Happy Birthday Ian!
I meant to leave around 7am but decided because of the lack of sleep on the ferry I should get a full night’s rest in the hotel before setting off. So by 8 am I was pulling into a gas station to fill up – something I was to do many, many times on this journey. And perhaps this is a good point to introduce the “gas up” rule – which must never been broken.
If your tank is at half full or less and you see a gas station – gas up! Don’t fart about worrying about savings a few cents at the next gas station down the road because on most of this journey “down the road” will not mean what it normally means in well populated areas. And needing to get rescued if you run of out fuel could be an enormously costly business – far more than you can ever save on a few cents a liter.
Did I mention the gas can in the back of the Subie? No, not that silly 5 liter can everyone else has, I mean that 20 liter can I bought especially for this trip. Don’t forget to fill that up too. Well I didn’t forget and nor did the cashier who looked ashen faced and terrified when she came out to see what I was doing. I don’t think anyone had told her that plastic containers don’t ground out and spark so she probably thought she was about to meet her maker.
All of the videos were taken with an 18 year old Sony HDR SR5 Handycam positioned on a jerry rig that I had fabricated from various bits of photography stands and clamps so that it looked straight out of the windshield. Well, OK, when I say “straight” every now and then the bloody thing would work itself lose and then look “crooked” out of the windshield. I had intended to get Ring’s new in vehicle dash camcorder but for some reason they don’t sell it in Canada.
It was another cloudy miserable day, and I was soon in the mountains and mist. But already the traffic was noticeable – by its absence. I knew that I would be going into some remote areas – I just didn’t expect that to be almost straight away. And almost all the vehicles that I did see were large trucks or smaller service trucks. This was to be a standard pattern for much of the time.
In the video I point out a lake, noting that I didn’t know what it was called. Well that was the Skeena River,
which I was to follow for 150 miles to Kitwanga, where I would leave Trans Canada 16 and head North on the Cassiar Highway (37). The river is very wide at this point with the road running alongside the shore – a very beautiful view even on a cloudy, cold day.
Don’t forget that you can see exactly where I was and when I was there on the Garmin tracking map that you can get to from the bottom of the Route page. Click the View All Tracks button at the top right and zoom out to see the route. If you click on any waypoint, then it will list Who, Date, Time, Speed, Course, Latitude and Longitude.
The mountains looked absolutely beautiful with some snow still on the upper slopes and the clouds forming intermittent layers like a sandwich.
Soon I was on what appeared to be an alluvial plain of the Skeena river – very flat land and the most beautiful variation in the color and types of trees I was passing by. This were quite different from the more traditional large cedars and pines I associated with BC.
By noon the clouds were clearing and the sun came out – a birthday wish granted 😊 At one point I had the Coastal Range behind me and an awe inspiring view of the snow capped Skeena Mountains in front of me (go to 2:21 in video #2). This brought back memories of the 5 years we spent living at the foot of the Jura mountains looking East over the Alps. BTW, that point in the video also shows how not to park your truck!
By lunchtime I was hungry and planned to stop at Meziadin Junction, gas up (of course) and get some lunch. It’s a “junction” because BC 37A branches off BC 37 and heads East/ South East for 38 miles to the town of Stewart BC just a mile or so from Alaska. I never did get lunch in the town of Mezadian Junction because it turned out that the gas station was the bloody “town”! Well… you were warned… we’re going to some very remote places 😊
I finally did stop for lunch at a rest stop/ hotel called 40 Mile Flats as I couldn’t wait any longer. It turned out that it was a fairly large ski resort which, judging by the size of its car park, I’m sure is really busy in the ski season. Sadly,the 1st of May is not in their ski season so the place was closed for refurbishment, save a small shop selling fizzy drinks and candies. My frustration must have been obvious as the young guy offered to go get me some soup from the back kitchen.
There was nowhere to sit inside so I took everything out and sat in my Subie to eat my unconventional lunch and wound the front windows down to enjoy the sunshine and the gentle breeze.. No sooner had I taken a bite or two than I heard the distinctive woompf woompf woompf of chopper blades, getting louder as the bird lined up to settle down in the other half of the car park to my right. I put down my lunch, grabbed my D300 and went out to take some shots. It wasn’t an SAR bird so I think it was there to bring in some heavy parts for the refurbishment. It was still there when I left.
Already I seeing a weird natural phenomenon…. A few lakes weren’t frozen, some were thawing and others were still frozen solid and these variations could occur within 50 miles of each other. I can only assume that it depended upon how much the mountains sheltered the lake from afternoon sun or didn’t shelter from Northerly winds. See 5:41 in video #2 for Lake Kinaskan.
Made it to the Northway Motor Inn in Dease Lake just before 5 pm. Room was clean and comfortable enough but getting something to eat was more of a problem as there weren’t any eating places nearby – just a small supermarket. I could have gone and got some food, cooked it in the microwave in the breakfast bar area and taken it back to my room but I was dog tired.
The folks who owned the hotel were very pleasant and said they sold dinners put together by a local charity to raise money, so I bought one and heated it up. It was actually very tasty, My room was at the other end of the building and suffered from that famous problem NWAEOB…. As in No Wi-Fi At End Of Building, a very common problem in hotels the world over. It’s completely avoidable, though of course the solution means spending more money.
Wrote some notes of the day and went to bed….
Photos & video from today can be seen here
