Yukon Ho!

June 23, 2006

July 13, 2006 on 10:32 am | In Uncategorized |

Biking time: 10:30AM to 7:00PM
End: Jade City
Distance: 113km
The stretch of the Cassiar North of Dease Lake was supposed to be “nicely paved” based on conversations with just about everyone we’d met along the Southern parts of the highway. I guess they had actually meant that it was “kinda paved but not until you pass 25km of gravel North of Dease Lake”. Fortunately, we were made aware of this stretch last night after a brief conversation with a local RCMP highway officer, so we weren’t caught off guard. This stretch is also a pain because it is 138km to the next “town” (population 35), so the options for eating and sleeping are limited. We had decided we should start off early and stretch our legs to reach Jade City, which is not actually a city as much as it is two stores across the highway from each other who both sell jade (and have a  bit of a rivalry going). The store on the East side of the highway advertised free camping, so we figured it was a good goal to set. Knowing there would be some hills and some gravel, though, we had two backup plans: Dease Rivver Crossing Campground at 66km and Moose Meadows Campground at 84km (where we had heard they have singalongs at night… perhaps a good excuse for me to touch a guitar for the first time in a month).

Our plan to leave early was thwarted by Eddie and Bea, as they arrived to eat breakfast just as we were finished eating. We talked to them for abot an hour about bikes, campsites, work, destinations and everything else we could think of before finally setting off. Because they cover over 100km most days, we’ll probably see them again when they pass us later on. Today was teir off day though, and we had to it the road in order to make the goal of Whitehorse for Canada Day.

We set out (uphill again) and reached the gravel section quickly. We were lucky to be riding it in dry weather because it was well packed and smooth, which was not too bad but it would have been treacherous in the rain. Partway through the gravel section we stopped for a quick snack at a rest area and spoke for a while with a woman from Chicago who was travelling on her own in her small SUV. SHe had everything in the back set up as a small bedroom, with a little stereo, some dresser drawers and a narow mattress. She was also using a mapping GPS for nerd points. It kind of made me miss the van.

After conquering the gravel, we were riding around a long curve with a cliff to our right and a lake below us on the left. In the middle of the curve, there was a stopped car (which always makes us worried that there is a bear on the highway getting fed by idiot tourists). Turns out there was a moose standing in the middle of the lake below, so we watched as she slowly walkeed across and out of the lake into the woods. Nature, Goulet!

We passed Dease River Crossing with energy to spare, so we kept going. Their location looked amazing though, with most of the sites having a perfect view onto a very wide, slow section of the river against a backdrop of amazing mountins. Our next stop was at a garbage can near Moose Meadows Campground, and we figured since we’d already seen a moose (and it was only another 30km) w emight as well go all the way to Jade City.

What we hadn’t figured on was a pile of crappy mountainous hills between us and Jade City. But there were. So it took a lot of grinding and a bit of time, but we finally made it. One plus side of all of the hills were the numerous sweet lakes and cabins we passed, all of which we wanted to live in. When we got to Jade City, we browsed their store for about 5 minutes, bought some chocolate bars and went to score our free camping. They actually have a real campground there with picnic tables and gravelly levelled sites. There was one other RV next to us, and they were too scared (probably of being murdered) to open their door when I knocked and asked for water. Instead they told me througha crack in their window to ask at the store. We made noodles and sauce and went straight to bed. Two weeks into this camping trip and we haven’t had the energy for a campfire yet.

Click here for today’s pictures