18 July 2006
Notes from BC
About dates: My trip began ("Day 1") on Monday, July 17, 2006. The date (see above) on each of these entries reflects the date the entry was last posted to the server, and not necessarily the date it was written, or the date described.
Further, the date should reflect the posting date in the Pacific time zone (PDT), but for some reason that is not working correctly right now. The server is in the Eastern time zone (+3 hours). I’ll fix that eventually. Bear in mind that some entries may be posted one or more days after they were actually written (I can only post as I have access to the Internet).
The Route So Far
The terrain/climate zones of southern BC will be very familiar to anyone who has traveled (east-west) across Washington or Oregon: cool, moist, and green near the coast, with mountains on the coast (Olympics in Washington, the Coastal Range in BC), leading to more mountains (Cascades in Washington, Oregon, and southernmost BC); an extremely arid region in the rain shadow of these mountains, and so on.
BC has two major mountain ranges: the Rockies, in the eastern part of the province (straddling the border with Alberta), and the Coastal Range, which as you might expect follows the Pacific coast. The Cascades, that so dominate Washington’s geography, start to dwindle north of the border. North of Cache Creek, the terrain is no longer mountains, but fairly flat with some gentle, rolling hills. The region is scattered with small farms and orchards, and many lakes or streams. It is mostly forested (primarily coniferous trees).
The Road Ahead
At Prince George, the road forks. Northwest lies Dawson’s Creek (home of beautiful yet surly teenagers, apparently). Dawson’s Creek is the southern (actually southeastern) terminus of the Alaska Highway.
However, my path heads instead west: towards Prince Rupert, on the coast.
18 July 2006 8:38 AM PDT