From Buffalo to Alaska. Day 9 -- Page Two
A little further on we came across one of the many construction crews that work 7 days a week in the short summer to maintain the Highway. We had to wait about fifteen minutes at this stop, and got to know our friendly flagman (flagperson?).
Diana has been working construction during the summer for four years. She is also the medic for the 20 person crew, and drives the construction first aid truck along with handling a shift with the flags. She lives in Dawson Creek during the winter, and works as a medic in the logging camps. As with so many of the people we meet along this trip, she loves the north country, and doesn't consider 30 below zero to be unusually cold. As one fellow told us "It's not the cold, it's the humidity. And up here it's dry. Now, when I go to Vancouver in the winter, then I get cold. But up hear, all I need is this heavy wool jacket."
We finished the day with a visit to the Fort Nelson landfill, about five miles out of town. While we were there, a parade of town folk drove their pickups out to the landfill, backed up to the active portion, and added their weekly garbage to the pile. Nobody seemed to mind the dozen black bears that waited there for them, ready to examine each new contribution.
Black bears are surprisingly hard to photograph in bright sunlight. In case you can't tell, the fellow in the following picture is flat on his belly, looking at us, with his head on top of the plastic garbage bag he is happily rummaging through.
In case you missed it here's the third of our bear photos.
Tomorrow (if the starter arrives from Vancouver) we'll leave Fort Dawson, stop briefly in Watson Lake for fuel, and be in Whitehorse by nightfall.
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