Day 10 - Hinton, AB to Dawson Creek, BC

We got a little bit later start this morning, leaving Hinton just before 8 am. It was still a bit cool, but not as cold as the past few days, and the skies didn’t look all that friendly, so we all donned our rain gear for the day.

We really only got about 15 minutes of rain coming into Grande Prairie and then another 15 minutes on our way out of Grand Prairie, but neither time was the rain very strong. It did rain quite heavily though when we were having lunch at the Original Joe’s in Grand Prairie.

It was a very different day in terms of scenery too – in some spots it was still quite nice and in others it made it seem as if we were riding in southwestern Ontario. But, it was still a good day all in all.

We headed out of Hinton on the Bighorn Highway (Alberta Hwy 40). The first 35 kms or so north of Hinton are not in very good shape – quite a few frost heaves, lots of temporary patches and a few potholes to deal with. However, they are working at expanding and re-paving the highway so the rest of the trip up to Grand Cache and on into Grande Prairie wasn’t all that bad.

At Grande Cache, we stopped in to see their cultural centre and it had lots of different historical points to see. When you leave Grande Cache, there is a sign that says no services, no fuel for 184 kms … they aren’t kidding about that either! When we left Grande Prairie, we also made a quick stop to see the largest Beaver statue in the world at Beaverlodge. From there, it was just a short trip north into the Pacific Time Zone and we crossed into British Columbia, eventually ending up in Dawson Creek where we stopped in at the Alaska Highway Mile 0 post for the required photo-op. Then off to our hotel for the night, the George Dawson Inn.

Wildlife sightings today: 1 moose, 1 elk, 1 black bear and quite a few whitetail deer.

For the day, we logged just under 471 kms, bringing the total for the trip to 5,256 kms.