July 11 - Dawson Creek, BC to Fort Nelson, BC - 300 miles

Today we had an introduction to highway repair work on the Alaska Highway.  We rode through sections with hard packed roadbed ready for the asphalt final layer, and through other sections just at the gravel stage.  Not bad, but with quite a bit of dust.

This morning we met some Gold Wingers who were on their way back to Alaska, after riding down to Billings for Wing Ding.  They were needling us for having such clean motorcycles, after our washing them yesterday afternoon as a result of our riding a long way in the rain.  About the Alaska Highway, one of them said "Where you're going, even the lead dog eats dust".  I thought that was an interesting local expression, but didn't really know what it meant until we got into the repair and construction area.  Then, being the "lead dog" of myself and Norm, as well as a series of cars and trucks, I did indeed "eat dust" as the opposing traffic passed us on the dusty road.

The repair and construction so far isn't any worse than in the US, except there is more of it.  Another Gold Winger, Bruce Erickson, whom we met in Fort St. John today said "The upper part of Canada has two seasons - Winter, and Construction Season".

Bruce was the one whom I had found in the GWRRA "Gold Book" (which lists all GWRRA members worldwide) and whom I had called a couple of months ago to find out about riding a particular road in this area.  So, here, nearly 3,000 miles from home, we stopped to meet him, have a cup of coffee, and say thanks.  In the process, we met another local Gold Wing Co-Rider, Joyce Branch, who just happened to be going to get a cup of coffee herself.  So, of course we had to exchange stories about our riding areas around home, and friends we ride with.  Small world.

The area and scenery we rode though today was mostly rolling hills well forested  with what we think are "Alpine Spruce", and either a variety of Aspens or northern Birch - we're not sure.  While not as spectacular as the mountains we recently rode in, everything was extremely green, due to recent rains here.  Every local person we've talked to in the last three days, from Jasper north, has complained about the constant rain this spring and early summer. We're lucky we didn't come any sooner.

For the Wildlife Report, we saw two more Black Bears.  Both were within 20 yards or so of the road, in the area cleared of trees, so it was fun to see them quite close.

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