I now realize one of the big differences between the North (Alaska, Yukon and NW Territories) and the Lower 48 -- dams. The rivers up North run free.   When you look at the Yukon or the Mackenzie, the water moves by with awesome power. In the Northwest, all the rivers seem to be dammed, some of them many times over.    I visited the the biggest of them all, the Grande Coulee dam on the Columbia, closely followed (in size and downstream sequence) by the Chief Joseph dam.   There are nine others on the Columbia or its tributaries in the US. While these works produce enormous amounts of electricity, and water for irrigation, they also form lakes in low rainfall areas of Washington, Idaho and Montana, and that is where everyone was going today, Sunday. Boats and bathing suits were everywhere as the crowds flocked to the many huge lakes these projects have created.   No more flowing rivers tho'.   From the Skagit to the Okanogan to the Clark Fork river, all are held back by dams.

While we are at it, what other difference are there between the North and the rest of Canada and the USA?   The population pressure .   I was almost suffocated with the volume of people moving out of Vancouver up into the 'wilderness' on a summer weekend. Same in Washington state, as I battled to get over the Cascades. Long lines of cars and people, everywhere. The number of motorcycles. I thought I was seeing a lot of them up on the classic rides in the North, but that pales with the large number of bikes and biker groups I have encountered in my brief two day weekend jaunt through Washington and Idaho. True, the roads and scenery here are some of the best in the country. The heat. Ever since I arrived in Vancouver I have been suffocating.   Up North we complained when it was 71 degrees F.    Never again. Down here it has been 95 in the shade ever since I arrived. Awareness of the other. In the North, everything is done in the context of the Lower 48 -- where money comes from, where the Power resides. In the South, no-one even thinks of the North. It is a forgotten land, mentioned only occasionally in discussions of environmental change, oil and tourism.

I am driving East trying to stay off the interstates, and experience as much of this wonderful Western scenery as I can before I hit the plains. One more day of mountains to go and then its the Great Flat.