We left Prince Rupert early Saturday morning with some clouds lingering above our heads and made our way out of town on the only road possible, i.e. Hwy 16 to reach the junction to Hwy 37, the famous Cassiar-Stewart Hwy at Terrace. At this point one has to decide to go North in to the Yukon Territory, or venture on East to Prince George. As for us, no question, we go North. The Hwy leads us in to beautiful countryside, and even so we are not gaining much in elevation, the mountain ranges are breathtaking to see. We can't get enough of it, and we make pictures over pictures as the view changes with every bend in the road we take. The view changes even more as drizzle rain is adding to the story, and lakes and rives are changing the scenery ever more. And the next moment the sun breaks through, and another picture develops. This Highway is definitely one of the most underrated, but for us one of the most beautiful Highways we have encountered so far on our trip (next to the Hwy 2 in WA leading to Seattle). Our breaks are dictated by the distances from one gas station to the next, as they are pretty scarce on this Hwy, and many of those formerly in operation are now abandoned, which makes it for great distances in-between (difficult for those with small tanks and heavy on fuel). I only stretched it once, and could have avoided that if I had filled up after 60 miles already (but who thinks of that?).
Start of Cassiar-Stewart Hwy (Hwy 37), Terrace, BC
First Black Bear
Jade City, BC
Along the way of Hwy 37
Along the way are many small Lodges and Resorts/Camps, many of them not looking like very much. But as we found out at Tatogga Lake, never underestimate the charm within. This was one of the most amazing places we ever stayed for a night, and the hosts made everyone welcome, from power line workers to loggers, to bikers and RV'lers. We can only recommend to try one of those places whenever you come in to this area.
We continued on Cassiar-Stewart Hwy to stop at a Jade Mine in Jade City. Here we learned some of the amazing things about Jade (for example that Jade can be bent like wood, and that it doesn't break when dropped, and many other things) but had to go on to Watson Lake as we had business there. We had to stop at the Sign Forest and place a sign plate commemorating our 25th wedding anniversary in form of our home town license plate abbreviations. As the official count stood at more than 77,000 signs at the end of 2013, for sure there is one more now there. After a quick lunch and some chit-chatt with some other bikers we went on to Whitehorse for today. As we are writing this (11:00 PM), there is still daylight outside (more than 20 hours at this time of the year here), a strange feeling to see the sun still up at this time of the day/night.
Anyway, we are also doing better on the wildlife count, as the tally stands for now:
Black Bears 7-1/2 (1/2 because we only saw his bud)
Black Bear w/cups 1
Red Fox 1
Moose Cow w/calve 1
Bald Eagles uncountable
Total count of bikers for today 55, except of two, all going the opposite direction
Watson Lake, YT, Sign Post Forest
Along Alaskan Highway 1 toward Whitehorse, YT
S.S. Klondike, Whitehorse, YT
"Nothing belongs to you of what there is. Of what you take, you must share." - Chief Dan George
still looking like a great trip. Hope you remember to hydrate yourselves on the non-rainy days.
ReplyDeleteOur ferry to NS was cancelled due to Hurricane Arthur, so no Cape Breton for us this year, maybe meet you at Barrow if we hurry?