Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Day 8 - June 21st, 2010 Dawson Creek, AB to Testa River

This morning in Dawson Creek, we took a few more beginning of the Alaska Highway photos and read several signs on the tremendous joint effort between Canada and the USA to construct the Alaska Highway.  I never realized that the Japanese had actually landed on Alaska's outer islands with the intent of attacking the US from the north.

Long day in the saddle to get west of Fort Nelson, a very non-descript town that I truly hoped to get beyond that day.  Goal was the Testa River Outfitters about 80 miles west of Ft. Nelson.  We saw our first bear on this stretch of highway.  Bear was a big black bear right on the shoulder of the roadway so we did not stop to take pictures.  We would continue to see several bears but none as large as this first one.

This section of highway would also require our spare gas.  We stopped at 228 miles on the tank to split a gallon of gas rather than run out at a poor time such as next to a bear.  The Suzuki was getting about 45 to 50 MPG and the Versys probably 5 MPG better.  Speed and wind had a significant effect on the mileage.  We usually filled up when we had 125 miles on a tank and saw a gas station.  After two hours on the bike, we were always ready for a break or in Tammy's case a coffee.

Mosquito population was also increasing at each stop and the Deet spray was coming out and working well.

Good scenery, just not as dramatic as previous days'.  This day we really did feel like we were getting up north.  Much bigger distances between any kind of developments.

Made it to Testa River Outfitters and because of threatening rain was given a shelter house to set our tent up in.  Enclosure included several convenient picnic tables.


Gas here was $1.59 per liter, the highest price we'd see.  Sign on the pump said "No Sniviling".  Lots of gravel spot patching on the road's frost heaves today.  Construction workers were staying at the same campground.  I had to help them set up their rented rv trailers.

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