60° 7' 25" N / 128° 49' 30" W

the price of hotels is killing me, actually everything is killing me and it comes from worthless greenbacks to travelling through places where tranportation costs have to be added into the prices. i was watched gasoline soar the further north i am $1,04/litre in manitoba to $1,40/litre in fort nelson.

this must have registered when i asked the cost of a non chain hotel in dawson creek. the clerk pitying me sent to me to the northwinds lodge saying that it could be a bit cheaper. the motel i stopped at looked like those resort hotels that i remember from wildwood by the sea rooms crushed in everywhere but only two floors high.

the northwinds was like an old motor lodge that one would pass. park outside the door. office is canopied in the front. went in to ask if she had a room as it seems that everything was nearly booked in dawson creek. a single i said for me only. she tried to look nonchalantly into the machine to see if there was anyone with me. she had a room. the person in the office on her laptop said that they were great. i took it and unpacked wireless access was more important than anything. this seemed no frills i was asked if i wanted coffee in the morning i said yes and i was handed one of those hotel one serving bag.

later when i went back to ask for tea, i found out that the person who was still typing on her laptop had just come from dawson city.

-oh how are the roads and more important are there enough gas bars along the way?

• the roads are fine, it seems that for some reason parks canada are making sure that they are paved as for gas bars i couldn't tell you i am biking.

sheepishly i went back to my room after i was given a choice of teas and made the type of sunset that i would like - beautiful sky over the cinema and the co-op. everyone came out to look at it. i was told of the points of interest of dawson creek given brochures, tried to photograph the dog while getting the desk clerk.

the room was odd, two beds, coffee maker, microwave, refrigerator and two hot plates.

i also noticed that not only here but in the first motel there were a lot of pickups belonging to canadian national. the rooms were booked because crews for all sorts of work stay in them while they are working and sure enough even though i was up by seven the place that was packed the night before had emptied.

found that this was the subtle way of doing it. along the alaskan, i would find entire "tent" cities of barrack like prefabbed buildings behind mom and pop "lodges" for the seasonal workers, tried to document them but i couldn't do them justice they simply went on and one

dawson creek is way to theme park for me. i decided to start late - even though everyone said that i wouldn't make watson lake in a day. there was a real café downtown and a proper magazine shop where i bought postcards but couldn't find the globe. did a tour of a city hoping to make snaps then put the camera away as everything was based on this being mile zero of the alaskan highway. big monument in town where everyone stopped and had their photograph made. i helped out a couple from delaware so they both could race into the middle of the street and be under the monument.

alleys were tarted up to look like the time of the beginning of the highway. nondescript buildings had plaques on them telling of what was pulled down. 

a woman came up to me and asked if i had time for jesus to-day.  a homeless person was sitting on the steps of the retro-façaded alaskan hotel. luckily the café was contemporary latino music playing. wondered how they felt living in a theme parked city.

again i was composing an email to someone who almost took me up on the dare to tag along saying that the correct choice in not coming was made. again the wander wasn't hitting the balance that i wanted. it wasn't a kerouaquian race across the country, nor was it a mosey. i couldn't hit that balance and it all had to do with time. i have to be back and i am too far away to race back in a day or so.

add to this the killing of the romantic with the highway yesterday and i was confused and off balance. the inclination would be to divert but i had no idea to what extent. 

the killing of the romantic also came from the real coming being so different from the imagined. i thought that there would be prairies then in the distance i would see the rockies rise like a wall. i kept looking in the distance for them and saw only rolling hills.

to-day heading for fort nelson and then watson creek and the 60th parallel, i was in the rockies but to tell the truth the long range mountains looked more impressive. did stop, since this was a road and not a superhighway. i could see what was going on. i also played with the signage hinting at what was down the side roads. this part of b.c. was like alberta as it seemed that what i saw in the land was there to make sure there was access to a resource - gas, petroleum, wood. clear cut areas where pipe was laid. tree lines used as buffers to hide to keep the drive scenic but allow harvesting of trees. i was stopping to make snaps of these clues.

i had also began again to photograph the domesticity in places like this but in truth if these were the rockies i wasn't impressed.

• i will tell you something if you promise not to hit me, the flagger said approaching the machine.
• there will be a 15 minute wait.

surprises for this wander being the norm, i didn't even calculate what this would to my making watson lake by dark. turned off the engine and made her snap. she asked me where i was heading and why. with the answer she asked which province did i prefer. unfortunately she was from alberta my least favourite. at first she liked the beauty of the northern rockies but now she was all beautied out and wanted the rolling hills of alberta.

she doubted that i would make watson lake - everyone seems to doubt the distances that i can achieve and mentioned a camp ground on the way that had great food.

-for heaven's sake why?! was the question when she found out that i was a vegetarian. although she said that she couldn't live in newfoundland for she hates seafood.

i found out no matter what i did i averaged 90 clicks. knowing this i stopped more.

stopped for lunch in fort nelson. tried a café to actually have a local experience but it seemed that the server was more concerned with chatting with someone in the toilet than actually taking orders. i headed to subway. they are a frighteningly universal.

heading toward watson lake, the email i was now composing was never mind. this leg was gobsmackingly stunning. i had to drive the rockies showed a great deal of personality. it was the best drive i ever had and there was six hours of it.

a sign warning of sheep on the road and there are elk. a black bear cub, races across the highway. there is a a warning pictogram for bison and there they are a herd grazing on both sides of the alaskan highway. just before this i was thinking ah the usual as earlier i had seen the usual deer and moose.

ate dinner while awaiting another flagger to give us the go ahead but this was beside muncho lake. 

what i wanted to photograph became clearer and i saw the return trip as an edit. finally later the bc-yukon line the 60 parallel. there it was about a metre long hidden in a layby. as i was photographing it while it was becoming duckish, buddy  whom i saw earlier stopping to make a snap of wildlife stops his van to photograph the larger less accurate sign for the border. yell at him to see the marker. he races to make the photograph of the sign and has me photograph him in front of it then drives to my marker and does the same. he then showed me all his wildlife pictures. before speeding off. passed him - found out the reason that i could average 90 clicks was when i was driving it was at 130. i always had a pace car.

pulled into watson lake - which could be twinned with gary indiana if they tarted the place up a bit. it seems there is either one extreme or the other. here there were no chains. the hotels were all locally owned and marketed themselves not with their street address but with a post office box. i picked the less grungy one along the alaskan highway. asked if they had internet access. only on the first floor, and stepped over a puddle to get to my room. those tent cities were looking pretty good.