Friday, June 11, 2010

Day 26 –Peace River, Alberta to High Level, Alberta

Today’s Mileage 182
Miles to Date 2600
Miles Remaining 6720

A better day today, we got an early start from the Wal-Mart parking lot this morning plus today’s leg was only 182 miles. The Peace River Wal-Mart was very quiet during the night with just about no activity after 9:00 PM. The lot was empty and still empty when we left in the morning. At 2:30 AM the sky still had some light in it. The days are definitely getting longer.

We will spend the next 2 nights in the Tourist Information Center parking lot here in High Level. Tomorrow we will take a side trip via H3 to some of the oldest settlements in Alberta.

High Level began as a small settlement on the Mackenzie Highway after WWII. It grew with the oil boom in the sixties and the completion of the railroad to Pine Point. High Level is mainly an agricultural economy and boasts of the most northerly grain elevators in North America. Population is 3,887.

The landscape is fairly level and the highway is surrounded by forest on both sides. It is very evident that they cut a right away through the forest for the road. The highway parallels the Peace River however the river is not visible as it just far enough away to be out of sight due to the heavy forest.

We did see one moose along the way but we were going too fast to capture it with the camera.

There are swamps along both sides of the highway. There are no mountains and the only descents and climbs are when the highway transverses a river valley.

Today the sun came out. It is 65 F outside and 83 inside the coach.

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