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September 24, 2009, a Thursday
W of Stone Mountain Provincial Park to Dawson Creek (WalMart), British Columbia, Canada
— The Alaska Highway: Back to Mile 0
The clouds were breaking and it was 48°F (9°C) when I got out of bed. The clouds started to get some nice pink color as I was having breakfast and making LavAzza coffee to go. We left at 7:43 in the Jeep.

It was really windy — not good for stone sheep. :( There was nice light on the mountain peaks. No stone sheep at the cliffs. There were waves on Summit Lake — it was as smooth as glass yesterday morning. We turned around at the east end of Summit Lake. We stopped to photograph some caribou, including the male with the broken antler from yesterday. In the image to the left, he's licking salt from the gravel by the road shoulder, and you can see his cute little "socks" just above his hoof.

We returned to the RV around 8:35, then prepped the RV to move. I drove the RV and J drove the Jeep to a convenient place to hook up the Jeep to tow. We left at 9:09 in the RV with the Jeep in tow and started heading east/south along the Alaska Highway.

We stopped for two male caribou, one of which had a nice paddle. Both male and female caribou have antlers, but only males have a tine just above their head that extends out over their nose and in mature males forms a "paddle." By the time we started setting up to photograph them on foot, they were heading off into the trees. :( We got back in the RV and continued heading east/south along the Alaska Highway.

We went up over the pass in Stone Mountain Provincial Park. We went by Testa River Services & Campground at 9:51 — it's the "Cinnamon Bun Center of the Galactic Cluster." I listened to an episode of Car Talk.

We stopped at the Fort Nelson Museum around 11:15 to use their free sani-dump. Had lunch while we were taking on fresh water.

We went to the Husky gas station in Fort Nelson to fill up the RV because there was a fuel delivery truck blocking our exit at the Fas Gas pumps and the price was the same — an expensive $1.249/l! I cleaned the RV windows. We left at 12:26 and continued heading down the Alaska Highway.

I listened to an episode of Car Talk. We went by a road-kill bull moose at 1:14 — the first moose we had seen since leaving Alaska.

We stopped at 3:08 at the Sasquatch Crossing Motel parking lot, a couple of miles west of Pink Mountain, for a pit stop.

As we entered Dawson Creek, we reached Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway — back to where this blog began.

We reached the WalMart in Dawson Creek at 6:17. We had been looking forward to reaching this wonderful boondocking spot because on our way north there had been a nice free wireless internet connection available through the Days Inn next door. This time however, the internet connection was slow, and we ended up using J's Verizon USB stick instead. When I showered, I discovered that the water we took on at Fort Nelson had a chlorine odor. :( It wasn't as offensive as the iodine odor in the water from Denali National Park at Riley Creek Campground, but it was still odd.

We had dinner around 7:20. I had the last of the moose-meat chili and a salad, and J just had a large salad.

I uploaded the backlog of blog entries to the live site, then did some computer work.