| Just 20 miles north of
Dawson Creek we took a brief side trip on a loop of the old Alaska Highway.
This was so we could look at the 530ft long Kiskatinaw River Bridge. This is
the only timber bridge from the original road still in use. |  |
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The Kiskatinaw River down below is quite large. It runs into the Peace River
and thence to the Findlay River which flows to the Pacific at Vancouver. |
| The main Alaska Highway
crosses the river via a modern concrete bridge a couple of miles upstream. |  |
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It is a very impressive bridge, unusually built on a curve. |
| I did comment that I had
not seen any dandelions which was a fatal mistake. They are everywhere here
too. But they do attract the butterflies. |  |
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There are big rivers here like the Peace River which have carved deep gorges
in the landscape. |
| This is the bridge across
the Peace River. This one was built in 1960 replacing a 2130ft suspension
bridge built in 1942 which collapsed when the north anchor block collapsed
through erosion in 1957. The red and white line is a gas pipeline crossing
the river. |  |
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The road runs through a huge oil and gas field and pipelines run alongside
the road. Every few miles there is a pumping station of some sort. |
| There is a book called
the 'Milepost' which is published every year and lists useful information
and all the points of interest such as this huge 30ft lumberjack. Apparently
they dress him in a Santa suit at Christmas. I wonder what happened to his
axe.... |  |
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But mostly we just keep driving up and down - not much side to side. There
is very little traffic. |
| Sometimes it bends a bit
and you get a glimpse of what is to come. The verges are quite wide and kept
well trimmed although we aren't quite sure how since sometimes it is very
lumpy. |  |
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This would be difficult because it is so steep. It would be interesting to
know how often it is trimmed. |
| It may seem odd to keep
showing these sort of shots, but this is just how it is. The road has been
straightened and improved over the years so that it is now 23 miles shorter. |  |
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The gas from the oilfields here is very sulphurous. There are signs warning
people to keep away because it is poisonous. Here a sulphur gas pipeline
crosses the road... |
| ... to reach a plant
owned by Spectra Energy which removes the sulphur and converts it to pellet
form for sale as a fertilizer. This is the largest such plant in North
America and was built in 1964. From here the purified gas is sent 800 miles
south by pipeline. |  |
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