2018 Charleston's Trailer Tripping - Alaska: DAY 22

It will be a short stay in British Columbia as we drive through the north east corner of this providence to reach The Yukon. We will be spending five days in BC with 2 days in Dawson Creek and an overnight stay in Sikanni Chief River and 2 days in Toad River. The last two places are not really towns. They are resort lodges with a campground next the river they are named after.

DAY 22 – 23 ~ DAWSON CREEK

It is a very short drive to Dawson Creek. Driving on a 2 lane highway makes it faster and easier than those one lane backroads. At one point we were following a car with the back window down. A large dog was resting it’s head on the half open window. It looked like a Saint Bernard. What a life!

Just before entering British Columbia we drove through Beaverlodge and stopped to view a large statue of a Beaver. Beaverlodge was first settled in 1898. It was named after the Beaver Lodge River. The beaver statue was created in early 2004 and in July the beaver arrived to it’s place alongside of Highway 43. It was built to give Beaverlodge some attention, make people stop and check it out. It worked with us.

We soon drove into British Columbia and after 89 miles and two hours we arrived at Northern Lights RV Park. We had a horrible experience with this place when we took our first trip to Alaska. We made reservations, but when we arrived they were full up and refused to take us. The woman in the office was very rude and did not help us find another place. We checked the reviews and it came under new ownership in 2010 and decided to give it another try. It actually is a very nice place to stay. Glad we gave it another chance.

DAWSON CREEK is Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway which was completed in 1942. It took 8 months to build it. At the completion time it was dirt and gravel. It was completely paved in the 1960’s. It originally was around 1,700 miles long. Due to sections being rerouted or straightened out, today it is 1,387 miles long. We will be following this highway through British Columbia and parts of The Yukon.

We will be spending two days in Dawson Creek. We visited the Dawson Creek Art Gallery that is part of a pool elevator. Dawson Creek was once the grain capital of North America and had 11 elevators back in the 1920’s. By 1984 only one elevator remained, and it was slated for demolition. But a group of artists and an architect saved it; paid $1 (Canadian) and managed to move it from the west end of town to the east to where it now stands. The elevator, the tallest building to the west, plus the annex (that houses the gallery) weighs 750,000 pounds.

Gift shop and art gallery

This is a highway trencher that worked on the construction of the Alaska Highway. It sat in a private collection until 2016 when it was donated to the city. A group of local artists made it into a work of public art. It was unveiled just 10 months ago. It celebrates Canada’s 150th Anniversary of Confederation, the 75^th Anniversary of the Alaska Highway and 118 years of the Treaty 8 Agreement.

This sign marks the beginning of the Alaska Highway. On this very spot, the cairn (pile of rocks), the military surveyors plotted the route the highway would take. All mileage along the Alaska Highway route is measured from this very spot.

Nearby is the town of CHETWYND; home to beautiful handcrafted chainsaw sculptures of animals and local scenes. These sculptures can be seen all over town.

Every year, on the 2^nd weekend of June is the Chetwynd International Chainsaw Carving Championship. Well, when we visited on Thursday, they were setting up and starting to work on some carvings. We missed by two days. But we saw the set-up areas of all the carvers that have entered the championship and they pieces they were going to work on over the weekend. They were from all over the world, Ireland, Japan, Lithuania, and a few from the USA.

And we saw several beautiful sculptures from past championships all over town.

On the way back to Dawson City we made a stop to see the Kiskatinaw Bridge. This bridge is wooden and it is curved. Kiskatinaw Bridge is a marvel of engineering that took as long to build as the whole Alaska Highway. Here are a few facts: Kiskatinaw means “cutbank” in Cree. More than 100 men worked on building the bridge. The wood is creosoted British Columbia fir. This bridge was part of the Alaska Highway, but was bypassed when the highway was straightened and a new bridge was built.

A fun thing about our stay in Dawson City was finding a painted rock at our campsite at Northern Lights RV Park. People all over the world are painting art work on rocks and leaving them in places for other people to find. There is a label on back identifying where the rock came from. You post a picture and re-hide the rock and follow its progress. I posted a pic on facebook and heard back from the person who painted it. What fun. I will re-hide it somewhere in Alaska.

DAY 24 ~ SIKANNI CHIEF RIVER

It was a very long drive to this stop. We got stuck behind two “wide load” rigs carrying construction tractors. We were stuck behind them for several miles. Finally, after 158 miles and 4 hours we arrived at Sikanni River RV Park. We had planned on staying at a provincial park with no hookups, but found this place with WiFi and full hookups. What a mistake. This place is a real dump. A small 30 site place with a sloppy layout with a huge mudhole in the middle. The Wifi is weak, no TV and the comfort station is …yucky is the best word for it. Our site was next to a construction storage area with a large and very loud generator that ran all night.

That shack in the background..that's the comfort station

Fortunately, this is an overnight stay. We didn’t even unhook. We are out of here first thing in the morning.

We are now at Mile 162 on the Alaska Highway.

DAY 25 – 26 ~ TOAD RIVER

The Alaska Highway is such a beautiful drive. Very scenic and no traffic. In fact, the only traffic on this highway are big rigs and RV’s and cars pulling trailers. A lot of people are currently traveling to Alaska. We had some wildlife sights along the way; 2 black bears and some big horn sheep.

After 240 miles and about 6 hours we arrived at Toad River Lodge and RV Park. We are now at Mile 422 on the Alaska Highway. This is one of our favorite places to stay. This Lodge sits alongside Toad River that is full of wildlife; ducks, swans, beavers and moose! Is the river full of toads. No, but here is the story. The lodge was here in 1942 when the highway was being built. But there was no bridge over the river yet, so equipment and workers had to be towed across the river. Are you getting it yet? The owners of the lodge at that time named the place Towed River. Of course, everyone thought they were saying Toad, just spelling it wrong.

There is a lot of wildlife at this RV Park. There is a beaver lodge in the river (you can see it from our site) with two beaver that feast on the fallen branches next to our site. Every evening moose wade into the river and forage for food. We spent one evening sitting at our table in the trailer watching two moose in the water. Two more came late that night @11pm. It was still daylight at that time!

At first I thought those two things in the water were the beavers; no, they are ducks.

The lodge is also famous for it’s hat collection. It started in 1979 when the owners, after having a stressful day, were having some beer. One left to see a man about a horse and the other tacked his hat to the ceiling. That’s it. Today there are over 10,000 hats from all over the world.

We are staying at Toad River for two days to relax, clean the trailer, do laundry, watch the moose forge the river for food and see some sights.

We did a scenic drive out to Muncho Lake, Historic Mile 256. At this site, the military operated a refueling stop and a traffic control gate through World War II. This was also the site of the Signal Corps and Northwest Service Command maintenance camp (early 1940’s). The command was created to oversee all activity in the Canadian-United States northwest (including the construction of the Alaska Highway). We saw more wildlife sightings, and beautiful view of the lake with snowcapped mountains.

This is a flat, rocky area alongside the road where big horned sheep (known as Stone Sheep in The Yukon) hang out. People also gather rocks in the area and make sculptures. I added the white stone on the top of this structure.

Further on at Mile 496 we visited the Liard River Hot Springs, Mile 496. It’s a short walk on a boardwalk to reach the pools where the public can take a swim. There is warm water marsh, lush greenery, ferns, wildflowers on both sides of the boardwalk. A pretty walk.