Had a great breakfast at MacDonald’s and gassed up. Didn’t set off on the highway until after 09:30 am because it was only 272 miles to Watson Lake where I would spend the night as BC 37 remained closed as you can see in the warning from Drive BC in IMG_1906. I wasn’t looking forward to having my long journey home extended but at least there was some hope that I would be able to continue that journey uninterrupted. The latest news was that the breach of BC 97 South of Fort Nelson will probably be repaired by tomorrow, but that the flooding at Cache Creek, where BC 97 becomes Trans Canada Highway 1 was getting worse and had cut the road completely.
I wasn’t due down there for another two days but if the road hadn’t opened by then I would have no choice but to come to a stop in Prince George and wait until it did. There’s a bunch of rivers that run into Kamloops Lake and that the drains into the Thompson River which goes through Cache Creek. The rapid snowmelt had raised all the water levels but then the area to the East, where the mountains and the lake are, had suffered a series of sever thunderstorms as well. But for now…. It’s on to Watson Lake YT.
At 0:30 in video #1 it transitions to a view showing the CB clouds, rain and lower cloud strata, and if you look at the mountains in the background you can see that, unlike the mountains yesterday, these are still covered in snow. Given the low temperature and rain at this level it may even be fresh snow. This was the first serious rain that I had encountered in the entire trip so far.
Watch the left of the road from 0:52… did you see that caribou? I thought I had until I got right up close… and waved to the guy on the bicycle! This being not only BC 97, but the Alaska Highway as well, there was a lot more traffic on this road than I had encountered further North and there was more leisure than commercial traffic. I think this is due to two factors – the road is paved (tarmac for the Brits) along its entire length and it’s a favourite vacation route for Alaskans to get to the Northern Great Plains States of the US.
When I got to the junction with BC 37, I had mixed feelings. Not being able to go down that road was adding ~ 65 miles to my journey home, but on the other hand I was going to drive along 100’s of miles I hadn’t driven along before, and would see some new sights.
At 4:51 in video #1 watch for the park on the left – an EMI turns on to the road from the right immediately opposite the park. What is in this park? Well, in 1942 one Private Carl K. Lindley, an American Army engineer, was ordered to repair a signpost at that spot. Feeling a little homesick, he decided to add one more sign to the post – to his hometown of Danville, Illinois, and people have been adding signs to their home town ever since! It’s now known as Signpost Forest and you can see a selection of the signposts in the stills file 2023 05 07 Signpost Forest Watson Lake (also at the head of this post). This is just a small selection… the completion collection occupies more than two acres.
No….. I did not add a signpost to Nanaimo, BC, but I think I should have done….
The hotel was… sort of OK. It was a huge room but sparse and the staff at check in weren’t the most welcoming and friendly folks I have ever met.
The restaurant was closed as it was out of season (how short is the damn season?) and the elevator was closed because it was out of existence, or in other words, there wasn’t one – strange for a multi floor hotel. I heard one woman ask how she was supposed to get her heavy baggage up the stairs only to be told she would have to lift it up the stairs herself. Anyone for Fawlty Towers Basil? WTF is Manuel?
The saving grace of this stop was the Chinese restaurant next door…. The closest I have had to real Chinese food for a while, quick service and a reasonable price. But I sure got a shock when I walked back to the hotel… there next to my vehicle was a Ford F-150 all the way from the State of Texas! You can see it in stills IMG_1907 and IMG_1908. When we moved to Nanaimo in our Subie, which we bought in Texas, we drove 2,746 miles, yet here was this guy from Texas over a further 1,243 miles North of Nanaimo. I don’t know where this guy lived in Texas, and it is a very big place, but if he lived in the Houston area then he was 4,000 miles from home.
Early to bed as I planned a very early start tomorrow to get to Fort Nelson.
You can see the stills and videos shot today here.
