-----Upon awakening in Fort Saint John, we knew an exciting day of adventure was ahead. Our first full day on the Alaska Highway took us northbound, and once we were clear of the outskirts of Fort Saint John, it was utter wilderness as far as the eye could see. Trees were cleared for many meters around each side of the two-lane blacktop in order to give us a clear sightline towards potential critters.

-----As we went ever north, the temperature did not reach above the high 40s in Fahrenheit, and the rain came in small short spurts as we rolled over forested hills. It was still so cold that snow was piled up to half a foot on the banks of the highway.

-----The Alaska Highway travels north through the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to Fort Nelson, BC, before turning west and going through the mountains much of the rest of the way. As such, our drive to Fort Nelson was quite monotonous; the driver would adjust for road conditions (which were mostly good) and oncoming trucks (who were almost universally cordial) while the front-seat navigator, Milepost in hand, would track along with the signposts every five kilometers and warn of upcoming road conditions and points of interest. My mom, who manned the backseat, kept us informed of turns ahead. We all watched out for wildlife.

-----The only item of considerable interest in the journey to Fort Nelson was our first glimpses of the snowcapped peaks of the Rocky Mountains. They were at such a distance that we could see mountains up and down to the west, and we satisfied ourselves with the knowledge that we’d enter their domain after we reached Fort Nelson.

-----Fort Nelson is the last outpost of civilization; beyond its limits, the next time one gets a proper city is Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory. It began to rain once again as we rolled into Fort Nelson, and we topped off the gas tank before eating a late lunch at a nearby Tim Horton’s. We’d not been into a proper Tim Horton’s before, though it is a Canadian staple found from coast to coast. The food—sandwiches and wraps—were surprisingly good, but it’s more known as a place for coffee and sweets. We didn’t get any coffee, but were pleased to report that their doughnuts are as good as anything Krispy Kreme has to offer. (Maple glaze with custard filling—need I say more?)

-----The drive from Fort Nelson to our day’s stop in Toad River took us on a meandering westward route up and into the Rocky Mountains. We geared down when necessary and took in the stunning vistas that the road offered, as we were now well ensconced amongst the snowcapped peaks and rocky outcroppings that stretched thousands of feet above our heads. The creeks and rivers and lakes and waterfalls were all frozen solid, with only the lower elevations seeing the effects of the thaw.

-----Road conditions began to be a bit more on the hairy side, with rougher patches necessitating a lower (but still impossible to attain) speed limit. Our keen wildlife watch, which we’d maintained since the beginning of our journey, came to fruition with the sighting of no less than three massive black bear, minding their own business on the sides of the road. Mostly, the barren road lay at the doorsteps of the snowcapped granite monoliths. Every time the road would curve, a new outcropping or an even whiter mountaintop came into view.

-----Summit Lake was the most icy and barren area; all but the road and its immediate surroundings were frosted over. Aside from the bears, seen on the way in, the only wildlife we saw came in the form of a small pack of three deer. The mountain scenery was more than enough to keep us enthralled.

-----We wound down out of the mountaintop amidst a random assortment of precipitation that felt like rain but looked like snow flurries. Whether we were snowed on, I know not, but it was a surreal experience, as the temperature remained well above freezing and even wound near 60 Fahrenheit. While we were still surrounded by epic peaks, they were clearly smaller by comparison, as now, only the very tallest poke at the snow line.

-----One of the more nerve-wracking things about the Alaska Highway is its propensity for metal-grate-surface bridges, but even these were negated when traversed at slow speeds. Two of them took us to the community of Toad River, which pretty much consists of Toad River Lodge.

-----Toad River Lodge has a main office/restaurant, a gas station, an RV Park, and many cabins. Our initial cabin, while nice on the inside, was unfinished on the outside, so my dad inquired about changing cabins to one on the lakefront, which affords a breathtaking expanse of mountains, with snowcapped peaks far afield to the west and ducks aplenty on the lake itself. The cool mountain air only truly becomes cold when the wind blows through. The Lodge staff even wrapped the bases of trees near the water with thick transparent plastic in order to keep off the beavers, who managed to gnaw away at many of them before their covering.

-----The Lodge is home to what they espouse to be the world’s single largest collection of hats, and I am fully inclined to believe their claim, as 10,782 hats covered the ceiling and began inching down the walls when passersby ran out of space in which to take their headgear. Most of the hats are beat-up and well-worn, hung up as a final resting place after perhaps several unwashed decades atop some dingy head. We’d taken an unused hat from my high school baseball team and brought it along for the express purpose of adding it to the collection, and when I stood atop a chair and affixed it to an unclaimed territory on the wall, it made for hat 10,783.

-----The WiFi connection was all but nonexistent in our cabin, and when we went back to the lodge office to take a picture of our hat with trip mascot Yoder the Duck and to top off on gas before tomorrow, they asked if the connection was good in the new cabins in which we’re staying. We answered in the negative and they directed us to a different network, which worked. However, on the way back, I saw this big meaty thing trotting along the gravel in front of the half-dozen or so lakefront cabins and managed to say “moose!”

-----My dad and I followed the bull moose a ways back and we ended up seeing it cross the road away from the lodge area. He also spotted a female caribou on a far hill away from the lodge, and we wandered around the cabin area until around 9:30, when we came back to our cabin—not because it’s dark (because it isn’t,) but because it’s quite cold.

-----Tomorrow: the longest drive of the trip to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory.