The Alcan

Mile 0 of the Alcan

I left Grande Prairie traveling west towards British Columbia, where Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway begins in Dawson Creek. There is a museum in DC located in a cute historic building about the construction and use of the road built by our American friends to connect the US with Alaska during WWII. The road is a popular RV route for American tourists making their summer pilgrimage to Alaska.

Leaving Dawson City, I was greeted with the toughest winds I had seen yet. While the terrain was relatively flat, it was extremely difficult pedalling against the crosswind with constant truck/RV traffic on the single lane highway. Eventually, disaster struck – two large trucks traveling in opposite directions passed me and woosh… lost my balance and went off the side of the Alcan into the grassy ditch. Had anyone seen that, I have no doubt it would have made some cycling blooper reel somewhere. How embarrassing. When I managed to pull myself (and my self-esteem) back together, I saw just ahead of me a 60ft RV that had also fallen prey to the terrible wind conditions, losing their hitch. The driver, Ed, offered to get me out of the unfortunate conditions and drive me up to the next stop in Fort St John. The ride with Ed and his lovely wife, Leigh, was made even more enjoyable when the rain started to pour and their RV home became my shelter from the storm that night. What a great sleep I had on a real bed!

Creepy Beaverlodge, AB beaver

One of the most amazing parts of this trip for me was the kindness from strangers. I met so many wonderful people who loved hearing about what I was doing and were eager to be a part of it in some way. Ed and Leigh offering me shelter from what later turned into a thunderstorm was a simple random act of kindness that has turned into a friendship that we have maintained over a year since meeting on the side of a blustery highway in northern BC.