Greggarious Adventures: DAY FOURTEEN, The Alaska Highway Begins

Despite the blustery afternoon, this was a great day. I forgot about the time zone change in British Columbia. So, I got a ridiculously early awakening, 3:45. Oops! I wound up never getting charged for the campground. I caught the tail end of sunrise, though it was only so so. Anyway, the first few hours were great and fairly quiet. At about 15 miles, shortly after entering the village of Pouce Coup, I got my first flat. I first tried to patch the old tube, but failed. So, I had to use one of my 3 spare tubes. The people in the gas station were amused watching me fix the bike. They were very friendly each time I went in and were quite amazed by my journey plans. Well, 14 days and 800 miles is pretty good for my first flat . . .

Well, about 5 more miles down the road, I entered Dawson Creek and got to mile 0 of the Alaska Highway.

The Alaska Highway House right at mile 0 is well worth a visit. The attendant was super nice and took my picture with my bike in front of the large mile 0 marker and gave me some great info. She was so right about the #kiskatinaw #bridge. Anyway, I learned a lot about the history, trials, and tribulations behind the Alaska Highway. It was initially built in 8 months shortly after Pearl Harbor to protect North America from an invasion through the Aleutians. 40% or so of the troops involved in its construction were African-American. There was tons of info.

The wind started just as I was leaving Dawson Creek and it didn't really let up much except for some brief respite for the remainder of the day. I took an old Alaska Highway section to check out the Kiskatinaw Bridge. It was well worth the added ascent and descent. It is a marvel of engineering, a curved wooden bridge 75 years old. I was awed by its beauty and took a ton of pics . . .