Our itinerary for the first day was a 1pm Orientation and 5pm dinner. Before orientation we drove 20 miles across the BC/Alberta border to pick up a geo cache in our third Canadian province. We had to scurry back for our 1pm meeting. Our Trail Master Dale and his wife Linda spoke for an hour going over the necessary business, Wayne and Annie, our Tail Gunners told us their job is to bring up the rear and make sure everyone makes it to our destination. I think both couples will be a lot of fun to spend the next 6 weeks with. Emily Shurman, Dawson Creek Tourism Representative spoke for an hour on the history of the construction of the Al-Can Hwy and the local sights to see in Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek was chosen to be the origin of the hwy because that was the last stop for the rail road to bring in the workers and necessary supplies. 10,000 soldiers and 16,000 civilian workers, 700 pieces of equipment all came thru DC. It took 8 months 12 days to complete the highway (hard to believe), they had to build 132 bridges total construction cost in 1942 was138 million dollars. The workers were paid 25 cents an hour but with no place to spend their paychecks the workers had a good nest egg when they went home.
Just 15 miles outside Dawson Creek is the Kiskatinaw Bridge, approximately 500,000 board feet of creosoted BC fir was used, the bridge was destroyed early in construction, an ice jam broke loose and crushed it. More than 100 men worked on the bridge, it took longer to build the bridge than the entire highway. The bridge is built on a curve and has a noticeable super. It was bypassed in 1978 but you can still drive over it with a 15,000 pound weight limit.
Our dinner was privately catered in a coffee shop downtown. Delish! Wayne went over the routine for evening drivers meeting and other important business. We're starting to meet people, our neighbors Dan and Becky from Niagara Falls, NY, rode with us and after dinner we sat outside and chatted until after 10, it was still light but cooling down. Tomorrow we have a group photo taken at the Mile 0 sign. We leave Dawson Creek Monday morning.
That's it for tonight, enjoy the pic's.
TTFN
Gary and Pam
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| We have stickers on the windshield of coach and back window of Jeep |
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| Welcome to Alberta |
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| And they welcomed us back to BC |
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| Dawson Creek Welcome sign |
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| We had a little parade in our park |
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| Orientation meeting |
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| Milepost 0 the start of the Al-Can |
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| Kiskatinaw Bridge |
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| Hmmmm |
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| Don't look down! |
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| Beautiful scenery |
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| You can see the super on the bridge |
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