Seattle, WA to Alexandria, BC
Day miles: 633
Total miles: 633

I left on a typical Seattle day: overcast and gloomy. I did not set a time to leave, but ended up on the road around 10:30am. Since I live south of downtown, this unfortunately meant that I hit morning traffic getting through the core. I am the type that often prefers the sensation of progress over actual progress when it comes to driving, so I got off Interstate 5 for a bit downtown and took surface streets past the usual choke points on the interstate.

The drive to the Canadian border was familiar and uneventful. Once at the border I was directed to park and go inside to provide my CAFC 909 for my shotgun. They wanted to match the serial number on the paperwork to the firearm on their own, so I sat inside for around a half hour waiting. When all was finished and I came outside one of the border agents was waiting to talk to me about my bike. As it turns out, she has an F800GS as well and we chatted for fifteen minutes about aftermarket accessories before I went on my way. All told, I had a great experience at the border.

Once in Canada, I set my GPS to take me through Vancouver to Whistler. Years ago I had driven BC 99 and my memory of it made me want to do it again on the motorcycle. This was a great decision. Once past Whistler, it is remote two lane mountain road, following a river most of the way. The only setback is that it seems that every RV rental comes with directions to come here as well. Fortunately the bike has plenty of power and I was able to whip around all the RVs within a minute of coming upon them.

My detour ended near Cache Creek where I had a nice dinner and caught up on the Canucks/Bruins game. I’ve kept my minor allegiance to the Bruins to myself while up here for my own safety.

I had decided to ride the entire Alaskan (Alcan) Highway, so I headed for Dawson Creek, BC from here. BC99 had plenty of provincial parks along the way, and I was hoping to find one for the night now. Unfortunately I seemed to be in a dry spot for parks, so I unrolled my sleeping bag on the ground in a rest area alongside the highway for the night instead.

By the way, Spot made my name my messenger (tracker) unit. Being a less than creative chap, I named it “orange.” Because, it is. A couple people have thought that it says orange on the site so often because that is some kind of status of my device, like I am at Defcon 2 or something. This is not the case. Everything is green here!