Fri, Sept 18: On the road on the Cassiar Highway

It is 31 degrees when we wake up this morning, but our propane furnace keeps the rig very comfortable. We stopped last night just short of the Cassiar Highway junction with the ALCAN. After a fast start, since we didn’t have to unhook last night, we make our big turn South toward home.

The Cassiar Highway, Highway 37, is a less traveled alternate to the ALCAN.

It is 450 miles of mostly chip seal and some gravel road running through the Yukon Territory and British Columbia connecting the ALCAN to the TransCanadian Highway (or the Yellowhead Highway).There are few towns and very limited services, so we have planned our stops for gas and camping accordingly.

It is a beautiful drive made even more so due to the weather the last two days. We hit construction for the first 20KM and are held up for a bit. We visit with the flag woman (these people are very talkative) and a German couple who are biking the route! That is really kind of nervy because the flag lady told us she had seen a black bear crossing the road just before we stopped.

Past the construction, the highway is narrow but good and has almost no traffic.

The scenery is stunning. Fall is in full color here. There are many beautiful lakes and pretty streams along the way. We stop at Boya Lake Provincial Park for lunch.It is a great campgroundwith most sites right on the edge of the lakeand we have the whole park to ourselves! Too bad it is so early in the day!

The day stays beautifuland the mountainand lake sceneryis fabulous. Our stop for tonight is a campground in Dease Lake,one of the two waysides on the highway. We top off the gas tank, get some milk and eggs at the small store (I couldn’t bring eggs into Canada) and park the rig by a little creek running through the camp site. Dick grills some of the salmon we bought in Haines and we have a pleasant evening.