The shortest way to get from Haines back to the AlCan highway is to hop on a ferry to Skagway. The short ferry trip saves several hundred road miles. For about a C note, I rolled my small RV onto the ferry. Queued up in line with ticket in hand, I see the ferry approaching.
There’s a big door in the side of the ferry… I guess that’s where we get on. Yep, here we go!
This thing is a lot bigger inside! Room to drive to the stern and turn around!
Beautiful day! The trip takes about an hour, and there’s Skagway up ahead.
I grab a spot at the Garden City RV park. My last chance for some hookups and WiFi for a while. I do some laundry, and ride the bike around on a warm sunny day. Finish that off with a brew and a burger at the Skagway Brewpub, yeah, that’s good! The next morning, I head back up the long hill and head East on the AlCan. This is ground I covered back in June, when Big Alaska was still ahead. Now, it’s all behind me.
My plan is to boondock all the way to Hyder, so I stop at a rest area at Johnson’s Crossing. It’s an interesting spot, what with all these old truck carcasses sitting around. Quiet, tho…
The next day, I roll to Watson Lake and check on our Loosey Goosey sign at the signpost forest. Yep, still there! I gas up for the trip down the Cassiar Highway, and turn south.
The Cassiar is a fairly new road, cut in the 70s, and paved all the way a few years back. It is a lot like what I expected the AlCan to be… narrow, hilly, winding, and none too smooth. Feels like an adventure to me! I keep my speed down to ease the frost heaves and enjoy the views. It’s about 600km to Hyder, I expect to take 3 or 4 days to get there.
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The Northern stretch is through a huge area where there was a fire some years ago. You can really see the land recovering, though. Fires up here are a very natural part of the life cycle of the forest. The dead pines look stark, but the forest floor is blossoming with new plant life.
All along the Cassiar are small Forest Service campgrounds. Most have only 4 or 5 sites, are only accessible to small rigs like mine, and are free. They are also very nice! This is my favorite kind of camping! French Creek is along a river, and I get a nice spot, sit back, and enjoy a very nice brown ale that came all the way from Seward, AK.
The sunset is nothing short of awesome! More reflections!
Went to bed, fell asleep, and didn’t wake up till the next morning. The road was right where I left it, and continues to amuse with scenery and confound with potholes and steep winding grades. I’m averaging about 45 mph, which is pretty relaxing. No traffic to speak of, maybe one or two cars an hour.
I stop at Jade City, because it looks interesting. Inside, I learn that 80% of the world’s jade comes from this area, and get a load of all those neat jade trinkets. Pricey trinkets! There is a really cool tiger carving, about 4 inches long, but the $300 price tag is a bit more than I can swallow. Oh, well….
Outside, you can watch them working the jade, cutting the huge blocks into workable sizes.
Out in the pretty much exact middle of nowhere is another little FS campground on Lake Morcheua. Can’t pronounce it, and almost didn’t find it (no sign going southbound), but it was worth the effort. This place is tiny! Coming in, this is more of a jeep trail than a road! Hey! I see the lake! Just a little further… oops. The road done ended!
I back up the hill and park in one of the 4 campsites. Just another evening in somewhere, British Columbia!
The next morning is cool and a bit rainy, no worries, tho. It does that sometimes. The road trip continues, and the further south I go, the better the road gets. There’s actually a center stripe now!
Saw a few bears along the road. This one paused long enough for a portrait. They mostly high tail for the woods when you get close.
I stopped at a provincial park on Meziadin Lake, and it is one of the nicest I’ve seen! They have electric at some sites, paved roads, right on the lake, and wonders of wonders: WiFi! Gonna get this blog entry posted tonite!
Tomorrow, I head down to Stewart and Hyder… should be bears and glaciers galore! See you then.
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