Road Day to BC

Whirlpool Canyon Rest Area MM 519.5 Near Coal River, BC, CA– Wednesday, September 21, 2011

We rushed over to Johnson’s Crossing Restaurant this morning to see if they too had closed for the season. Lucky us, they were open. They only had 3 cinnamon buns left and we bought two of them. One for now and one for tomorrow. We had coffee and ate todays cinnamon bun and boy was it good. The proprietor told Frank that yesterday he only made one tray of buns and didn’t sell all of them by the end of the day. Today he had already made 3 trays and was almost sold out and it wasn’t even noon yet.

Todays plan is to put some major miles behind us. We’re thinking this is doable since we’ll be less inclined to sightsee since we have already traveled this road. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t get distracted.

This is the first of many times we will cross the Yukon/British Columbia border. The Alaska Highway wanders back and forth between the two like a drunken sailor.

We pull into a filling station at the junction of 37 and the Alaska Highway. Fuel is $1.429 a litre. That’s about $5.42 US per gallon. We’ve been waiting to fill up hoping to find cheaper fuel but it’s not gonna happen. This is also the decision point for heading south or continuing east.

The last prediction we saw indicated rain to the south for the next few days while clear shies are predicted the farther east we go. We’re tired of cold and rain, so it’s east we go. Our next decision point is just before Ft. Nelson where we can once again head south or continue on east. The forecast showed nasty weather to the west of the Rockies and clear weather to the east. If we stay on the Alaska Highway to the end, we’ll end up east of the Roockies and should remain in the clear. However, the forecast will likely change before then.

We did stop in Watson Lake to take a picture of the billboard indicating the latest number of signs in the Sign Post Forest. We were curious as to how many signs were added since we were last through. (Although I wonder how they know how many signs there are to begin with). Since July 16, 450 signs have been added.

Along the way we spot horses, donkeys and buffalo.

The weather cleared up and the sun came out. Temperature got all the way up to 60 degrees! We finally pull into Whirlpool Canyon Rest Area. We remembered it had a small, no longer maintained, campground. Just what we need after a long road day.

BG Miles Today	284	BG Total Miles	8311
Eat Out total $	1241.34	BG Total Fuel $	4754.32
Entertainment total $	1387.63	Total Camping $	1162.03
E Miles Today	0	E Total Miles	2744.26
E Total Fuel $	575.82	Day # of Trip	113