A journey to fill my soul

Hello everyone, and welcome to the 57th parallel.

Up to this point I’ve spent a lot of time studying map routes, I could go this way, or, I could go that way, in the end the route had to reach the final passage. What matters to this point is where is the fire and smoke, and, what may I find interesting along the chosen route path. Right now, I’m down to the final two, which in the end, converge into one. The Rockies divide the path, so if I went a bit west, I could have driven the Cassier Highway, highway 37, or, go east and land on the Alaskan Highway, highway 97. In the end, Highway 97 will change numbers as it pushes into Alaska, but it is the only way into Alaska as the two converge further north. I’ve chosen the east root cause my goal for my drive homeward is to stay on the Canadien west coast and drive highway 2 in the US on my final drive home.

Speaking of coffee time.

Speaking of that early morning coffee, sunrise today was at 4:15 am while sunset will be 10:10 pm. I used to adjust to time change easily, my routine is to wear a watch and keep looking at the time. I’m struggling a bit with that I think due to the amount of daylight I’m currently within. All good, just means tea time starts a bit early.

Where have I been.

I pulled out of Jasper in the early hours, heavy rain and very high winds were promised during the morning hours. My route took me due west on Canada 16, a major route that runs across the middle to west half of the country. The early morning drive provided some amazing views. Countless elk and moose sightings were had. Not real good photo ops while driving though.

I think the craziest thing I saw was a family of moose. The roads were very quiet but I was coming up on a westbound trucker. From the left in front of the truck I saw a large moose followed by two little ones. The truck came down on speed while moving into the opposite lane of traffic. I’m guessing the driver has done this a few times. What he was doing was trying to keep the family together. Well, it sorta worked, the mom made it across the road but the young ones were very confused. The two little ones got into the right lane just in front of the stopped truck, but being little ones and trying to stick together, they were pretty much going in circles and slipping about on the highway. The trucker started moving forward while sounding his horn, meanwhile I pulled up behind the truck on the right side and just followed along with the truck. It worked, little guys finally agreed and both went in mom’s direction. Cute to watch…

My first night stop

I eventually got off Highway 16 and headed north on Highway 97 before it’s called the Alaskan Highway. By late afternoon I was in a city named Mackenzie. Nice place…I stayed behind the city municipal buildings where they have a campground. Not fancy but they did have really clean bathrooms and showers. A score for $20 bucks. Even better, within walking distance was a bar with food. Now this was a huge step up from the bar I parked behind while passing through Montana. Great meal, really nice people, and the Canadien Molsen went down quite well. Thanks Mackenzie.

The following day I needed to get back to the east to land on the Alaskan Highway. I took an off route that had spectacular views but the road quality was awful, Highway 29. The road ran parallel to the Peace River, rising and falling with the natural terrain. As I said, the views were spectacular, unfortunately I’m back into smoke so not image quality again.

Where am I?

I’m currently camping in Sikanni River Camp. Nice place but out there. There is no power here so a generator runs 24/7. It’s on the far side so the sound doesn’t bother me. I’m camped beside the Sikanni Chief River. It’s a fast flowing river, the sound is very peaceful. Cause I don’t need a power source myself, I’m on the far side from where the 3-bed, 2 1/2 bath rigs are parked. The bonus here is the clean wash room which allowed me to wash some laundry. I’ll spend two nights here before moving further to the north and then west.

For those interested, to this point I’ve driven 2,986 miles with about 1,600 miles to reach the Arctic Ocean.

Thanks much!

I believe that’s all for now. Thanks again for your time, and appreciate the likes. I have an interesting route planned a couple days down the road so stayed tuned.

I’ll leave you again with another great waterfall from Mount Robson Provincial Park. Turn the volume up and enjoy. Peace…