LISTEN: A family heading to Alaska needed help. Then this nice Canadian man stepped up.

Selena and Gary Bath (left) meet Lynn Marchessault in Pink Mountain, British Columbia in November before Gary Bath helped drive Marchessault and her two children the final 1,000 miles of their journey from Georgia to Alaska. (Photo courtesy of Gary Bath)

A Canadian man is getting international attention after helping drive an American family the final 1,000 miles of their journey from the Lower 48 to Alaska. Here’s what happened.

Lynn Marchessault was driving a pickup pulling a trailer with her two kids, two dogs and a cat north from Georgia because her husband had recently been stationed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks.

Marchessault made it the first 3,000 miles. But after hitting whiteout conditions in British Columbia, she had had enough. She decided she didn’t feel safe making the rest of the drive, north to Alaska.

Seeing the predicament she was in, the locals took to Facebook. That’s how Gary Bath — a Canadian military reservist, who works at a motorsports dealership in Fort Saint John, British Columbia — got involved.

Bath admits it started when he saw a post about Marchessault’s situation while browsing Facebook — at work.

LISTEN HERE:

Alaska Public Media

Alaska Public Media is one of our partner stations in Anchorage. KTOO collaborates with partners across the state to cover important news and to share stories with our audiences.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Read next

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications