At Muncho Lake, BC

For the third night of the trip, I was booked in at the Double G Services at Muncho Lake, which really is a lake rather than a settlement. The services combines accommodation, a café, a gas/diesel station, a shop, a post office, and most other facilities you can imagine. It also proved very welcoming after a long journey.

The unorthodox way of greeting guests allows late arrivals to settle in without disturbing the owner

I’m staying in a log-cabin style row of four rooms and I’m the only guest for the night. The service stop provides a spot for truckers and travellers to take a break and exchange information. During the time I’m there, a succession of passing drivers called in to top up their flasks with coffee, get a meal, or just chat. In the past, news from the outside world would only arrive with passing truckers, but now an array of satellite dishes brings phone, TV and the internet. All this, and electric heating, without mains electricity – a diesel generator runs through the day, charging a bank of batteries for the night time.

The Double G Services is pretty remote. Talking to Jack, the owner for the last 40 years, I hear how fresh produce comes from Fort Nelson (240km) while ‘dry goods’ are shipped in from Dawson Creek (700km) and even from Edmonton. A shipment of groceries arrives in a lorry while I am here, and the driver eats in the services and stays in his cab overnight before going on to the next delivery.

I really enjoyed staying here. Jack and his staff were extremely friendly. You had to be willing to join in the banter to enjoy the experience, but they succeeded in making me very welcome. Getting by in this setting requires something special in the way of self sufficiency – and Jack was certainly vocal about how little help he got from the government. He was interestingly positive about the Green Party though – seeing them as the only polticians who would support the prosperity of the remoter parts of the province while caring about the need for development to be sustainable.

Muncho Lake, which runs for 11 km to the north of Double G, was one of the main bases for the construction of the Alaska Highway during WWII. The Sentinel Range rises to the east of the lake, with the Terminal Range, to the west, marking the northern end of the Canadian Rockies. Cutting the road through the rocks on the lake shore was the most expensive section of the work on the whole Alaska Highway, with lots of equipment lost over the edge into the 90m deep lake.

There are lots of extensive engineering works to handle possible flash floods. Maintaining this remote highway is no small task

Down by the lake, I find this set of droppings. No idea what animal left them . . . .

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