Friday, August 15, 2008

Mile '0'

As you can see from the above picture, I am just entering the Alaska Highway. For quite a while it has seemed like I was on that road. That has been in the back of my mind since I crossed the bridge from PEI and turned the bike West. 
Dawson Creek had an important place in the construction of this road. The town went from a town of 500 people engaged in agriculture to a town of over 10,000 people endeavoring to construct a road 1523 miles long across muskeg, ice and snow.

There are two traffic circles in town. One with the small sign post directly above denoting the milage to Ft Nelson, Whitehorse, and Fairbanks. That is not the official mile "0" marker. It was moved here in 1946 when someone hit the original 4x4 that was where the "pointing surveyor" (I don't know what his real name is) stands today (see below). The two historic markers above are across the street from the dude with the the transit.
Well, the rusty man with the tripod tells me to head west... I think I'll take him up on that.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Sheesh.

I had to google muskeg. And the Alaska Highway.

You learn something new every day. Thank goodness else it would be a boring life.

Looks like the weather is holding, but with 400 mile days you must be tired of sitting on your behind!!

Good journey.