Day 16, Friday, August 30, Bannf's Johnson Canyon Camp to Pruden Lake Provincial Park in British Columbia, 4000 miles

Once again, not a lot of time or the blog.

10:00 a.m. Left Banff and drove to Jasper, though some of the most magnificent scenery on this great continent. Because of my focus on getting to Alaska, there was no time to stop o photograph the scenes, so I I'd my best to photograph them on the fly. I never ceased to stand in awe of those majestic mountains the whole ride.

2:00 Arrived in Jasper jut in time for our break and spent 90 minutes there. War a pleasant town it is. Leben and Erde were he talk of the town while we were there. I hated to brush off people. But I had to get back on the road to make it to Prince George no later than 7:30. I did not want to repeat my experience at Poplar Grove and end up with another wound.

3;30 left Jasper to head to Prince George. The 240-mile drive up the notorious Highway 16 was spectacular. It's a two-lane road, so it was frustrating getting behind the slow moving vehicles. Half way there, I hear this loud twap, twap from under the right side of the Defender, the side of the repaired mud lap and then saw in the rear view mirror back flat rectangular object behind me. There goes my repaired mud flap, I thought. I stopped and check but the mud flap was still there. It had to be something from me because I saw nothing from the vehicle directly ahead of me. I checked the "door mat" and step stool that sit on the platform secured to my hitch, but they were secured and still there. (I failed to properly secure the step stool two years ago in Northern Ontario and it flew off the Defender somewhere along a 300 mile stretch of road that day.)

5:00 I gas up and then calculate that I can make it to Pruden Lake Provincial Park by 7:30, my estimate for when I will still have some daylight to avoid the Poplar Grove disaster. I caLL them. They have only 4 sites left, and they cannot reserve. I am determined to not stay in a RV camp if I can help it, so I push on.

6:30. I have driven over 100 miles but the fuel gauge says FULL when I know I used almost a half tank. It is broken. No big deal as I get gas based on the mile driven and at the first opportunity after 150 miles because ther fuel stops around here are very wide apart.

7:30 We pull into camp in a wonderful setting overlooking a lake just off the highway. The campground is full. The camp staff, Emily, Pedra and another young woman whose name I did not get, were extraordinarily helpful in finding a spot for me, site 56, for which the people who had reserved it never showed up. That woman at Killarney Provincial Park needs to take a lesson from these young woman. In fact, it wouldn't hurt if they informed all staff in all the parks I visitied that there is a solution for every problem.

Got set up in record time and was settling in for a good nights sleep at 9:30 when the wedding reception started next door. I assume it was a wedding reception because I can think of no other plausible explanation. The loud noise went on until 4:am. My guess is that since I hear several male voices and one female voice, the bride and groom brought along the bride's ex-boyfriends, or maybe just boyfriends. The bottom photo is of their camp site. Why bother camping if this is how you do it? The photo before it is of our site next door.

Tomorrow we try for Kitawanga BC and Seely Lake camp where Sonntag and I stayed in 2000 on our way home.

ED




Below. The 220-mile ride through Banff and Jasper National Parks was an endless stream of scenes like the below. If I stopped to take photos of all the great scenes, i would never mke jt to Alaska.