Elmo's log #3

May 27, 2006

The new time zone (we are now in Pacific time zone) and the increased daylight resulting from constantly moving north make sleeping late difficult. The birds starting singing this morning around 3:40, first light. I woke again at 4:30 thinking it was time to get up. The sun was up, the birds were in full chorus, and the waves pushed by a light wind lapped rhythmically at the shore. I pulled my stocking cap over my eyes and managed to sleep until 6:30. The sky was bright blue and it was warm in the sun. Annie found false solomon seal and rough fruited fairy bell in the woods near our camp. We stayed on 97 to Chetwynd and then took Hudson’s loop, highway 29, to the Alaska Highway (97). At 1:27 P.M. Pacific time we entered the Alaska Highway. Aspen, birch, cottonwood and a sprinkling of spruce stretch in clumps on hill tops, squeeze into gullies sliding down the hills, blanket flat areas and line creeks and rivers. Annie and I imagine fall colors and are certain that we have not experienced color like that covering these hills in fall. We stopped in Fort Nelson and camped at the Supper 8 motel and ate at Dans, where all the other oil field workers and lumbermen go to watch hockey and drink hot tea. French fries and gravy is the specialty. The Oilers beat the Ducks. Saturday night motel is becoming a tradition.