Alaska Trip 2013 Vegreville AB - Squango Lake YT

As I said in my previous post, it was overcast and rainy the morning of day 7, June 16th. I had hoped the night before when I went to bed that it would rain out during the night. We had been able to continue on the previous day without wipers because it was not raining hard but I was afraid that if it started raining hard we would have to stop and wait it out. When we left Vegreville it was not raining but was very overcast. By the time we got to Edmonton, which is about 100 km west of Vegreville, the sky had cleared considerably. We stopped in Edmonton and ate breakfast at a McDonalds and then continued on west of town where we picked up Hwy 43. Just about the time we got to Hwy 43, it started raining again. All of the previous day we had been on 4 lane so when I slowed down in the rain it was no problem  for the other vehicles to pass. Hwy 43 is 2 lane and I was afraid we might have trouble, but the rain gradually got lighter and lighter. By the end of the day the skys were clear. On Hwy 43 we passed through Whitecourt and Grand Prairie and by mid afternoon we had reached the British Columbia border. Just across the border was the Swan Lake Provincial Park. It was fairly full but we were able to find a spot and stayed the night there.

Next morning, day 8, June 17th the rain was completely gone and the sky was beautiful. We left Swan Lake and drove up Hwy 43 to Dawson Creek BC and the start of the Alaska Highway.

Next to the big Alaska Highway sign is a smaller milepost 0 sign:

And adjacent to the parking lot is an old grain elevator that has been converted into a visitor center and museum:

We left Dawson Creek and proceeded up Hwy 43 toward Fort St John. At around mm 17 we turned off  onto a section of the old Alaska Highway and drove over to the Kiskatinaw timber bridge. It is the only original timber bridge built along the Alaska Highway that is still in use today.

After we left the Kiskatinaw River bridge we continued north on the old highway until it rejoined the current route of the Alaska Highway. A bit further north around mm 30 we started our decent into the Peace River valley to the town of Taylor. No picture can adequately display just how spectacular this view is but I took one anyway.

About 17 miles north of Taylor BC is the town of Fort St John BC. It is a fairly good size town. We stopped at the local Safeway which, like most of the Safeways in Alberta and BC had a Starbucks inside. I got a cup of coffee and checked my email using their wifi. Fort St John is significant to the modern day traveler as it is the last town with cell phone coverage until you get to Tok Alaska. I think that towns like Fort Nelson and Whitehorse may have some kind of local cell phones, maybe via Nortel, but evidently no other cell phones work in that area.

As I said before, this day was beautiful. About mid morning I stopped at a pull out and decided to see if I could determine just what had happened to the wipers when we were in Saskatoon. Our Roadtrek was built using a Dodge B350. The Dodge has a body panel that covers the wiper mechanism and is held in place by six phillips head screws. I removed the screws, took off the wiper arms and lifted the panel out of the way. I discovered that the wiper linkage arms are connected to the wiper motor and wiper arms by plastic grommets. Over the years, these grommets had deteriorated due to age and wear. The one on the drivers wiper had fallen out when I turned the wipers on in Saskatoon and the one connecting to the wiper motor crumbled when I took it out to inspect it. After examining the connection points for awhile I decided that  if I had some flat washers and tie wire I could rig the wipers up where they would work until I could get some new grommets. Trouble was, I did not have any washers and I did not have any tie wire. I put the panel inside the Roadtrek and we once again headed north. Dixie does not like things large and unfamiliar so she was not too pleased to have a big piece of white metal in the Roadtrek floor.

The next town on our trip was Fort Nelson BC. It is slightly less than 400 km north of Fort St John. We got to Fort Nelson around 4:30 in the afternoon. I filled up with gas at the Husky station and picked up a few items at the IGA. On the way into town I had past a hardware store so I drove back down there to see if I could find some washers and wire. The washers I located quickly but I was not having too much luck with the wire. A guy came over and asked me if he could help me. I told him I was looking for some tie wire. He said that all he had was hay baling wire. That would work but the rolls were enormous. He asked how much I needed and I told him about a foot. 3 or 4 inches was plenty but I  wanted to have a bit extra in case I messed up on my first try. He said he had a roll in the back and he would cut me off a piece. He gave me about 2 feet and told me to tell the cashier up front that there was no charge for the wire. I paid for the washers and me, the Roadtrek and Dixie once again headed northwest.

The highway from Fort Nelson BC to Watson Lake YT is 500+ km of virtual wilderness. There are two or three gas stops and a couple of provincial parks but for the most part it is just road, trees and wildlife. We had gone about 70 km west of Fort Nelson when we came to a large gravel pullout on the south side of the road. It was fairly late in the afternoon but there was still plenty of sunshine so I decided that this might be a good place to attempt to make my emergency wiper repair. When I got out of the Roadtrek I noticed that there was more wind than I realized and it was cooler than it had been in Fort Nelson, I think we were at a higher elevation but I decided to give it a try anyway. I got out the washers and the wire and proceed to connect the wiper linkage arm back to the wiper motor and secure it with a washer and a piece of tie wire. It worked fine. Next I set about connecting the linkage to the drivers side wiper. Where the connection on the motor had been out in the open and facing up so gravity held the linkage in place while I secured the washer and wire, the drivers side connection was facing down and to make matters worse it was behind a body support so I could feel it  but not see it. I worked for several minutes and finally got it hooked up. I went inside the Roadtrek and turned on the wipers and they made one pass and then made that awful sound like a falling lug wrench that I had heard in Saskatoon. Upon close examination I found that the loop of wire I had made was too oblong. For the next 30 minutes or so, I painstakingly worked getting the wire loop as round as possible and as close as possible to the size of the post on the wiper arm. Finally I refitted it, tightened it as tight as I could without twisting it into and tried the wipers again. Success.

When I finished, I was exhausted. It was late in the day , so I fixed Dixie and myself some supper and we bedded down for the night right there in that turnout on the side of the Alaska Highway.

Next morning, day 9, June 18th, we woke early. During the night a pickup had pulled into the turnout and parked. The occupants were sleeping so we left quietly and headed west along the Alaska Highway. We had not gone too many miles when we topped a rise  and there on the side of the road ahead of us stood a moose. As there was no traffic, I stopped and took a picture

The moose walked a bit closer to the highway so I took another picture

It walked a little closer so I  took a third picture

Finally it turned to walk back toward  the woods so I took one last picture.

An hour or so after our close encounter with the moose,  I pulled off the road to get a bottle of water out of the back of the truck. I was sitting there in the drivers seat drinking the water and looking at the Milepost  when this pickup pulling a fifth wheel pulled up beside us and the driver rolled down his passenger side window. He wanted to know if I knew how far it was to the next gas station. I told him that I thought that would be Toad River Lodge which was about 30 or 35 miles ahead. He said that he believed he had enough fuel to make it that far. He said that he was from Michigan and this was his first trip driving the Alaska Highway and this was the most uninhabited place he had ever seen. He said for me to watch for him along the way just in case he did not make it and I told him I would.  He drove on and I finished looking at the Milepost. After a few minutes Dixie and I proceeded on our way. I did not see him again until we past the  Toad River Lodge. He was sitting there waiting to pull back into the highway from getting fuel. He waved and smiled big as we past by.

We took a couple of pictures of the Toad River.

The Alaska Highway right of way is cleared back pretty wide on either side of the road. In British Columbia there are one or two herds of bison that make that right of way their home. When we got to around the 755 km maker near Washout Creek we came up on one of them.

As we got further north we began to see snow on the mountain tops. This picture was made  north of the Rancheria Falls Recreation Area near Continental Divide YT.

We ended the day at Squango Lake Campground which is about 67 miles southeast of Whitehorse YT. During the day I had tried the wipers a couple of times to see if they continued to work and they had so when we stopped for the night I replaced the metal cover over the wiper linkage arms. The rigging that I did on that chilly hilltop in BC continued to work for the remainder of the trip.