Monday, August 6th
BC Day!
We woke up early as we experienced a HOT morning in the tent for the first time on the trip. The sun was baking down on our overlook, and our tent, but it was also creating a magical view overlooking the entire Peace River Valley. We had a simple “eat-it-before-it-goes-bad” breakfast of yogurt and cereal with milk before packing up our camp. While we were packing up, our overlook became a very popular rest stop. A motorcyclist from Grande Prairie was taking in the view and chatting up a local lady, meanwhile four support vehicles pulled into the overlook. Curiosity got the best of us, and we discovered that we were about to be a checkpoint on an 800-kilometer bicycle journey called Bikers for Bibles who were raising money to translate Bibles into local First Nation languages. We decided we should get out of there before we got swarmed with sweaty bicyclists.
Our first stop was at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam, the most massive earthfill structure in the world, operated by BC Hydro. We took an underground bus tour into the dam itself, where we found ourselves 500 feet underground inside a dam. Luckily for us, one of the turbines was out of commission for maintenance, and it was on our tour route. The entire turbine was taken apart and we got to see all of the massive parts and pieces. And we mean massive; the underground chamber holding the turbines was as long as three football fields and as tall as the observation deck of the Eiffel Tower. The next stop on the tour was the dam manifold, roughly equivalent in purpose and use as a massive version of the manifold on a car’s exhaust. Once the water was done producing electricity, all the turbines spat the water into the same manifold, along with the seepage water that was naturally coming through the earthen structure of the dam. Interestingly, the seepage water reinforces the strength of the earthen fill of the dam, much like building a sand castle with wet sand rather than dry sand. (They didn’t allow cameras on the tour, so you’ll just have to trust us on how cool it was.) After the tour we discovered that it was possible to drive across the crest of the dam itself, so of course we took advantage of that opportunity.
Our next stop was the Bennett’s baby sister dam, the Peace Canyon Dam. Though there was no way to get into the dam itself, we were able to watch a fascinating video called “Wide Load North” about transporting a nine-meter-wide, 250-ton steel turbine runner from Leningrad to Vancouver and up to the Peace River. They constructed a 21-axle, 130-wheel, two-engine Mack truck to haul it 600 kilometers over road, most of which was built specifically for this project as nothing that large had ever traveled through northeastern British Columbia before.
After the Peace Canyon Dam we got to see some of the less-than-awesome elements of dams. We had lunch by lovely Dinosaur Lake, which was a beautiful spot teeming with locals. Hudson’s Hope’s two claims to fame are dinosaurs and dams. They had discovered a brand new species of dinosaur, as well as 1,700 dinosaur tracks in over 150 different trackways. The very next thing they did was bury all evidence of dinosaurs under a lake created by the Peace Canyon Dam; luckily they did at least name it Dinosaur Lake in honor of the footprints hundreds of feet under water.
After the Peace Canyon Dam we got to see some of the less-than-awesome elements of dams. We had lunch by lovely Dinosaur Lake, which was a beautiful spot teeming with locals. Hudson’s Hope’s two claims to fame are dinosaurs and dams. They had discovered a brand new species of dinosaur, as well as 1,700 dinosaur tracks in over 150 different trackways. The very next thing they did was bury all evidence of dinosaurs under a lake created by the Peace Canyon Dam; luckily they did at least name it Dinosaur Lake in honor of the footprints hundreds of feet under water.
We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that today is apparently a major holiday in British Columbia: BC Day. We happened to arrive at the W.A.C. Bennett Dam to be told that all dam tours were half price; then we stopped at a Post Office that was mysteriously closed; then we had lunch at a very crowded park for a Monday. It wasn’t until hours later that we heard on CBC that it was BC Day today, and it all made sense. (We also learned from CBC that today is the 50th anniversary of the day Jamaica gained its freedom from England; a little late compared to us, but happy 50th birthday anyway Jamaica!)
From Dinosaur Lake we really hit the road and made it all the way to Prince George, “the capitol of Northern BC.” (Though Charla was quick to point out that seeing as how we had been driving south through BC for two days now, this should hardly count as “north.”) Prince George is really where the drive returns to civilization, for better or for worse. There are traffic lights and four-lane highways, as well as big box stores with names such as Canadian Tire (which has much more than just tires) and The Great Canadian Superstore (which seems to have every product imaginable with the notable exception of beer). In better news, Prince George also featured Tim Horton’s, the Canadian staple of fast-food donut eateries. Since Charla had never eaten at a Tim Horton’s before, we of course had to stop. After snacking on donuts and coffee, it was time to be back on the road heading south to our roadside stop in McLeese Lake for the night.
From Dinosaur Lake we really hit the road and made it all the way to Prince George, “the capitol of Northern BC.” (Though Charla was quick to point out that seeing as how we had been driving south through BC for two days now, this should hardly count as “north.”) Prince George is really where the drive returns to civilization, for better or for worse. There are traffic lights and four-lane highways, as well as big box stores with names such as Canadian Tire (which has much more than just tires) and The Great Canadian Superstore (which seems to have every product imaginable with the notable exception of beer). In better news, Prince George also featured Tim Horton’s, the Canadian staple of fast-food donut eateries. Since Charla had never eaten at a Tim Horton’s before, we of course had to stop. After snacking on donuts and coffee, it was time to be back on the road heading south to our roadside stop in McLeese Lake for the night.
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