This is the second tranche of notes from this trip.  Go to Older Post for the first.

June 24-26, 2022

6-24-22

I've mentioned Cache Creek during previous visits.  It is and, apparently, always has been a crossroads town going back to the 1800's.  Today it is dominated by motels and eating establishments.  There is also a small food market, a well-stocked liquor store and, so I've read, a local TV station.

The Tumbleweed Motel.

Again, the trip out of town on 97 towards Prince George reminds me a bit of the high desert north of L.A. but greener due to considerably more moisture. The hills have a very appealing, velvety light-green blanket of vegetation.  Farther north are lakes, streams and forests.  Weather was fine though still windy.

Entering Prince George I got lost trying to find the motel which is right next to 97 (henace its name "97 Motor Inn"). For some reason I always do miss it on the way in.  Google got me straightened out which took awhile as road work has various crossing points of the highway blocked.  

Dinner at the Great Wall Restaurant.  I've mentioned the Chinese buffet here before. Left with a stuffed belly.

6-25,26-22

Proceeding up 97 to Dawson Creek the weather was great. Warm and breezy, but now the wind was at my back.

This stretch starts out with farmland that could be many places in North America. Not ugly, not beautiful.  Mostly pasturage I think. Some distant mountains. Somewhat rolling with stands of trees here and there.

Farther north the land rises and the forest, streams, lakes motif returns.  I stopped for fuel somewhere and had a nice chat with a biker from North Carolina aiming to ride the Alaska Highway and then up to Prudhoe Bay.  I started spouting information and he took me for a local.

Fuel:  There are gas stations at Bear Lake, Mackenzie and Chetwynd.  It's easy to speed past the one at Bear Lake.

Just observing casually, it seems that motel occupants from Cache Creek on are mostly either tourists or work crews for various construction sites.  In Prince George I chatted with a worker whose crew was on a project building cell phone towers. He was bemoaning the windy weather which obviously affects those guys working up high.  He gave me a couple of beers.  The proprietress of the Airbnb I stayed in my first time through Dawson Creek told me recently that occupancy was picking up as work in the "oil patch" picks up.  I guess the oil companies are beginning to revive wells that shut down during Covid due to decreased demand.

As I sit here on Sunday in the Midtown Motel the weather is beautiful.  None of the rain I had expected from a forecast yesterday has materialized.  But I'm glad to have paused here to rest as I woke feeling pretty ragged.  Tomorrow I hope to head up toward Great Slave Lake.