July 15, 2022

Once again took 97 from Dawson Creek to Prince George

The road rises and falls, but I had the sense that overall it was descending.  Google Earth confirms that Prince George is at lower elevation, but by only about 100 meters, not enough to really notice over a 240 mile ride.  So much for perceptions.  Maybe it's just that I seem to be on the downslope of the trip so forward progress feels like "down."  Sometimes an unrelated feeling or fact will bleed over into an almost tactile sense of the topology of the land.  Once while traveling through Central America I noticed a strange sense that I was moving along a high ridge.  I'm sure that was because I knew that at that point the continent under my feet had narrowed from thousands of miles to mere hundreds.

Bike has just turned 40,000 miles so I will give her a birthday present of an oil change tomorrow.  It could easily wait another 500 miles, but Prince George is the last good chance I'll have for a couple or few days.

Weather started out dry and sunny, but then turned to showers for about 2 hours.  It cleared about 20 miles before P.G.  And, of course there was a spell of heavy cross winds.  It wouldn't be a normal day without that. During dinner at Great Wall there was quite a cloudburst.  Glad I was off the road.  I hope it's dry in the morning so I can go to Canadian Tire and change oil in their parking lot.

Wildlife:  Saw one black bear.

Random observations:  There is a railroad track paralleling the highway much of the way.