Morning came early. Too early! I awoke at 5:00 and no one was up yet, so I took a shower and came back to the LG and put some coffee on. Slowly, everyone started to wake up and start packing up. We hit the road around 7:30. Another long day on the open road. I was telling John that driving the AlCan is like living the movie, Groundhog Day. Everything is starting to look familiar and the road seems to never end. That being said, I don’t want to minimize the beauty and splendor of the drive. It’s gorgeous, but seems to never end.
A large part of the highway was under construction. There were times when we had to wait for a pilot car to guide us through a maze of thick dust and potholes. Sometimes it seemed like it was never going to end. Would be ever see pavement again? Once we got back on the paved road we had to contend with loose gravel segments about every 100 yards; for miles and miles. It was difficult to see the road for the dust kicking up; and even more difficult when on-coming traffic threw up the gravel.
After driving 328 miles we stopped at Liard Hot Springs Provincial Park for the night. Even without a reservation we were able to get a campsite, but it’s a good thing we got there around 3:30 in the afternoon. Solid traffic was rolling in to the park for hours after that. The Hot Springs were great! They were so relaxing and helped take the aches and pains from our bones and overall weary bodies. Since we were staying overnight there was no extra fee for the hot springs. They are open and accessible 24 hrs. Afterwards, we fixed dinner and had some wine around my Little Red Campfire.
Here it is late July. It’s 10:30 PM and the sun is still up and shining like it’s 3:30 in the afternoon. It never really gets dark, so the dark blinds my wife made for my LG were definitely helpful. I’ve been getting some good sleep on this trip.