After breakfast, I prepared the fifth wheel to travel. That’s when I noticed that the Alaska Highway was reopening today. It was closed several weeks ago because of wildfires. The town of Fort Nelson was evacuated because the fire was within one mile of the town.
Heading west on 16, the scenery was stunning. The mountains seemed as though they were so close that you could just reach out and touch them.
Before long, the sign for 37 North appeared. After turning right onto 37, I pulled in for fuel. Gas stations are a long distance away from each other in the North Country. I need to get in the habit of getting fuel when reaching the halfway point.
I also lost cell service a short distance on 37. I don’t know if I lost cell service before that but there was no cell service for a long distance.
I saw my first wildlife shortly after pulling back onto the highway. A black bear took it’s time walking across the road in front of me. I braked to give the bear safe passage across the road. I saw two more black bears along the side of the road during the day.
There are lots of caution signs along the roads warning motorists to be alert for wildlife on the road. Some of these signs are big Wildlife Corridor signs with the images of numerous animals. Moose, caribou, elk, and deer were all listed on one of the signs.
Many of the signs were the regular yellow diamond shaped signs with one image on it with the number of kilometers to be on the lookout for them. Caribou and moose were the images most often seen.
The scenery became more awesome as the road climbed in altitude. The trees changed to a darker green and appeared to be more spruce trees and fir trees at the higher altitude. This made the snowcapped mountains stand out even more than before.
The roads became narrower as the day progressed, leading to reduced speed for safe driving. Many sections were gravel and there were numerous frost heaves and potholes. The province takes great precautions to warn motorists by placing a small orange diamond on a wood stick about a foot off the ground to warn motorists to slow down. Frequently, the orange diamond has the word “SLOW” on it. Sometimes the sign is the normal diamond shaped sing with three triangles to indicate rough payment ahead.
The weather also changed throughout the day. There was drizzle, then sunshine, then rain, then sunshine. A couple of times the rain was heavy. The temperature ranged from the high fifties to the high thirties. The temperature seemed to be more dependent on the weather than the altitude.
The highest point so far was Gnat’s Pass at about four thousand feet. I spent the night at Lower Gnat Lake. I could hear the ducks talking as I turned in for the night and the first thing that I heard in the morning was a loon calling over the water in the stillness of the morning.
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