Fort Nelson

By any other standards the "Legendary" Fort Nelson Hotel is a "Dump", but up here it meets the minimalist requirements of the oil and gas crew community so is well used and apparently appreciated. The appreciation probably stems from the popular "Fall Down" pub or "Already on the Ground"lounge attached to the hotel and guarded by a number of local beauties.

We have to say however, that the food was great and the service cheerful.

Fort Nelson was our first stop on the Alaska Highway some 454 Kms north of Dawson Creek. For the most part the road was excellent with some notable exceptions just before crossing the Peace River at Taylor BC. and just outside of Fort Nelson itself. In both cases major reconstruction was the principal cause. It was also the cause for a six hour drive turning into an eight and a half hour drive as the road was limited to one lane in a number of spots and we we had to wait for traffic to clear coming from the other direction. Nevertheless, it is a real treat to be in this part of the world which is so vast and devoid of humanity that it makes you ponder just how dauntless (or more probably naive) the first white people to come here must have been. All that is changing as the somewhat quiet boom in oil and gas production in this area is very apparent.

Happily our new mega tires performed well on the road and were not as stiff and noisy as we had anticipated. The gas mileage also seems to be holding up although we have slowed down about 10km/hr on average because of the significant hills that we are required to climb.












Other than ravens and a few magpies, there has been an unexpected (from my point of view anyway) absence of wildlife along the way except for one young moose that was unfortunately crumpled in a heap in the ditch beside the road killed by a large truck no doubt. Given where we are the traffic on the highway is quite heavy. We had occasion to accommodate Lucy's call of the wild (quite a yowl she let out) so we had to pull over for a few minutes. I timed the passing vehicles at about one every two or three minutes.

When I talked to Grant Sullivan (Kayla's significant other) yesterday, he said that the porcupine caribou  herd and attendant wolves and grizzlies were on the move to their wintering grounds so we should see lots of wild life once we are on the Dempster.

After a good, but brief, thunder storm just after we arrived in Fort Nelson the weather cleared up and we are looking forward to another beautiful day on our way to the hot springs at the Liard River. Should be a fairly short drive (only 3hrs or so) so we will have time to get out of the car an wander around. My sore back (from all the car time) will appreciate a hot dip in the springs I'm sure.