June 10 – 15: Highway 37
Left Witset morning of the 10th to head back to intersection with Highway 37, often known as the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, or just the Cassiar. By whatever name, it’s the main road that heads north from Hwy 16 to eventually connect with the Alaska Highway (aka the Alcan). It has a bit of mystique about it, with rumors abounding about its conditions and traffic. We found it to be in excellent condition, with a few frost heaves, and a few potholes, but all in all, not nearly as bad as we had expected.
June 10-13: Meziadan Lake Provincial Park was our first stop. We stayed 2 full days so that we could visit Stewart/Hyder on one day, and just do R&R on the other. It was a great park, with lots of visitors, but quieted down completely at night. We had a site (59) right next to the forest, with a decent view of the lake. 30 amp electricity was available, so we plugged in. Weather continued to be cold the first night, so we had our little electric heater going all night. That is, until around 6 am, when … a bear pulled the plug out of the post!! We didn’t hear it happen, but the temperature inside cooled down pretty quickly. After an hour of wondering where our heat had gone, Garry looked out the window and we thought someone had stolen our power cord. However, two big piles of bear scat, and a plug tossed away with severely bent prongs, gave us the clues. Fortunately the plug was fixable, and we were able to reconnect and all was well again. Quite a lot of excitement before 7 am!!
We drove to Stewart (about 1 hour away), so we could go into Hyder (Alaska), and say we did. And we came right back out (no option, really). Both towns are very small, with little to offer except gorgeous mountains surrounding them. The drive was beautiful, and we were glad we did it. Our next day was solid rain, so we caught up on some of this blog, and did a couple of chores around the Benz.
June 13-14: Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park, Site 23. About half-way up Highway 37. This was our first experience with “First Come First Served” parks, and it was very positive. There were few others there when we arrived, and we chose a spectacular little site right on the lake. And as we are seniors, we actually only had to pay $10 for the privilege. No services, but we were able to use the Benz’s systems (batteries, inverter and generator) with no difficulty. Potable water and tank dumping are always a challenge with dry camping, but we can last for 2-3 days if we are careful, and so we were.
June 14-16: Boya Lake (Tā Ch’iLā) Provincial Park, Site 5, then 28. About 100 km south of Alaska Highway. Once again a beautiful drive to get there. We were joined by a mama Moose and baby for a little bit. We also saw a lovely fox which was too quick for a picture. Quite exciting!
Our sites at Boya Lake were both right on the lake. The bottom of the lake is comprised of marl, a mixture of silt and shell, and when the sun is shining it looks like the waters of the Caribbean. The coastline is indented by great variety of inlets and there are several islands. Great for kayaking and canoeing. Fishing too, probably! To cap of our first day, we saw two fat Ruffed Grouse on our walk around the campground.
It’s an international campground at the moment with two small campers next to us, one from Germany and one from Switzerland. In another double site, there is a Hymer on a Mercedes 4×4, modified for offroad with a 25cm lift. Their travelling partners are in a custom off road vehicle on a large Iveco chassis. We had a very interesting conversation with the Hymer folks yesterday. They are travelling with a young son, and are on a two year parental leave which is apparently quite common in Germany. From here they leave for Whitehorse and then up the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyatuk, returning to the Alaska highway and traveling to Fairbanks where they will then transit the Dalton Highway to Prudhoe Bay. They then explained to us that the real part of the trip will begin for them as they travel south all the way to southern tip of Patagonia. Brave and adventurous souls!
