Alcan: Tetsa River, British Columbia - June 4th to 5th, 2022

Our first stretch of the Alaska Highway (Alcan) was not that exciting, but it was still enjoyable. The weather didn’t cooperate but we still found some interesting things to see and do along the way.

Saturday was our first driving day on the Alaska Highway and it was a rather long drive, at least for us, around six hours according to Google Maps. We only had a couple of quick sight-seeing stops. The first one was the historical Kiskatinaw Bridge. Warning: there is more than one bridge named Kiskatinaw, so if you’re using Google Maps, put Kiskatinaw Provincial Park as the destination. The provincial park was closed, but it will get you close to the historical bridge. The Mile Post said that vehicles can still drive across it, but that information is out-dated. The bridge is now closed, but you can walk out on it. The bridge is a part of the original Alaska Highway. It is a timber-truss bridge that is curved. It is in need of repair (probably why it is now closed), with missing deck boards and rotting wooden members.

The second stop was the Visitor Center in the town of Taylor. The visitor center itself is a 1932 log cabin. Outside the center is a replica of Sir Alexander Mackensie’s canoe. He was the first white person to cross the North American continent. Along with a crew of eight men, a dog, and a birchbark canoe, he traveled through the Taylor area in May of 1793 along his route from Montreal, Quebec to Bella Coola, British Columbia, completing his journey later the same year in July.

For lunch, we stopped at the Buckinghorse River Provincial Park. The Mile Post said there was a picnic area there along with a campground. All we found was the campground, no picnic area. But we parked and ate our lunch anyway. We’re not sure if we were there legally or not, but there was no one around to ask. Another RV was there, probably doing the same thing. The people in the other RV were from Alberta. They were heading up to Fairbanks, Alaska. They make this trip every year, and this is the first time they’ve been here that the leaves were not out on the trees yet. The trees were just starting to bud. They figured that spring was coming about two weeks later than normal.

It started raining before lunch and continued most of the rest of the day. At least we were warm and dry inside the van. We stopped for gas in Fort St. John and in Fort Nelson. The gas stations were getting fewer and farther between, so we were topping off our tank every time we hit a major town. We’ve heard you can’t always rely on a gas station being open. In fact, the gas pumps were not working at the first gas station we stopped at in Fort Nelson. We’re not sure why. But since we were in a town, there were other gas stations to choose from.

Keith drove the whole time while Ann kept a look out for wildlife along the side of the road. Today’s count was three deer and four black bear. Despite her alertness, she didn’t manage to get very good pictures. There was not always enough of a shoulder to stop on or the traffic was too close behind us to stop. There was also another animal we could see running across the road way ahead of us, four vehicles in front of us. We were too far away to tell exactly what it was, but we believe it was a moose.

Our stop for the next two nights was Tetsa River Regional Park. It is a small campground in the woods along the Tetsa River. However, you really can’t get a good view of the river from the campground, nor are there any trails to get you closer. There is a hand pump for water, but it is not potable water, they recommend boiling it for 15 minutes before consuming. There is also no dump station, but there was a sign that said you can dump gray water in the pit toilets. We had filled up our fresh water and dumped our gray before leaving the campground in Dawson Creek, so we were good for a couple of days. However, we dumped our gray in the pit toilets before we left because our next planned campground did not have a dump station either.

When there was a pause in the rain after dinner, we walked around the small campground three times, but only managed to get in a little over a mile. It wasn’t close to our daily goal of three miles, but it was better than nothing.

Sunday was cloudy in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. In the morning, we drove 15 minutes over to the Tetsa River Lodge. They are known for their cinnamon buns. The buns are large, so we split one. It was fresh and warm, very tasty.

Well, half of one didn’t seem like it was enough. So we took a short stroll around their campground and came back in for more. However, there was only one bun left and someone was in line behind us. The next batch of buns would not be out of the oven for another 30 minutes. We can wait; we didn’t have anything planned for the rest of the day. While we waited, we chatted with other travelers who were sitting at the indoor tables enjoying their cinnamon buns. In addition to the second cinnamon bun, we ordered two bowls of soup, cream of broccoli and beef barley. The soup came with a large slice of buttered, homemade bread. After adding a loaf of white sourdough bread and a can of Coke, we packed up our food and drove back to the campground.

It was lunch time when we reached our campsite, so we ate all the goodies we bought, except for the loaf of bread. Delicious! Ann enjoyed the broccoli soup better than Keith enjoyed his beef barley. The soup was a little too salty for his tastes.

It hadn’t started raining yet, so we walked a few laps around the campground. During our laps, it started sprinkling on us. It rained off and on the rest of the evening. We managed to get out and make a few more laps around the campground before and after dinner. We had a lot of calories to work off.

There were a lot of mosquitos, but they left us alone if we kept moving. Needless to say we did not sit outside, but it was raining anyway. For a while we left the sliding door open. Thank goodness we have a screen across the opening, because the mosquitos were buzzing around the screen all day, trying to find a way in. It made us a little nervous to see them swarming around just outside the screen, but we managed to keep most of them out of our Red Tail Lodge (our van). One or two made it inside, but they probably came in when we were entering or leaving the van.

For about a week now, since we were at Ten Mile Lake near Quesnel (Quesnel, British Columbia - May 31st to June 1st, 2022), we’ve been noticing a lot of pollen. A greenish yellow powder would cover our camp stove, Ann’s laptop, and our windshield. We could see it swirling around in puddles. We’re not sure what type of pollen it was, but there sure was a lot of it!

Every now and then, we would hear a thumping sound, that started out slow, then quickened to an almost continuous vibration, then stop abruptly. It almost sounded like a gas motor trying to sputter and start. Ann remembers hearing it while she was laying in bed the night before. It reminded us of the spruce grouse we had heard and seen on the Sea to Summit Trail the week before (Squamish, British Columbia - May 27th to 28th, 2022). The sound was a little different than the spruce grouse, but we were pretty sure it was some type of grouse beating its wings to find a mate. Just as we were getting ready for bed, Keith spotted the grouse on a log on his way back from the pit toilet. He scared it away and we didn’t see or hear it the rest of our time there, which was only overnight and into the early morning.

The next stretch of the Alaska Highway should be more eventful. We had a hike planned and we were looking forward to soaking our tired muscles afterwards in the Liard Hot Springs.

Check out our related video: Alcan: Tetsa River, British Columbia

(Ann)