Slave Lake to Dawson Creek

 
 
 
 
We camped at Lesser Slave Lake provincial park - a lovely campground with an amazing beach, warm weather (well a thunder storm rumbled around us but never developed) and no bugs! Laurie was thrilled to light his first bonfire and we found that it was still very light out at 10:00pm. On our way to LSLPP we drove 50 km through an area of a fairly recent forest fire (within the last 5 years) quite a vast tract of charred trees with small new growth.
Today, (Friday, 23/7/10) we headed northwest to Peace River. Saw 3 deer at the side of the road, thankfully, they had no interest in crossing in front of us! We diverted to Peace River because 45 years ago Laurie tested most of the upright tubes along the bridge. Apparently there had been some problems because the bridge deck had not been applied before it's first winter. (Laurie may have to correct this story). The area has several mighty rivers - (noteably the Athabascan and the Peace) and some beatiful valleys between the fields of grain. We stopped in Peace River to re-provision, thinking that the further north we go, the more expensive things will be.
In Dawson Creek we found the mile 0 marker for the Alaska Highway. At the Information centre they had an excellent movie about the building of the Alaska Highway and the amount of manpower used to get it done in a hurry in 1942/43. Tomorrow we head north to Fort Nelson.