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North to Alaska - 2017 Trip - Day 03

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Start Location: Prince George, BC
Ending Location: Smithers, BC
Miles Today: 232
Trip Miles: 780
States Visited:1
Provinces Visited: 1
Low Temp: 56.6° F
High Temp: 74.1° F
Min Elevation: 1559'
Max Elevation: 2884'

Route Map:




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Today was a reasonably easy day. We left Prince George around 8:45 and pulled into Smithers by 2:30 in the afternoon. We planned short days, or at least low mileage days, since we had no idea what the roads would be like. As it is the roads continue to be in good shape with no real problems. We have to slow down going through the small towns but there really aren't that many towns. We did go through several construction zones but the delays were minimal. We were surprised that they were working on Saturday but, as we thought about it, the window for doing road work is probably pretty short and they have to take advantage of every opportunity.

We were afraid we would hit rain today but only ran into several light sprinkles but nothing to worry about. We did put on rain gear mid morning but only to guarantee that we wouldn't hit heavy rain and it worked.

The towns here in BC are very nice and  very clean. They all have very nice visitor centers as well as parks and recreation areas. We have seen very little litter anywhere on the roads or in towns.

We are heading for Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK in the morning. Again we have a short day - only about 200 miles. As we get closer there are fewer towns and fewer services so we have to be careful about gas. There are two stretches toworrow where there are no services, one is 40 miles and one is 90 miles. We can easily go over 150 miles on a tank of gas and that's usually before we hit reserve which is another gallon in the tank and then we have the gallon in the trunk so we aren't worried at all.

Apparently the best viewing is from 6:00 to 9:00 in the morning and then again in the evening. We plan to check out the viewing area in the afternoon and then check the condition of the road to Salmon Glacier as well. Although we may get some rain tomorrow, it looks like Monday will be dry so it should be the best time to head to the glacier.

If all goes well we will turn around and head home Tuesday after seeing bears and the glacier.

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