Vancouver & North to the Yukon: June 5-11, 2005
Journals
On Sunday morning, Lisa and I packed up early and prepared to cross the border into Canada. Before leaving, we made sure that we had all of the required paperwork because we figured that they would want to see it all since we've got the RV and dogs. Turns out that all they wanted to see were our passports-they looked at them, asked a couple of questions, and we were on our way towards Vancouver. US Passports are very handy! We were only camped about 10 miles south of the Canadian border Saturday night, and the wait was not long, so we were heading into Vancouver pretty early. We decided to drive through the city and a few miles out of town towards Whistler ski area where we found a very nice provincial park. We dropped off the camper, and headed back into the city. While we were on the road in California, Lisa got an e-mail from our friend Achim who lives over in Zurich, Switzerland. He's one of the guys Lisa went to graduate school with at RISD. Achim keeps in pretty good contact with all of the people from Lisa's class, and when he heard that we would be going through Vancouver, he sent us some contact information for Paul Mazzucca who also graduated the same year as Lisa. Back in Providence, we were pretty good friends with Paul and Caroline. Although we knew some of their history (teaching in Austin, Kansas, etc.), we have not had a chance to see them since we left Providence in 1995. We were able to reach Paul before we got to Vancouver, so we spent Sunday evening and most of Monday hanging out with them. Paul is teaching at Emily Carr in Vancouver for a couple of years, and they live right in the city. They gave us a great tour of town, and we had a tasty BBQ over at their place on Monday. We also did a major restocking of food, etc. before heading north. On Tuesday, we packed up to start some serious driving north through British Columbia. We averaged about 225 miles per day-not a whole lot, but some of the routes require slower driving. On Tuesday we drove through Whistler and up onto the western access route towards Prince George, BC. We stopped at Lac La Hache provincial campground south of Prince George. Wednesday, we drove up to Prince George, and they turned west onto the Yellowhead Highway 16. This is an alternate route to the main Alaska Highway which will allow us to take a mostly different route going up than the way we plan to drive home. Wednesday night, we stayed at a KOA campground near Burns Lake, BC. On Thursday, we continued down the Yellowhead to Kitwanga where we turned north again onto the Cassier Highway 37. We tossed around the idea of going into Prince Rupert, but it's about a 300 mile round trip from the start of the Cassier: we decided that it would be best to continue on and save our time for the Yukon or any potential delays along the way. We drove up the Cassier about 100 miles to Meziadan Lake Provincial Campground-totally beautiful spot, but the worst bugs we've had so far! We pitched the screen tent so we could handle sitting outside. We also did a quick drive down to Stewart, BC which is a small town right on the border with Hyder, Alaska. Not much going on there, but a nice view of Bear Glacier on the way. We decided not to go into Hyder because we left our passports in the RV. Friday morning we continued on the Cassier-sections of gravel road and mud along the way-slower going. But, we saw our first bears on the road: two of them, they looked like black bears. They ran off pretty quick before we could get a photo, but they were pretty impressive! We drove north of Dease Lake on the Cassier and spent the night at a nice campground on a pretty lake. I bought a fishing license (very expensive-I'm a little bitter about this!), but didn't have much luck. Guys were catching them, but you needed a motorboat to head up the river. However, some guys were catching graylings but were really interested in pike. You can only keep a certain number of fish, so they guy came by and gave us a couple big grayling so he could keep fishing for the pike-I cleaned them and we saved them for dinner the next night! Saturday morning, we headed out and completed the 450 mile Cassier Highway, entered the Yukon Territory, and then turned west on the official Alaska Highway 1-drove on about another 100 miles to Walker's Continental Divide Campground-spent the night there. The Continental Divide here is not much like what we have in Colorado-just a high point in the rolling terrain. We are out of the mountains for this section, and the wilderness is amazing. On Sunday, we plan to drive to Whitehorse, Yukon where we will spend a couple nights at some hot springs before heading north again on the Klonkide Loop and the "Top of the World" highway. This route is a little longer than driving straight through on the Alaska Highway, but it means that we won't be driving the same road home (except the portion from Whitehorse to the intersection with the Cassier). It's also supposed to be a really great drive. We'll be slowing it down a little now, staying 2 nights in a couple places, but we should be in Fairbanks before the next update. So far, the main roads are much easier and in better condition than you may have heard about-I guess things were different 20 years ago. Except for the optional Cassier Highway, it's just like any other 2-lane highway back at home. Hope everyone is doing well, and we'll stay in touch as much as possible. Due date for Lisa's sister's baby is past now, so it should come any day!
Click any of the above photos to enlarge the image!