I have a love-hate relationship with road trips.
On one hand, they’re long, and my body usually aches from too much time in the same position, and, well, the use of fuel and the cost of filling up…
On the other hand, I get to see many beautiful or interesting sights, typically burn through at least one audiobook and many albums of new or favourite music, and, if the company is good, as it was in this case, enjoy lots of engaging conversation. And snacks, can’t forget those!
After scooping up Amaya and Jasper from Yoho National park at the end of their hike, we made a beeline to her Grandma’s place near Cochrane, AB to pick up stashed gear and her bike before we started northward towards the Yukon. While there, I met what seemed like half of her extended family, all warmly welcomed us and jubilantly engaged in multiple conversations at once. It was simultaneously a whirlwind and a wonderful cocoon of familial love for Amaya. Jasper, worried he’d be left behind, refused to leave the car as we packed up.
Heading north, we took a quick body break at the Athabasca Glacier, admiring the beauty of the mountains and ice, while simultaneously remarking on the massive moraine scars left by the glacier. The Athabasca Glacier has been receding for the last 125 years and in that time has lost half its volume and retreated more than 1.5 kms… what would it have looked like in the late 1800’s?! Visualizations online and markers placed by Parks Canada show the retreat over time and help conceptualize the staggering retreat.
Heather in front of the Athabasca Glacier
Our first night on the road was spent in Jasper with my friend Ray. We spent a relaxed evening catching up on phone/computer tasks and chatting with Ray. I caught him up on the trip thus far, our favourite moments and changes in plans. In response to our rearranging due to Achilles and Knee issues respectively, Ray commented:
“Life is long. Plenty of time to heal from injuries… and collect new ones!”
While both Amaya and I hope that our injury quota is full for the next while, we laughed.
Northern lights above Jasper, AB
The next day brought the endless expanses of boreal forests as we cut north through Dawson Creek and onto the Alaska highway. While it would certainly have been fun to cycle together, I was internally glad Amaya wasn’t riding this section alone… long sections have next to no shoulder for cyclists and many vehicles roar along well over 30km above the speed limit… I would have been nervous each day until receiving the nightly “Green” check-in. Regardless, driving the Alaska highway we still got to experience the feeling of forests stretching out into eternity on all sides as we approached Fort Nelson.
Amaya has an excellent set of stories about Fort Nelson that I’ll let her relate to you now…
Fort Nelson, a small town along the Alaska Highway, and I have never gotten along. This is, in part, because from the highway it isn't a particularly inspiring town… but mostly it is because Fort Nelson is for my cars what the Bermuda triangle is for boats.
It was 1997 and I was one. My mom, dad, sister and I were driving to Calgary along the Alaska Highway. Partway between Watson lake and Liard our 1987 Dodge Caravan rattled to a halt. Outside the temperature was -30 and the highway was next to empty. Thankfully a lone semi truck chundled down the road, saw our broken down vehicle and offered us a ride. We spent the night at Trapper Ray's, a motel across from Liard Hotsprings. In the morning the temperature had dropped to -47.
The tow truck came from Fort Nelson that afternoon. To be fair, our car got repaired with little delay and we were quite far from Fort Nelson when we broke down. However, I have always associated the incident with the little BC town.
Then, in University, my dad and I were driving my Honda Fit back south after Christmas when we hit black ice. We spun and rolled into the ditch. We were both fine but the car was not. It had to be towed to its final resting place: good ol’ Fort Nelson.
This time, about 100km out of Fort Nelson, Heather started tapping her fingernails anxiously on the steering wheel. What I asked "we might run out of gas" she said incredulously. The semi-constant uphill we had been assending had caused our gas gage to drop more quickly than anticipated and the car was now telling us we had 97km worth of fuel. As we kept driving, the gap between the distance we needed to go and the “distance to empty” display read got larger. We hit 0 about 12km out, but the Rav 4 kept on trucking, the words REFUEL NOW replacing the estimated distance left in our fuel tank.
But guess what... we made it!
Maybe my luck when it comes to Fort Nelson is changing.
An old advertisement for Trapper Ray’s
Fort Nelson
After leaving the now lucky town of Fort Nelson, we made it as far as Tetsa River regional campground before we called it for the day… 12 hours behind the wheel had me feeling zonked, and I fell asleep almost as soon as I tucked into my sleeping bag.
Our third day brought us all the way to Whitehorse (yahoo!!) but not before we saw big horn sheep, and moose, and stopped at the incredible Liard Hot Springs! They are natural pools (with an endemic snail! The heat-loving Physella wrighti) and are beautifully maintained by BC parks. While lazily weaving through the warm waters, it was hard to remember we were in Northern BC rather than some tropical rainforest swimming hole.
Heather in the upper pool of
Liard Hot Springs
A quick refuel in Watson lake also involved a walk through their sign forest before we hit the open road again. Our last stop before we got to Whitehorse involved a walk along the lovely Racheria Falls boardwalk which provided a much-needed leg-stretch for all three of us!
The sign forest in Watson Lake
We finally rolled into Whitehorse in the late evening, welcomed by Amaya’s new tiny home and her wonderful parents!
(What would we do without parents?? They are the best!)
Once again, both exhausted from the surprisingly tiring activity of sitting still for long periods, we collapsed gratefully into a deep sleep.
The next two days involved catching up on blog posts, job applications for Amaya, a little exploration of Whitehorse for me, and preparing gear and food for our much-anticipated canoe section!
Now, gear packed, boat loaded and launched on the Yukon river, we are happily making our way from Whitehorse to Dawson City!