Nick and Bec both love trains, Bec because trains are travelling “somewhere” and there is this romatic notion of moving on to somewhere new.
And Nick loves trains because they remind him of Jenny Agutter waving her red knickers to stop a train in his favourite childhood movie!
Our grand and ambicious plan was to travel 400kms to Prince George, however by the time we had gone 200kms our butts were seriously sore again and we need lunch and fuel so we pulled into the little town of McBride.
It was tiny but so tidy and so full of character. We came across a café in an old station house that was still serving and had the BEST sandwiches ever! After chating with the locals we asked if there was a motel in town and they sent us to a run down (but lovely) motel on the edge of town.
It was actually ideal as Bec needed to get started on sorting out the blog posts and Nick needed to do some work to the bikes …as in remove and replace the bark busters that the Honda shop had fitted upside down!!!
One thing that is standing out to us is the freight trains that seem to follow the course of the main road North. They travel all day and night, so you hear the sound of their horns at all hours …and boy do they love those horns here! They don’t just do a toot toot as they do in NZ, they hang on that horn for what seems an age so it leaves you wondering what humungous animal must be on the tracks! As mentioned above we both love trains so it doesn’t bother us one iota; if anything it endears this country to us even more.
The next day we head to prince George, a town around the size of Rotorua that must have a pulp and paper mill because it smelt like Tokoroa when the wind is blowing in the wrong direction (like rotten potatoes).
Next day (10th Aug) we pass through a town called Chetwynd where each year they hold chainsaw carving competitions with people coming from all over the world to take part. The art they create is very impressive, especially the fact that they get so much detail with just chainsaws! Imagaine if you slipped when finishing off …you would be gutted!
Our plan was to head to Dawson Creek and do the "photo at the start of the Alaskan Highway" thing, but we got chatting with a guy at Bijou Falls on the way and he said we needed to go Highway 29 past the dam as it was prettier and there was a section of road that was going to be flooded by increasing the dams size in a few years time. It piqued our interest so off we went.
The town we stayed in was Hudson Hope and it was tiny. It did however have a museum with some very cool locally found fossils.
It was a basic motel and there was nowhere to eat so we ended up zapping a frozen meal in the microwave in our room. It reminded us of the saying from the Crocodile Dundee film “tastes like shit but you can eat it!”.
The ride the next day along the Alaskan Highway was monotonous and very straight for 450kms of forest …much like riding through the Kaiangaroa.
There were a lot of sections of the highway on the twisty and remote sections with new tarseal and we were wondering about the logistics of laying this much tar seal or hot mix this far out in the middle of nowhere …and then we passed the operation. It was impressive and seemed highly efficient. No smoko breaks every 30 minutes going on here!
After the roadworks we had 3 "deer like animals with large muzzles and gangly feet" ...we are not sure, but think they may be juvenile Carabou or Moose??
We found a cheap motel again, this time in Fort Nelson, and Bec did her best to try and barter the price down but the owner was having none of it! So she ended up having to pay the extra $4!
Onto Muncho Lake and a days break from riding tomorrow.
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