Mile 17533

 This morning it is raining in Watson Lake, YT and I can recall that feeling from 11 years ago.  But today we have a car, and so it is no big deal for us.  After breakfast we fill up on gas and trace a little bit back on the ALCAN to find Hwy-37 or the Cassiar Highway (sometimes also the Stewart-Cassiar Hwy) as it is called.  

Entering Stewart-Cassiar Hwy, entering British Columbia and lvg Yukon

 We pass Good Hope Lake, BC where all hope is lost, and make a little further down the road a stop at Jade City, BC.  Here they mine and cut and sell products made out of the local Cassiar Jade.  It's an interesting place and certainly one you can spend a lot of money (which we did).  But this may come to an end very soon, as the BC has set a five year period to wind down existing jade mining operations in the light of indigenous land rights and environmental impacts.

That is not jade mining, that's something else

Jade City, BC at the Cassiar Hwy

 From here it is to Dease Lake, BC to top up on gas and to get some lunch.  Then we continue further South to 40 Mile Flats, Iskut, and Tatogga, BC.  In 2014 we stopped in Tatogga coming up from Prince Rupert, BC, but this time we pass by.  

Red Fox along the Stewart-Cassiar Hwy

 The rain from this morning has long been a thing of the past, and the Cassiar Mountains have given way to the Stikine Ranges to the East, and the Stikine Plateau to the South.  Glacial Mtn, Snow Peak, Mt. Cartmel and of course Mt. Edziza with their snow capped summits are the dominant ones we see from the Highway. 

Some of the many mountain peaks along Hwy-37

Bell II, BC, and indigenous mural in Meziadin Jct., BC

 Passing Bob Quinn Lake and Bell II, BC we head toward Meziadin Junction, BC.  It  is just a motel, restaurant and gas station, and after having topped up on gas we leave this place and continue to the end of the Cassiar Hwy at Kitwanga, BC.  Here we call it quit, having done the Cassiar Hwy (450 miles) in one day.

"Mountains are the beginning and the end of all natural scenery."  -  John Ruskin, English writer and art critic