We
turn on to the Cassiar, Rt 37, at mile zero, only 450 miles to go. There is a
sign that says, north to Alaska. This is
the alternate route that people can take.
It will bring us very close to the eastern side of the coastal mountains
and it is usually the road less traveled.
We fuel up because there will not be many opps down the road. We meet up
with an Ak RV so we are not the only ones using this road. The road is good and
starts off with a few homes. Soon we are
riding highway that virtually floats on water in the deep valleys that beaver
have flooded. Soon there are no houses,
businesses or phone/electric wires. We start
to see construction on new high tension power transition wires. These are the big monsters that look
alien. Even though there is a need for
the electric we are sick to see the gouges and scars on this undeveloped
wilderness. It is being done on a large
scale with vast areas de-forested and insertion of these ugly poles. The land is fragile and it doesn’t bounce back
easily like at home. Many large semi’s
passing us coming from the north. It
used to be primarily a logging road but these trucks are carrying building
supplies etc for the most part. There is
no train here so it has to be trucked in.
Most of the drivers behave themselves on these narrow roads without
shoulders, but some come too fast and too close. Gold mining is back here, logging etc. The Red Chris mine is here, will have to look
it up. Much has changed since two years
ago. It’s a bit of a shock.
We see only 5 Black Bears, while 2 years ago we
saw over 50 along the same stretch. Wondering if the construction and the
heavier traffic is having a toll on them.
Chuck is counting bear scat on the road, we see more of it than the
bears. There are bears who run when we
approach and the few who stand their ground and stare. We would not want to meet them. We slow down for our first moose siting. A young one trying to cross the road. It decides to run back into the brush. It is an amazing thing. These huge creatures can take two steps and
disappear, they are masters of disguise.
The coastal mountains are out and very beautiful with low snow cover and
glaciers. We are riding on their eastern
rim. Just over their peaks is the Inside
Passage. Had we taken the more popular
route we would be further from them. The
road is narrow with no shoulder and severe drop-off. Even in the 3 foot drops we would not be able
to get the RV back on the road. It’s why
everyone needs to behave. The bridges
are either wood slats or metal grate.
The grates make the RV slide around so have to go slow. It is surprising good road quality. We come to the Stewart/Hyder cut-off, where
Canada and US come together very briefly at a dead end road at the top of the
Portland Canal. Just south of here is
Ketchikan. Hyder has a ghost town and we
still had to go through Canadian customs when we visited two years ago. Instead we turn into one of our favorite
spots Meziadin Lake campground to have lunch.
Beautiful views, clear lake with island, and brand new facility. They are called Provincial Parks here versus
our state parks. We still see no houses
or gas stations. The big work camps are
visible for the electric line. Out of
the blue we come to Belle 2 Crossing campground at the Bell-Irving River where
we stayed before. The only people as
residents place we have seen so far. A
beautiful alpine lodge and campsite. The
trees have still had the Spanish moss in them from near the ocean, it
disappears after the summit. We blithely
determine we have enough fuel because surely there will be a place up the
road. We begin to start our climb to
Ningunsaw Summit which is a water divide.
We continue to climb and ride a high ridge for a long time. It is very early spring up here with snow in
patches, lakes partly frozen and tight buds.
The new electric line marches away and once again it is us, the road and
the land. We pass by many beautiful
lakes. We are in the huge Stikine River (great
river) flow. As we pass through Gnat
Pass we see many Woodland caribou along the road. They are endangered species and incredible to
see so many at once. We run into a brief
sleet storm. The road through the tundra
is built high and narrow like a long table.
Built with insulation layer and pipes that keep it drained it is
surprising good quality except when it decides to crumble on the sides. However, one slip and you’re off anywhere
from 3 feet to 300 feet with no side rails.
We cringe when the big semis come at us.
We descend into the valley at 7-8% grade, hair pin turns and loose
gravel. Again, no trucks and we are
glad. No fuel at Iskut and that’s bad. We
cross over the Arctic-Pacific Divide Summit, the divide between Pacific and
Arctic watersheds. Make it to Dease Lake
where we are forced to pay $1.69 per liter, 5 liters is an imperial gallon,
about $6.25 our gallon. The RV takes
$150.00 worth and we’re still not full. We
are further north and the light lingers until very late. We decide to stop here for the night. We make our way down the hill to the lake to
a pretty campground. The only thing
separating us from the lake is a small shield of pines. The lake is still mostly frozen and the wind
off it is chilled. We are the only ones
here and far from the road so it will be very quiet. The sun is setting around 10:30PM behind the
mountains over the lake. There are no
services here so we must camp self contained.
The owner has WiFi through which we can use if we run the generator for
the computer. They did offer us water
but they are drinking from the lake. It
has a giant filter on the pump but we defer.
Tomorrow is Brenna’s birthday.
She is on a flight to Boston for a wedding. Will call her along the way. Nighty night.
It’s been another long and exciting day.
RV Mileage total today 475
Total RV Mileage 3078
Total road miles 3,994
Hours traveled today: 11 hours with stops
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