Maria's Travels

Maria's musings and photos from her wanderings – for her virtual buddies

The Great Canadian 3 X 4 Road Trip – The Long Road Begins (Wells to Whitehorse)

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auntbeast99
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The lake at Water’s Edge Campground, Dease Lake.
My cute little cabin in Dease Lake, notice the steering wheel on the wall, so you can pretend to be out fishing even if the weather is too nasty to fish.
Still more Norther…
Norther
Continuing North
The Stewart/Cassiar Highway… at this point in the trip this looked remote
Aurora and I pulled off to appreciate the scenery North of Kitwanga
Bell II on the Stewart-Cassiar. The signs say “coming soon EV charging” not sure how long they have been there but I did not see any EV’s on the road
This creek was named for my friend Susanna’s grandfather.
North of Bell II
The sign you can’t miss as you turn North at Kitwanga onto the Stewart-Cassiar Highway
Sealy Lake West of Hazelton
Looking the other way from the bridge at Mauricetown
River at Muaricetown. Humans and bears are often seen fishing here, sometimes at the same time.
Kathlyn Lake near Smithers
More extrovert flowers on the Wells Highway
Daisies on the side of the Wells Highway.
The “seawall” in Telkwa BC”. It appears to be about a kilometre long and is on a river but folks call it the seawall anyway.
Twin Falls near Smithers
The other, fraternal, twin fall outside Smithers
The food truck at the intersection of the Stewart/Cassiar and Alaska Highways. One item menu, chicken wraps but boy were they huge and delicious.
“SOUTH to Alaska.. I guess the rush is done?” (if you get the song reference you are truly ancient
Looking North at the BC/Yukon Border
Anyone remember the 1950’s garbage gobblers? This is the new and updated and bear proof ones.
Looking South at the BC Yukon Border
Another lake along the way.
Continuing North from Dease Lake
The cabin at Dease Lake that Aurora and I bunked down at for the night.
These gorgeous baskets were hung all around the campground.
These Lupin were outgoing enough to grow on a straight stretch of road were I could safely that their picture… many of their cousins were camera shy and grew in places where I would have been smoked by a logging truck if I stopped to take their photos.
The view along the new walkway along the river in Whitehorse
Bison pot pie at The Raven in Whitehorse. Very nice after a long drive
Roadside view along the way.
Roadside Flowers, Stewart/Cassiar Highway
Mural in the local rec centre in Whitehorse. It is an enormous complex set on top of the hill looking out over the whole area.
Moose Steak a la Heidi (it has another name but I can’t remember). Marinaded in red wine, a little jalapeno juice and then fried and served with egg. To die for.

VIDEOS

View along Highway 37 on the way North from Kitwanga
Art by local Indigenous Youth at the rec Centre in Whitehorse

THE PLAY BY PLAY

Hello again friends!

We have made it to Whitehorse! Hooray. 

After a fond farewell to the denizens of Wells I fueled up on one last espresso from the Sunset and baking from the Goldfields Bakery (meat pies and Eccles cakes beat the heck out of power bars for long drives!!), Aurora and I set off for points North(er). Then it was back to the highway, next stop Smithers.  Normally it is a fairly uneventful zip into Quesnel from Wells, but the flowers were all blooming.  Fields of several of my favourites, paintbrush, lupin, and fireweed (foxgloves, fireweed and lupin being voted most likely to make me drive off the road staring).  Looking for a place to get some nice photos I made a significant discovery about flower distribution… the pretty ones grow over the crest of hills, and on corners.  Maybe they are just camera shy so they grow in places where it is near suicidal to pull over to the side of the two lane/no shoulder road to take their picture (hmm maybe I could get a grant to study wildflower placement on BC roadsides as a retirement project).  I did eventually find a few less shy patches, get some photos and get back on the road before my Eccles cakes ran out.

Once I was up onto Highway 16 photo ops became considerably better and you will see some nice shots of the landscape as I worked my way West to Smithers.  This was a pretty quick leg of the trip.  I have driven this part many times, including recently so I opted to keep foot to floor and get to Smithers as I had a friend to meet.  My sister’s friend Kim’s sister lives on a farm outside Smithers so we had made arrangements to meet up for a coffee.  Of course one of the wonderful things about travelling is the meeting of the people, and when they come so highly recommended and booked ahead it is even better.   Kathy is as lovely as Kim and we had a fantastic visit over a cup of tea, chatting about families, life in Smithers and the best stops between there and Vancouver.  When next I am in Smithers I look forward to another visit.  Thanks Kathy.

After a night in a very comfy motel in Smithers I headed out on a long days drive to Dease Lake.  Again I planned to get a move on as it is only 600km but I was not sure how fast it would be and if any of it was gravel.  BUT, the best laid plans etc… there is just too many pretty things to see along the way.  I saw a sign for a place called twin falls just outside Smithers, started driving up the 1.5 car road, saw no place to turn around and so had to drive to the end, where I found two lovely (fraternal twin) waterfalls and a campground.  Then, once I took pictures and got turned around I hit an intersection where a sign said Kathlyn Lake, so off I went in the direction I was not actually going to check out that very pretty lake.  After that I really had to have a discussion with myself as I needed to get going, so I did.     We traveled up the Stewart Cassiar Highway to go to The Yukon and then will be coming back the Alaska Highway route.  The Stewart Cassiar Highway is the less commonly travelled route to the North it seems,  but it is a lovely drive.  After the requisite photo of the milepost sign at Kitwanga, and a full tank of gas, it was Northward Ho!  I came this direction a few years ago on my way to Stewart BC (well worth a visit if you are ever looking for a slightly out of the way road trip with glaciers and now that the border is open you can pop over to Hyder and check out their glaciers too). I remember thinking on that trip that it was a long way from anywhere with nothing but bush, but this time it seemed somehow to be much more varied.  Maybe it was just after the turn of at Meziadin Junction on the way to Stewart that it gets tree, tree, tree, tree, ‘nother tree, tree, tree (although looking at the photos maybe it is a bit like that after Kitwanga.

Once I got past Meziadin Junction it was all new territory.   I have never driven up this way before.  Woo Hoo… adventure.   The next stop was a fuel stop at Bell 2, where there were 2 surprises.   One, they make a decent flat white, and two they have EV charging stations coming soon (although I am not sure how long those signs have been there or when they may actually appear… don’t start revving that Tesla yet. A little ways past Bell 2 it really started to feel like I was in the middle of nowhere (on reflection from further down the road I had no idea what the middle of nowhere actually is on a road trip at the time). From the trees it widened out into more mountainous scenery and when I can upon an air strip I was able to get some nice photos of the mountains.   It appears that mountains are also slightly photo shy with many of the requiring photos from the middle of the road immediately over the crest of a hill.  Fortunately the photo gods were smiling on me and I came upon an air strip where, not only were the trees cut back but I could safely pull over. 

It is a two day drive from Smithers to Whitehorse if you don’t want to just have to go pedal to the metal so I thought Dease Lake would be a good stopping point.  I remember a social worker from there when I was in Prince Rupert, and I had never been there.  She was as good a cook as me and we used to joke about giving up the SW racket and buying the truck stop at Kitwanga.  Low cut waitress dresses, cigarettes tucked in the cleavage “you want fries with that?”, because it would probably be better money and less stress.  Unfortunately the only motel in Dease Lake was full so, when I was booking places I had to look a little farther afield.  I found a campground that is just North of town (Water’s Edge Campground).  I am not camping yet because of my gallbladder surgery and no lifting my 10 tonne camping totes but they had some little cabins which would be perfect.   I was not expecting a lot but a bed is a bed.  Imagine my surprise when I arrive to find a campground, cut out of the forest and rock with hanging baskets everywhere and my little cabin with power, a sink with running water, a VERY comfortable bed, a camp stove and a BBQ.  The bathroom was a nice clean outhouse with paper and hand sani which was just across the way.  They have a boat launch and the lake looks like it would be very nice paddling and, if the weather is no good for boating, the wall of my cabin had a steering wheel under the window so you could look out over the lake and make vroom sound effects while racing around in your imaginary boat until the weather clears. After an excellent night’s sleep I said farewell to my kindly host and continued North, next stop Whitehorse.

The scenery continuing north of Dease Lake continued to be stunning.  Mountains and trees and mountains and trees.  The road is paved all the way now, except for about a km of road work which was loose gravel, on a very steep S curve.  I figured it would be good Dempster practice, so I went nice and slow and stayed in control.  Good things I did because the pickup truck coming the other way had a different idea… see just how much he could make his ass end swing before he landed up with it in front of his cab and spun.  I dutifully hugged the barricade, cursed, and away he went.  No idea if he stayed shiny side up as he was going the other way, not my concern.

The next major stop of interest was the BC Yukon Border.  Not much there, quick snaps of the border signs, stop at the convenience and onward to the junction of Highway 37.  Oh, but I did snap a photo of the bearproof “garbage gobbler” for my MOTI friend Amy.  Do you remember the old “garbage gobbler” trash cans from the 60’s/70’s (for those of you born after the 80’s here’s a BC environmental history primer … google “how British Columbia’s Garbage Gobblers almost went extinct” there is a CBC article).

I did not need to gas up at the Junction but thought I would stop and take a photo of the “South to Alaska” sign, and maybe a cup of coffee at he cardlock.  Once I got stopped I spotted a food truck, or rather a food trailer, Courtney Caribou’s Cookshack.  I went to ask if they had coffee and she did, she said she would also have chicken wraps soon but it would be a few minutes because she had had a fight with her propane, but won.  So, after a nice visit with some travellers from the USA who decided they all needed chick wraps too after they heard Courtney and I talking, with a GIANT chick wrap tucked in my hand it was onward and Westward.

Somehow there are not a lot of pictures from the Junction of 37 to Whitehorse.  I think I was too busy eating and watching for gas stations.  I had broken my rule and passed a gas station without filling up. I was pretty sure that the universe was going to punish me by making me run out of gas and have to use my gas can on the side of the road to everyone’s amusement.  Fortunately that did not happen.  I will also be driving back this way to the Junction when I head East on the Alaska Highway route so I can make up for lost photo ops then.

I got to Whitehorse, and found my BnB (The Big Red Barn) about 20 minutes from downtown on a farm with horse and a donkey.  The suite was amazing.  It is built in an outbuilding, “barn” and is a full on one bedroom suite with a full kitchen, deck with BBQ and fire table, and its own entrance. My host was lovely and I had a very comfy couple of nights there.  I was only in town for a day on the Northern leg of the journey and will spend some more time on the way East, but I managed to pack in a fair amount of stuff.  I connected with my friend Heidi who lives here.  Heide and I have known each other since we were in our 20’s in Search (a slightly cultish Roman Catholic youth Cursillo retreat thing we did back then) and our paths have been crossing each other since then.  She was living in Haid Gwaii when I was working there, then we met up at some Search event or other years later, then recently she was in Vancouver and we connected up again.  Heidi gave me a grant tour of town, and we explored the Saturday market along the river, and she introduced me to the nice people she knows at the Subaru dealership as Aurora threw a door seal just past Telkwa on the way up. 

Whitehorse had sure changed since I was last here in 1985.  There are subdivisions everywhere, all the big box stores, and they have built a lovely walkway along the river where once there was just a dirt walking trail. There are also several good restaurants, one of which we sampled for lunch.  The other one I tried was in The Raven, which is a new Indigenous run hotel which, while too expensive for me to stay in, makes a killer bison pot pie.   I seem to recall the height of fine dining when I was last here was the Mr. Mike’s steak house (although maybe that was just the only one in our price range).  However, the best meal by far was the moose steak dinner that Heidi made me the day before I left.  It involved moose steak marinaded in red wine and a little jalapeno then served with an egg on top with the marinade made into au jus.  I did not write down the recipe but I will make sure I do on the way back as it would work with any red of game meat.   She even gave me the leftovers to take along with me for lunch.  Life is good and I can’t wait to spend some more time catching up and hanging out with Heidi (and Marko her fur baby) when I come back through… but for now…. Northward we go….