PINK MOUNTAIN, British Columbia - Located almost halfway between major towns on the southern part of the Alaska Highway is a small, self-sufficient gathering of commercial enterprises, northern versions of "one-stop shopping."

That geographical location provides a logistical stopping point, particularly for truckers hauling big loads on the Alaska Highway, a two-lane highway that dramatically changes in character at Pink Mountain. Relatively easy road grades to the south transition into curving slopes that wind through the area's river valleys, including Suicide Hill at Beatton River and Sikanni Hill at the Sikanni Chief River bridge.

Wide-open road exits provide truckers with easy access to fuel pumps, a grocery and a general store that are open year-round at the Pink Mountain Campsite and RV Park, located 140 miles from Dawson Creek, the start of the Alaska Highway.

"Wintertime is becoming our main season," said Lois Oliver, who was tending the Pink Mountain store counter one day in late December.

Efficient and pleasantly brisk in her work, Oliver monitored fuel flows at the pumps, accepted packages for overnight delivery and rang up cash sales for coffee and snacks. Buttons, the store's friendly black cat, snoozed on postal scales until gently moved by Oliver.

In the midst of one transaction, the facility's electric power flickered off momentarily, interrupting a credit card sale.

Not a problem for Oliver, who works at the general store and summertime campground to help out her daughter Lory and son-in-law Korey Ollenburger. After a brief pause, electric power resumed, all part of normal operation of the facility's self-contained generation unit.

Pink Mountain's generators run on natural gas, piped about four miles from a pumping station "just down the road," Korey Ollenburger said. "It's not the cleanest gas, so we spend a little bit on generators ... they don't last as long."

The price of the local gas is a concern to him. "It's tripled in the last four years," he said.

Monthly bills typically run about $3,600, although sometimes they rise to $4,600, compared to highs of $1,200 just a few years ago. "It gives you a heart attack," he said. "They've completely gone crazy the last couple of years."

Ollenburger hopes for some price competition and access to less costly gas, should an Alaska gas pipeline project be built along the Alaska Highway. But that's about the extent of impact he expects from the proposed development project.

"We're so far away from it, it will not make a difference to us," he said. "A lot of people are for it, and it will keep us working."

The area's oil and gas industry has already impacted his family-owned business, creating a comparable, if not increased, amount of highway traffic in winter compared to summer months.

"We do better business in winter than summer," Ollenburger said. "Next summer might even be worse since the Canadian dollar is coming up."

Media reports about wildland fires burning last summer in Alaska, the Yukon and northern British Columbia affected tourist traffic in 2004, Oliver noted.

Alaska customers passing through tend to frequent the shoulder seasons, she said. "People drive up to Alaska and open up their businesses, then the tourists come up, then they all turn around and go back down the highway."

In addition to the campground, general store and postal service, Pink Mountain provides overnight parcel delivery service through DHL. The Ollenburgers also operate K&L water service, delivering fresh drinking water to some of the reported 300 residents in the Pink Mountain area. Three rental cabins next to the store stay occupied in the fall with hunters looking to take a northern British Columbia moose.

"We're one of the major stores around here," Oliver said. "We carry so much ... a little bit of everything that has to be had in this area."