Pulled out of Whitehorse early this morning, 0730 to find 4x4 snow packed roads for the first 100 miles. Daylight came and it turned out to be a great day! Pulled into Fort Nelson this evening at 1815 for a total of 10 hours, 45 minutes and 584 miles down the road for an average 0f 53 MPH. The traffic, both north and south bound has been very light, we saw perhaps forty vehicles today. With that little traffic and gasoline pushing the $5.00 a gallon ceiling, I deducted that there would be no Canadian Mounties on the highway. We have yet to see a Mountie on the highway, so it gave me plenty of opportunity to push the limit and did a lot of traveling at 75 to 80 mph. The roads are in good shape and most of it warranted this kind of speed, except Steamboat Mountain. The average speed does not seem that good, however, we had a lot of stops and Dutch likes a "ball" break about ever fifty miles. By pushing it today, we will be off the Alcan and in Dawson Creek by noon tomorrow.

We had a fantastic day today, it was a beautiful drive, the scenery was beautiful with all the lakes, rivers, mountains and trees other than the black spruce that we look at all day yesterday. Took a lot of photos, when I get time I will download them and send a few. Brother Bill was right about the buffalo in the roads. At first we saw a single bull (off the road) and a bit further two more bulls were in the barrow ditch. Huge guys, I can only imagine hitting one at 75 mph. Twenty miles down the road, we came around a corner and the entire Buffalo migration was in progress, we had them in the middle of the road, on each side of the road, all sizes, shapes and sexes. We even had them wallowing in the dirt, butting heads and looking in our windows. We spent a lot of time with them and got them on both video and still shots. Never did get a full count but it was well over one hundred head. We also got to see a lot of Caribou, including one that would have looked good hanging on any wall. They too seemed to like the road as they would not move out of our way. We also saw two cow elk, two doe mule deer, and a doe and fawn Whitetail deer. We shot of a lot of pictures today, but the best of all was that we got to see a several herds of Stone Sheep along the highway including one big ram with a full curl, unfortunately a truck was on my tail and I could not stop but we did get a good shot of a single ram further down the road. It really made our day that we got to see so much wildlife, deserted roads, good weather and beautiful country.

The years have changed the highway, I am glad I saw it when I was young. I saw so many of the old places today that are now deserted and boarded up, so many parts of the highway has been moved and the original road abandon. From the days of my youth when 30 -40 miles per hour was top speed on the gravel road to a paved highway where you can drive 75 - 80 safely, I feel fortunate that I got to see both. Tomorrow, we will be back in civilization, cheaper gas, cheaper hotels, and headed to the border. Forgot to mention, my traveling partner is up to her old tricks, she found another object today for addition to the collection at the HITW, the eight foot post would not fit into the truck but fortunatley, I brought my tool box. I do hope we do not get searched at customs. See you on down the road.