The Alaska Highway


Today we started the section of the trip which inspired the whole enterprise. The Alaska Highway.

The Highway runs from Dawson Creek in Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska. It was built by the US Corps of Engineers and the 1700 miles were completed in 1942. The road was intended to support the string of airfields used to ferry aircraft from the US to Russia to support their war on the Eastern Front.
Construction work (photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Milepost 0 of the Alaska Highway is in Dawson Creek (see photo) and all of today's ride was along it. The first cup of tea was at Milepost 101 in the small town of Wonowon (see what they did there...),
Inch in Pink Mountain and the end of the day in Fort Nelson 300 miles later.

The road has been improved and realigned a number of times and is all good quality tarmac now. It is also 35 miles shorter. The original construction project is just extraordinary though. Built in less than a year, in horrible conditions through virgin forest.

All but the last 60 miles of today's ride were in cold rain. Then the sun came out, the road dried and a Black Bear ambled along the verge.  The Motel 6 room is now festooned with all our kit drying out while we identify the best pub in town to get the inside as wet as the outside.

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