missed going to the visitor center, as they make a bit of a production out of your first time, take a picture of you and give your a pin showing you started the Alaska Highway.

 Calling it a day at about 7:30, we pulled into the Rotary RV park in Ft St John.  Nice campground that was lake front.  Good hot showers and a clean campground.  It is owned and operated by the Fort St John Rotary Club with all proceeds going to charity.

     Campground host said they had only been open a couple of days.  They had 7 feet of snow about 10 days ago.  The warm weather hit and melted it all and caused a lot of flooding in the campground.  The campground is actually a bit lower than the lake level. 

     We were one of 6 GAH motor homes in the campground that night and were able to share a few stories with a couple of them.  Everybody goes to bed early as the repetitive long drives is tiresome.  We are noticing that the days are getting way longer.  Sun is still up at 9:30 pm and it is light until about 11:00.