Yukon Ho!

June 24, 2006

Biking time: 11:00AM to 8:00PM
End: Alaska Highway
Distance: 121km

We started today with a trip to the store, talked to the ladies there for a while, and even met a customer from Saskatchewan who gave us a free admission to his Drive-In theatre for when we drive back across Canada.

Because we’d stretched our distance the day before,  the logical overnight stops on the way to the end of the Cassiar didn’t make a lot of sense. Good Hope Lake (pop. 35) was only 20km from Jade City, and Boya Lake Provincial Park was only 35km. So our tentative goal was a BC Forestry Recreation Area (nothing but a fire pit and a picnic table usually) at the 65km mark.

At Good Hope Lake, we stopped at their only store and bought some Hungry Man meals to microwave for lunch (anything to avoid cooking for ourselves). We also drank coffee and worked on their jigsaw puzzles for a few minutes. Outside, I filled our camp fuel (41 cents worth) and spoke to a weird guy from Idaho who was deperately trying to complete some paperwork to move with his family to Good Hope Lake. I guess he fell in love with it during his two days of camping there.

Onward to the entrance to Boya Lake, where we pedalled right past without even considering the 2km side trip to see the campground and lake. At the 65km mark, we didn’t even see a sign for the BC Forestry site, so we just kept going. Somewhere along the way we officially left eh Cassiar Mountains and entered the Yukon Plateau, which was nowhere near as flat as we’d hoped, but much flatter than yesterday’s ride. At the 95km mark, we pulled into a small rest area to talk to a solitary cyclist who was eating there. His name was Paul and he was cycling to San Francisco after having flown to Alaska to start. He was travelling really light… serious headwids had made him reconsider a lot of his gear, and he ended up completely removing his front panniers and rack, carrying everything he needed on the rear alone. He told us there were some rolling hills ahead but that we were close to the junction. We had already mentally prepared for going the entire 120km so we bid him goodbye and trekked on. Mud Hill was still to come, and though we were expecting it, what we were not expecting were 20km of non stop up and down rollercoaster hills. The problem with these “rolling hills” is that you never get back the energy that you put in, so you feel like you are forever digging yourself out of a ditch. Finally at 116km, we reached the Yukon. That’s right, we finally climbed our way out of BC. Fr some reason, the Yukon put their welcome sign at the top of a gravel hill, so we couldn’t get a picture with the bikes against it. Morons. However we did virtually coast the entire way from the sign to the junction of the Alaska Highway where we wasted no time gettig off the bikes and going to Sally’s Cafe for burgers on homemade buns. Normally I’m not a fan of ground beef, but they were literally out of stock of everything else, and it turned out to be a damned good burger (especially after not eating for 100km).

After dinner we started talking to another patron named Glen, who was a real life mountain man. He showed us pictures of a walk he took last winter. An 80 mile round trip walk into the woods in January, where he lived in a cabin alone for a month and a half. He was building himself a cabin on some land that he’d bought down the road, and by the looks of it, he had some sort of relationship with the cafe owners because he stayed when they left, and he appeared to eat for free at the very end of the day when all the customers had finished.

As they closed up, he told us about a lake only 500 metres down the road, so we headed there and camped with the most mosquitos we’d seen on our entire trip… even more than in Bonus lake (a.k.a. Mosquito Lake, where we thought our stomachs were a bear).

Click here for today’s pictures

June 23, 2006

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

June 22, 2006

Biking time: 10:30AM to 4:30PM
End: Dease Lake
Distance: 73km
We left Lorraine’s this morning knowing that we had a hell of a climb ahead of us. Our starting altitude was 1060M, and according to our sources, we had a pass ahead of us at a height of 1240, and between those two points a river crossing with a climb back up which we’d been warned about at every stop since Meziadin Junction. Fuelled by all of the oatmeal in our food bin, we started the day with a comfortable descent to about 970 metres where the “Brake Check” pullout was. Thus began the switchbacks down to the Stikine River. The worst part was that the road was gravel all the way down to the bridge (well packed gravel, but still potholed and stony enough that we had to take it slow all the way). At the bottom, we were at 675 metres altitude, which was depressing since that’s where we were two nights ago at Bell II. Then we climbed. We climbed for an hour on an 8% grade (in the gravel), back up to the 970 metre height of the first brake check. Then we kept climbing on rolling hills (thankfully paved) for the next three hours, stopping for lunch just before we hit the 1240 metre summit. Just before the summit, I was almost run over by a transport truck, but as always he was moving too fast for me to get his licence plate  number so that I could live out my windshield-smashing fantasy at the next truck stop. On a much lighter note, halfway up the initial grind from the river crossing, we stumbled upon a small herd of horses just standing on the side of the gravel highway. One had a bell around its neck, so they had either escaped their pen or were left to roam freely on the road. One even let me come close and be his friend, petting his neck (until he quickly turned away and farted in my face… for real).

After the summit, we flew. We literally coasted for 20km, pedalling only when we felt like it, until a final tiny uphill took us into Dease Lake. Dease Lake is the only “town” on the entire Stewart-Cassiar Highway (except for Stewart, which doesn’t count since it’s 65km off to the side). We were able to get groceries for the first time since Stewart, and we were able to have dinner in a restaurant for the first time since Bell II. Dinner was great at Mama Z’s (that’s Zee not Zed), and she let us store our food inside while we camped in the side lot. Just as we were leaving to pick a tenting site, we spotted another cyclist on the road. He was fully loaded and looked like he was trying to find information from the passing drivers. So we followed him, thinking he may have been our German buddy from Port Hardy. He turned into a parking lot, so we followed, and found him and his cy cling partner setting up in a picnic shelter at the commercial campground. He (Eddie) and she (Bea) had cycled up the mainland from Montana, and were dying of hunger, so we led them to Mama Z’s. They didn’t have much time to talk because the restaurant was bordering on closing, but we found out theat they were also headed to Dawson City, and that they had ridden about 120km in one day, meaning that they had not only done the Stikine valley and Gnat pass, but also the Iskut hill that we had done the day before. They also said they’ve only had one day under 100km on this highway. They are taking today off, but after their inspiration we are going to aim for 100 tomorrow. I’m sure they will pass us before Whitehorse, and we can ask them a lot more questions then. Still no sign of the German guy though.

Click here for today’s pictures

June 21, 2006

Biking time: 9:30AM to 6:30PM
End: A gift shop North of Iskut
Distance: 93km
In one of our travel brochures, we read about the festivities in WHitehorse every Canada day, so we’ve made it an informal goal to make it there by July 1. With over 800km to cover in 10 days, we figured we should get off to an early start for a change. Our goal for today was Iskut, 80km away. Armed with the knowledge that the first 10km would be downhill, but the next 5 very uphill, we figured that it would be possible, but not at all easy. So off we went, my legs burning with desire to be asleep (even on the downhill). And we were not wrong about the climb. We actually ended up climbing higher than our starting elevation, in half the distance. It had taken at least 40 minutes to climb, if not more. But we also had 15km under our belt. Almost there! Amy flew ahead while I stubbornly trudged against wind, hills and (very light) rain, grumbling at each pedalstroke. Aftre what seemed like days to me (and minutes to Amy), we reached Kinaskan Provincial Park for lunch. The park was quite nice, though all the campsites were small and gravelly. One major bonus though, was that half of them were on the Lake, so you could swim (or fish) right out of your tent door.

Our afternoon ride was much better for me. The sun came out a little more, which always helps, and the roads tended toward the downhill variety. For a few kilometres leading into Tatogga Lake, we had to fight for our space against the quarry trucks on a sloppy gravel road surface. We had actually been looking forward to the gravel construction because we’d been told (by Wolf) that they often have a “pace truck” which leads the cars through the construction, and ferries cyclists across the gravel section. Unfortunately for us, he’s a dirty liar. Regardless, I kind of enjoyed the gravel challenge, and the gravel sections were all downhill.

At Tatogga, we took a break from the gravel and bought coffee (and gas for the stove) at the little resort built there. The restaurant/store area was filled with antlers and statues and other log cabin style decorations. Promintently featured trophies included: a carved bear, 4ft tall, on sale for $1200, a jade inukshuk, 2 ft tall, on sale for $2400, a matching pair of moose heads, both cleaned to the bone, complete with antlers, and a stuffed bobcat with a saran wrap rainsuit. We got 83 cents worth of gas.

After coffee, we were treated to more downhill gravel, followed by a stretch of road with a fantastic view of Eddontenajon Lake and an even more fantastic wind at our backs that literally blew us the rest of the way into Iskut. Poor little Iskut, having been the object of our dreams during 80km of pedalling, never had a chance. We got there and it was closed, so we hate it. No really. There is one store in Iskut, and since their power was out, they were closed. The cashier was inside, but I guess she could not count high enough on her fingers in order to make cash sales with no powered register to help her. We sat and got angry for a few minutes, then decided to forget about the store and continue toward (and up) the legendary Iskut hill. At the top we’d be rewarded with a used book store owned by the grandmother of some kids whose mother told us about it.* Are you ready? At an elevation of 1080M, she was not home. Closed again. So we toook some pictures of her Llamas, and rode on, hoping for food. Then… a sign. It said “food, gas, etc, etc for next 6km”. Then on the left, the Bear Paw resort, advertising “Fine Dining”. DO IT. Are you ready? CLOSED. Well, not exactly. It was open, but only in the sense that the door was unlocked and there were people inside. Apparently, despite their roadside advertising, this lodge only feeds people who are “reserved guests”, meaning the only buy food for you if they know you are coming. Thanks for nothing.

And finally, hungry as the wolf, we pulled in to Trappers Gifts, where we found many souveniers but no food. The owner Lorraine assured us that she was the last business Northbound for a good 70km to Dease Lake. She invited us in for coffee and told us that we could camp there for free. She wanted to offer dinner, but didn’t have enough prepared, but we were happy enough to have a great camping spot, so we made our own dinner (Curry Inna Hurry). Before heading out to cook and camp though, I fixed the universal remote on her TV and took a look at her laptop’s internet problems. Nerds on site indeed.

*You can breathe now.

Click here for today’s pictures 

June 20, 2006

Biking time: 12:15PM to 6:30PM
End: A gravel pit North of Bob Quinn
Distance: 74km
Still very relaxed from our hot tub and sauna fest, we slept in this morning and then headed to the restaurant fort breakfast. What a great way to start a day of biking. After finishing our food, we took full advantage of the free coffee refills before hitting the showers. By the time we started packing up the tent it was after 11. As we finally started biking away, I remembered that I’d wanted to check our tire pressure for a few days, and knowing we had a mountain pass to cover in the morning, I figured it would be a good time to do it. Unfortunately after topping up my rear tire, I pulled the damned valve clean out of the rim, ripping a hole in the tube. Oops. So we ended up staying at Bell II an extra half hour while I replaced my tube and topped up our other three tires.

Finally we were off. The morning ride was fantastic, as it wound through the mountains passing over a few streams and creeks. We were worried about the morning ride because we had read that it would take us through Ningunsaw Pass, which sounded like a mountainous climb. What we couldn’t figure out was why the pass was claimed to be 466m when our starting altitude at the lodge was over 500m. We had figured it was either a typo, or we’d be subjected to a valley descent followed by a clim bover the pass. Turns out the pass is really just the location after which the streams feed into the Ningunsaw river instead of the Bell-Irvine. So most of the morning was downhill, a welcome break from yesterday. For about a half hour we followed beside the Ningunsaw River, and its twisty current that looked amazing and gave me the urge to ride down it in a tube.

As the road turned away fro mthe river, we were forced back uphill, part of which was ridden against the wind and into the rain. Awesome! We passed by Bob Quinn, a small trailer community where seasonal road workers set up camp. Past Bob Quinn, we hit some very patchy sealcoat and spent the rest of the day doing the same thing as yesterday: climbing a hill after every corner. After 70km we were ready to die, so we started looking for somewhere to camp. We stopped at a gravel pullout and made dinner, then continued on to find a camping spot down the road so that the bears wouldn’t be able to find us at the end of their delicious dinner-scented rainbow. After a few minutes, we saw a sign for a Brake Check ahead, which said only one thing to us: DOWNHILL. We checked out the grade warnings, and discovered that we were about to be treated to a 10km downhill stretch, but that it would be followed by a 5km uphill stretch that appeared to end at the same elevation as the start. We started down, knowing that we would not climb the other side today, and 1km into the descent we spotted an RV parked in one of the small gravel quarries next to the road. So in we swooped and met Marcel, Ed and Wolf, three road workers who were just finishing up. We found out that Marcel was living in his RV on that site during the job, so we asked to tent there. Of course it was no problem, and he even stored our food in his truck for us. So even in the middle of Nowhere, BC we were able to find someone to camp with, and an entire bear-proof dump truck to store our food in. Stop worrying, Mom!

Click here for today’s pictures   

June 19, 2006

Biking time: 10AM to 5:30PM
End: Bell II
Distance: 92km
After we laid down on our mats on the floor of the cabin, we started hearing a LOT of scurrying upstairs, most likely from the little feet of squirrels (in training for a marathon by the sounds of it). To avoid being climbed on all night, we set up the tent inside again, with the bonus of drying the tent out from our rainy evening in Stewart.

In the morning, we decided to hit the cafe one more time (having paid our dues as newbies, we get treated like regulars now so it’s not so bad). By 10AM we were finally back on track toward our goal. About 5 minutes into the ride, we hit some construction and were told by a bearded worker that there was a huge hill to come, but after the peak we’d be sailing downhill the rest of the way. He was right about the hill… and the hill kept going for a lonnng time. And there was a downhill, but it wasn’t very long before we were climbi ng again. 25km later we finally reached a fantatic swooping downhill with an unbelievable view of mountains all around us. At the bottom was the Bell-Irvine river crossing, and a rest area where we stopped just long enough to eat half-cooked falafel burgers and get half eaten by every bug in the forest.

As with every river crossing, we had to climb back up the other side of the valley. Thus began our day of climbing. Beyond every crest and every curve was another uphill. Each grind up resulted in 3 minutes or less of downhill bliss before the net grind started. And most grinds offered a fake peak where the steep part ended, and instead of glorious downhill, we were presented with more climbing. On top of it all, the road turned from pavement to sealcoat, which is an acceptable surface to ride on, but for some reason its lack of lines and old-school appearance make it a bit depressing to be on. Our 88km goal seemed to be gettig further and further away. Finally, cursing every corner and every hill, we reached the Rest Area 2km short of the next “town” (called Bell II because it is at the second crossing of the Bell-Irvine River). It was a nice little spot with a path down to the water, and the warmest lake we’d seen yet (it even had a floating swim platform 30 feet out). Too cold and tired to actually swim, we just washed ourselves and a few clothes while we contemplated staying there or visiting the next town where we might have to pay to sleep. With the promise of a restaurant only 2km away, we decided we might as well keep going. Luckily it was a 2km coast downhill (finally) to Bell II Lodge, which turned out to be the only thing IN Bell II. Well, they got us. We paid $20 to eat, but boy was it worth it. Then we paid $13 to camp, grumbling about it at first but it really turned out to be worth it too. The campsite was nothing fancy, but the perks were. As guests of the resort, we were welcome to use their showers and — even better — their hot tub and sauna. So we did. For a couple of hours. We went back to the tent that night cleaner than we’d been in years. So paying to camp was not so bad after all. At the Provincial Parks, it costs $16 and you are lucky to get  hot water at all. $13 for both of us including hot tub access? Sold!

Click here for today’s pictures  

June 18, 2006

Biking time: ten minutes
End: Meziadin Junction (again)
Distance: 62km
Today’s goal was to get an early start (breakfast) and then hitch a ride back to Meziadin where we could continue biking to the next town (94 km to Bell II). After returning to Silverado’s for more friendly feeding (too bad Debbie wasn’t there), we hit up the bakery next door for an hour of internet and a cookie. Then it was off to the phones to check in with the family (and send out some father’s day wishes). By the time we were on the road with our thumbs out, it was already 11am. Hitchhiking sucked. One problem was that Stewart, being on a dead end street, did not have a healthy flow of traffic in either direction. It seemed for every 4 vehicles going in, only one came out. Most were small RVs or regular cars, so the hopes of any being big enough to accommodate both of us and our loaded bikes was small enough. What we were really hoping for was an empty pickup or a really large RV (preferably one towing an empty pickup). After waiting two hours (being passed with a wave by two pickups) we reluctantly started riding out of town… the only other option being to stay another night and try again earlier Monday morning. Ten minutes into the ride, we saw a pair of Greyhound-sized RVs come barelling up behind us. We were able to wave the first down, but were turned away under the guise of “no room”. Despondent, we flagged the second, and the cheerful couple was willing to give us a try. We strapped our bikes atop the covered bed of the pickup they were towing, and threw the bags in the pickup cab. Then we got to ride up front in the RV in full leather couch glory. Thanks Vivian and Adriaan! The two of them were hilarious, and they told us stories of their travels (the RV/Bus has been their fulltime home for 3 years). We also learned that they were actually driving to Alaska with the first RV that turned us down… and it sounded like the first couple didn’t pick us up because they were afraid we were criminals. Culture of fear! It only took 45 minutes to climb back up to Meziadin Junction, but it was still too late to trek on to Bell II, so we hit up the cabin for a second night. Before calling it a night, we went back to the ol’ Meziadin Cafe for a coffee, and it’s a good thing we did. Somehow we’d managed to win over the restaurant owner to the point where she even gave us the ends of the banana bread for free because she can’t sell them. She also gave us a bunch of tips about the road North, whereas the day before she just answered my questions with “Dunno… Haven’t been up that was in 5 years”. Perhaps it being our third visit made us “regulars”, or perhaps Friday had just been a bad day, but we will leave this corner tomorrow morning with a bit of a better feeling toward it. Before we left the cafe, we had a good chat with a couple coming up from Kitimat (south of Terrace) who had lots of tips for free camping along the rest of this highway. They have been vacationing up in this direction for years, and were on their way for the first time to Whitehorse. A big thanks to all of our helpers today, and it’s off to the creaky cabin for bed.

Click here for today’s pictures  

June 17, 2006

Biking time: 9AM to 1:30pm
End: Stewart/Hyder
Distance: 62km
Our night in the cabin seemed to be mouse-free and bug-free, and was definitely rain-free. We woke up early so that we could have breakfast and ride to Stewart before everything in town was closed. Breakfast was good (good enough to get us to stewart without a lunch break), and the road was amazing. It started out a bit cold, grey and hilly, which was not too bad except for the thought of having to backtrack back out the next day. After about 10km, it started getting a bit more mountainous and the climbs got higher. The highway (37A) is literally squeezed between a mountain and a river for much of the route, and it goes right past Bear Glacier and the lake into which it drops its meltwater (and icebergs). By the time we reached the glacier, we had to put on our neoprene gloves and waterproof booties because the cold wet downhill riding was freezing us to death. Fortunately for today’s ride, most of the second half is a gradual downhill since Meziadin is at about 300m elevation and Stewart is a port town at sea level. After some great descents, we decided that we really didn’t want to backtrack on our bikes, so we’d try to hitch a ride with an empty truck or an RV on the way back out on Sunday. WIth that in the back of our minds, we were able to enjoy every inch of downhill sweetness.

As we rolled into Stewart, most of the buildings were shanty-like, and we were really worried about getting slapped with another depressing abandoned logging town. Luckily the downtown was in full operation with several restaurants and hotels, as well as a grocery store and a hardware store. Our first stop was at Silverado’s Cafe for an amazing pizza lunch (chicken, veggies and a special garlic based sauce). Our server was really nice, and another server overheard us talking about bikes and started going crazy over biking with us. She is a hardcore road cyclist who moved to Stewart with her husband and sold off the cars because the town is mostly one road with a few surrounding residential streets. She loved us to death, and asked the owner if we could store our bags there so that we could ride our bikes unladen into Alaska. So our next stop was Hyder, AK which is 2km out of stewart and directly across the Alaska border. I had expected Hyder to be bigger and busier than Stewart because it was an american town, but it was really nothing but a ghost town. With a population of 60 to 100 people (depending who you ask), it had nothing more than a few bars and a few gift shops (As well as some camping/lodging facilities). They didn’t even have a bank, so all of their banking and shopping is done in Stewart. All of the stores and prices are in Canadian dollars. What’s funny is the highway leading through Stewart to Hyder is the only land access to the town. The only other way in and out is by float plane (which the US postal office there uses). So when you cross into Hyder, there is no US border guard. WHen you cross back however, there is a canadian guard, and despite having nothing but the clothes on our backs and two bikes, we were asked for our ID and given the standard (though nonchalant) grill. We did notice one hunting and ammo store in Hyder, so perhaps there is a worry about Canadians crossing over to buy guns.

After crossing back over, we went on a short mission to check out the schoolyard where we’d hoped to camp in a gazebo we saw from the road. After discovering that the gazebo was some sort of storage house for oil tanks, we figured we could just use the yard. On our way back downtown we passed a couple out gardening, and instead asked if we could borrow a piece of their yard. They told us it would be fine (and that was the extent of our conversation with them). So we went and bought groceries, retrieved our stuff, and set up the tent before heading for dinner (and drinks… our first chance to P-A-R-T-Y cause we got to). Our friends at Silverado’s even let us leave our food inside their restaurant so that we wouldn’t attract bears to our neigbourly sleeping space.

Dinner consisted of salad and appetizers at Bitter Creek Cafe, which was an amazing place with all sorts of antiques in the dining room (including a fully functional 1930 Pontiac which they used to take out for parades). They even made their own chocolate there. Dinner prices were kind of high, which explains our food choices. All of the beer was under $5 which was not too bad considering the remoteness of the town. It was starting to rain as we crawled into the tent, but it’s cozy in there so it didn’t matter at all. I’d have to say that Stewart (And the road leading to it) is worth the 60km side trip if you ever happen to be up this way.

Click here for today’s pictures 

June 16, 2006

Biking time: 12pm to 5:30pm
End: Meziadin Junction
Distance: 75km
After waking up alive, we counted our blessings (mainly the blessings that included no attacks by any bears, either real or imagined) and made breakfast among clouds of mosquitos. Fried eggs with no butter along with oatmeal was sufficient but by no means deluxe. Despite having only a bit of water, we decided to make coffee, figuring we’d hit a creek or a well stocked RV before too long. Our photocopied Stewart-Cassiar guide sheet (courtesy of the Prince Rupert tourist office) told us that there was a general store 58km away at Meziadin Lake, so we hoped to get some groceries before hitting Meziadin Junction for camping. The ride started with me freaking out about losing my wallet, then searching my handlebar bag for it and dropping the camera on the highway. Turns out the wallet was in the rolled up tent. False alarm. Then 10 km down the road, I went to take a picture and found the shutter release button was missing. I guess I should have looked at the camera before assuming it was OK. I freaked out again because I hate when I am an idiot, but I can still take pictures with a paperclip, and hopefully when we get to a real town I can call Canon about getting a replacement button sometime. So my impromptu shots taken while underway won’t happen any more, but if there are any great scenes, I’ll stop and shoot. It’s probably better than I don’t use the camera while riding down the shoulder of the highway anyways.

A couple of hours into the ride, we saw a half decent creek, so we filtered some water out of it and had lunch at the next rest area. This highway is scattered with forestry and fisheries roads that lead off into the woods, but very few actual rest stops. This one was actually labelled as a rest stop but it turned out to be nothing more than a bear proof garbage can. We stopped anyway and had a delicious reconstituted Pad Thai packet in the gravel at the garbage turnoff.

Less than an hour later, we arrived at Meziadin Lake, which turned out to be an old logging camp with a few lived-in houses and a lot of abandoned trailers. The general store was CLOSED with no signs of being open at any recent time. So I wiped my ass with their front steps and we carried on with dreams of restaurant bliss at Meziadin Junction.

Though it was only 17km away, it felt a lot further because we were angry at Meziadin Lake, hungry for a real meal, and the last 10km were pretty hilly (no mountain passes, but hills big enough to slow us down). There must be a rule in Northern BC that says that every town listed on a map should be surrounded by hills.

Leading into the junction (on an uphill) we spotted another black bear. It was definitely bigger than the one we saw yesterday, but still fairly uninterested in us in comparison to its meal of roots. The last 400 metres to the intersection was yet another (of many) ‘magnetic hill’ which looked downhill but was most definitely uphill. As we turned into the parking lot, we were greeted by another deserted looking collection of shacks, with a cafe that appeared very closed, and a gas bar which was no more than a one-person hut. The gas bar was open but no one was around. As I looked in the window, a lady came running from the cafe and we quickly discovered that it was indeed open. She seemed to be in charge of the gas bar, and preferred to hang out in the cafe until the customers arived (understandably so). I guess the cafe owners were trying to save electricity costs by keeping their Open sign unlit. The dumpy restaurant offered nothing more than standard fried junk, so we each had the cheapest meal offered (burger and fries). The woman  running the show was a bit of a bitch (not the gas bar lady). The first thing she did when we came in was snap at us due to her being annoyed by our bear bells (did I mention we’d passed a bear less than half a kilometre from the restaurant?) because she was apparently trying to listen in on a CB radio to hear about an accident down the road. So sorry to interrupt your source of gossip. To complement her welcoming atitude, the resataurant had been filled with such friendly signs as: “Do not touch the TV”, “Our menu has two items: take it or leave it”, “We cannot fill your water bottles”, “We cannot microwave your food” and in the girl’s washroom, “Do not flush feminine products down the toilet because it clogs our system and it’s not getting emptied for 3 months and we know who you are”. As an added bonus, coffee was 50 cents more expensive if you wanted to take it in a crappy styrofoam cup instead of in a mug. The bugers were OK, and the fries were too floppy for my taste. Luckily, we twisted her arm into giving us a side of relish for our plain burgers - a luxury usually reserved for those ordering the deluxe model.

Feeling quite depressed by the entire junction, I went to scout out the abandoned visitor’s centre across the road. The cheerful gas attendant had told us earlier that she’d recommended people to camp behind it if they want to avoid paying for a provincial park. The building was an awesome log cabin that had unfortunately been boarded up because Stewart (the town) didn’t want to pay for visitor’s centre staff anymore. Behind the cabin was another touring bike that had been secretly stowed, as well as an outhouse that even had a bit of TP inside. Feeling a bit naughty, I thought it might be a lot better to sleep in the cabin than behind it, so I took a walk around the entire thing and found one non boarded window that had no locking mechanism at all. Bonus! So I went back across the road and asked the gas lady if we could keep our food bags in her hut overnight while we camped behind the cabin (we promised to eat breakfast there in the morning… better to spend money on breakfast than on a 4 by 7 rectangle of tent space at the Provincial Park). She gave us the okay, and also said that the other bike probably belonged to a tourist who hitchhiked into Stewart and left it there for a day or two. Not a bad idea.

Just as we finished climbing in the cabin window, it started to rain. Lucky us, having a cabin all to ourselves in the first evening rainstorm of the trip. The cabin was awesome. It had two levels, plus a two level porch. The loft level was divided in two, with a creepy old bedroom in one  half and a bunch of junk in the other. There was a walkway from the loft to the front of the cabin where a door opened to the second level porch. The main floor had a tiny kitchen area (everything was disconnected) and a main room which still had a bunch of tourist info everywhere. There was no wiring, and only two lights which appeared to be new-old-school gas lights. The fridge appeared to have run off of an extension cord fed through a hole in the floor. We decided to put the tent on the floor to save us from the lingering mosquitos that followed us in as well as any mice that might like to live here (there was some poop on the floor). We also helped ourselves to the leftover tourist information, including a few cool postcards. As an added bonus, Amy found an older (2002) copy of the Mileposts book that the German was crazy about, so we figured we might as well take that too. No one will miss it, and the majority of information will still be valid. Tomorrow we will go into Stewart for the night (a 65km dead end sidetrip).On Sunday we’ll ride back out and hopefully sleep here again. Score!

 Click here for today’s pictures

June 15, 2006

Biking time: 10pm to 6pm
End: Bonus Lake
Distance: 79km
As we were packing up this morning, one of the pigs (Fatty) started munching on a pannier cover. Sarah was right when she said they eat “everything”. We wrestled it out of its snout and packed up to leave, hoping for coffee and water in the bustling town of Kitwanga. All they had there however was a hardware store, so we pressed on, following a warning sign for “next services 14 and 145 km”. 14km into the trip, sure enough, was a sign leading to Gitanyow Gas Bar, which was “two minutes from the highway” (10 by bike). There was not much there, but they did have a dozen eggs for us to buy as well as the standard gas bar snacks and some pretty good coffee. So we ate some snacks and I went outside to start cooking some eggs on our stove when I realized that I FORGOT OUR FUEL CANISTER at the gas station last night. Great. Problem is, it’s not just a standard gas can, it’s the kinda thing that you can possibly buy in a place like Terrace, or a place like Whitehorse, but nowhere in between. So, looking forward to a 35km round trip on my bike back to the gas station, I gave them a call to be sure they had it. Luckily they did, and even luckily-er, there was an Elder at the store who was on his way to Gitanyow and he brought it to us. Thanks so much! WHen he showed up, we realized it was an older guy in a pickup truck who we’d waved to on our way into Gitanyow. It pays to wave to everyone I guess.

While we had been waiting for him among the collectin of totem poles, we spoke with the cashier at the store and she told us about an unmanaged campsite by a lake just 4km up the road. So we headed there for lunch, and were able to take a quick (cold) dip and clean some clothes. IT was a cool little place, but it was also a long way off the highway on a dirt road. Luckily almost all of the dirt roads loop back to the highway, so  neither of our stops (Gitanyow and the lakefront lunch) required any backtracking. I hate backtracking.

We pushed on, knowing that we wouldn’t see any more civilization today (Meziadin Junction is 156km along the highway), so we hoped we’d at least finnd a rest area at the halfway point to Meziadin (called Cranberry junction). Turns out there was nothing at Cranberry except a deep valley that we had to ride out of and a dirt road off to the side. As an added bonus, we passed a b lack bear on the side of the road just before the junction, so we were really excited about sleeping near his feeding grounds. He was pretty harmless though, he just watched as we rode by. I sang him a PLaskett song to keep him chilled.

Wondering where the hell we were going to stop, we kept climbing for what seemed to be forever. Then in the distance we saw a road coming off the highway. I expected it was a logging road, so we figured we could just sleep alongside it. It turned out to be even better. A small rest area was built by BC Forestry (Bonus Lake Recreation Area), complete with an outhouse, a few picnic tables and a floating dock out onto a marshy lake.

We set up the tent in order to escape the swarms of mosquitos, and decided to do a bit of reading and writing before dinner. Suddenly, we b oth heard a growling sound and froze. We kinda freaked out. THen there was a bunch of rustling in the bushes so we extra freaked out. I ran for the bear spray and we hurriedly locked the food in the outhouse ( so much easier than putting it in a tree). We even moved the tent further from the trees so that we could monitor the situation. A few more rustles were all that we heard, plus the excrutiatingly loud rumbling of our hungry stomachs. Each time one of us rumbled, the other thought it was a bear coming. I’m pretty sure that the initial growl that set it all off was one of us, not an animal. We tried to laugh it off a bit, and we made dinner without any attacks. We ate on the dock where there were slightly fewer mosquitos, and we got to watch a few muskrats swim around and go fishing. By the sid eof the water there was a flurry of activity in the bushes (squirrels, frogs and birds), and after being surprised by a squirrel near the outhouse, we decided that all of the rustling we’d heard was caused by a bunch of critters much smaller than bears.

Part of the freak out, I’m sure, was that an RV driver told us he’d seen a bear a few miles back on the road. We had flagged him down before dinner to ask for some water (it’s so much easier than filtering it), and he told us about the bear as he filled our bottles. I think in the back of our minds we had stopped practically on top of a bear’s den. Luckily we were full of food and tired enough that we fell fast asleep without any more bear related fears. Tomorrow we will head for Meziadin (75km) and sleep a bit closer to civilization.

Click here for today’s pictures