The morning was pretty cold when we awoke at 6:45, and the light rain wasn't helping. We were also a bit frustrated as our taj3 tent was again dripping condensation onto our sleeping bags. Luckily, the rain stopped shortly after we crawled out of our tent and shortly after we started riding the sun would occasionally peek through. Somehow we managed to stay in a little pocket with no rain throughout the day, with the only rain occurring while we were inside a gas station eating lunch.
The scenery was pretty similar to the previous days and began to flatten out a little as we approached Fort St. John. We also began seeing the first signs of farming and agriculture.
The last 30 miles of the ride were mainly downhill and a 10-20 mph tailwind helped to shoot us into town, and we arrived at 6 pm, a very quick 88 mile day. Katherine and I ended up getting a much needed hotel room for the night at the Blue Belle, a pretty nice and affordable place, great to have a warm place to sleep.
8/31
We woke up warm and comfortable and after some fruit and cereal we picked up Katherines second antibiotic prescription and were on our way. Katherine has now started taking both antibiotics in an effort to attack the cellulitis before it requires hospitalization and an IV injection. The day was nice and sunny, as the landscape transitioned to a more agriculultural setting similar to Vermont or New Hampshire with long rolling hills.
Ten miles in we hit a major hill, but after that they were just long and gradual.
In Dawson Creek we completed our tour de alcan as we reached mile 0 of the Alaska highway.
After a long lunch in Dawson Creek during which time we dried out our tent,
we continued on to end in Alberta after 78 miles.
We setup camp at a random spot set back off the highway, and cooked some rice and beans for dinner as the temp reached 40 degrees by the time we got in our tent for the night. Its going to be a cold night...
9/1
Woke unto our first frost of the trip and the water left in our pot was frozen.
Unfortunately, Katherine had a rough night, with her hands flaring up and hurting throughout. This prompted a call to our blue cross blue shield agent during which we discovered that our insurance in Canada was next to worthless.
With Katherine's hands not improving we decided that after today we would be taking it easy and staying in hotels to allow her body and the antibiotics some time to work. The ride was easy and relatively flat as we entered grande prairie after 50 miles.
We stayed in a hotel for the night and will try to get to Jasper tomorrow using car or bus, where we'll take it easy for a couple days. John, Arne, and Nathan arrived at 10 pm or so, joining us in the hotel for a warm nights rest. Unfortunately john's hands have also developed the infection and it continues to slowly spread. He's started with taking some of our leftover antibiotics and hopefully they'll prove effective.
9/2
We began the day by looking into transportation options to Jasper. With a one way car rental running $700 and the inconvenience of a 12 hour expensive round about greyhound bus route through Edmonton, Katherine and I decided to hitchhike to Grande Cache. The hitchhiking was actually pretty fun as you just never know when or who is going to stop. Our first ride stopped after about 20 minutes of waiting and our driver was Lance, a contract trucker for the oil companies. He drove us about 40-50 miles or so, leaving about 60 miles to go. After riding about 45 minutes with the time approaching 5 pm and patchy cold rain we again hitchiked. We were picked up by Andy and his son Sam, who were on their way to a fishing trip. Andy was excited to pick us up and was a real friendly guy who loved the area and told us a lot about it's history, wilderness areas, and his work with operating a vacuum/power washing truck for the oil companies. We got dropped off at Grande Cache and checked into the Grande Mountain lodge, which was a nice and reasonably priced hotel for the night. The scenery of the mountains looking directly out of our hotel door was pretty incredible. Katherines hands are looking much better and no longer burn with heat. Hopefully a few more days of relaxing and staying warm will be what she needs to avoid the hospital and intense antibiotics.
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Location:Fort St. John and Grande Cache
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