Day 5

Wednesday, June 24th

After waking up today, we went on towards Grande Cache where were were hoping to get just past Fort Nelson for the day. A long driving day. We did stop in Dawson Creek where the AL-CAN officially begins. [insert pic] (Alaska-Canada highway) There was a lot of history to the highway. It was always on the mind of the U.S. government, but during World War II after Japan had attacked some of the mid Pacific Islands, construction of the road went in overdrive. The rest of the drive was quite long and not as filled with sights as the day before... until we came across two Provincial parks. The first park was Stone Mountain Provincial Park, where we came across incredible scenery and Stone Sheep. These sheep are only native to this part of Canada. [insert pic] After leaving Stone Mountain, we came across Muncho Lake Provincial Park. This park was a high alpine area with lots of lakes, jagged escarpments, and incredible views of the sun going down. After driving around in the park for a little while, we kept looking for pull outs where we could sleep. They were all so beautiful but we finally set up camp near a lake at the end of the park. Since we hadn't had much adventure that day, I was just itching for something. It was 11:00 pm when we parked the RV, but still light out. The milepost said there were some huge canyon walls just down the road, so, I grabbed the bike, and started pedaling down there through the night while the girls took showers. It was pretty eery being on the road that late, but a huge rush. First, I saw some Hoodoos (erosion pillars) then the route started getting pretty steep. I had entered the canyon walls. This was an incredible section of the road. It hung to the walls of the canyon and had cliff drops on the West side. You could see the river valley for miles and miles, even at night! I felt alive. I started the steep uphill journey back to the RV, it took a little longer and worried Tana, but I made it home in one piece and after a shower, I was out like a light.