Cassiar Cruising and RabbiTRAILS Runes

(2023 Alaska Revisited Ep 13)

We returned to Washington after a week on Vancouver Island to pick up an Amazon order delivered to our friend’s house and to have a minor upgrade made to Percy’s suspension.  We’re confident that air shocks and overload spring sway stops will improve the ride and safety of our Percy-Pap combination!

After an uneventful border crossing back into Canada, we continued north past Vancouver and up the Sea-to-Sky Highway. 

The highway took us past the location of several of the events of the 2010 Winter Olympics and across several mountain passes.  Lush green and heavily forested western slopes gave way to drier, sparse eastern slopes. 

At Lillooet, we stopped for lunch overlooking the Fraser River.  The area is sometimes referred to as the Arizona of Canada because of extreme summer temperatures – during a 2021 heatwave, the temperature in Lillooet reached 116.2 F and temps at five other nearby towns ranged from 113 F – 121.3 F.  We are thankful our visit was a lot more pleasant!

Cassiar Highway

Continuing toward Alaska, we camped at several British Columbia provincial park campgrounds and finally reached the Cassiar Highway, a 450-mile highway that connects central British Columbia to the Alaska Highway in the Yukon Territory.  The highway is remote, somewhat narrow at times, with few services along the way. 

It was rainy and foggy when we drove the Cassiar in 2018 as we returned from our first trip to Alaska. We didn’t see much.  This time was different – beautiful snow-capped mountains, scenic lakes and wildlife were visible all along the route.

A Side Trip to Salmon Glacier (Almost)

We took a side trip to Stewart, a small town near the Pacific Coast and continued to Hyder, Alaska, an even smaller town in a remote corner of Alaska just two miles away.  The Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site is near Hyder, frequented by bears when the salmon are spawning during the late summer.  No salmon this time but there were bears nearby, waiting, perhaps, for the salmon to arrive.

^{Arriving and leaving Hyder, Alaska (note small Canada entry station in second photo)}

In 2018 we drove almost 20 miles from Hyder up a rutted, bumpy road to view the spectacular Salmon Glacier.  This time we hoped to camp at the glacier overlook, but after driving almost 15 miles we discovered the road was covered with snow and could go no further. 

We did have a view of the toe of Salmon Glacier however.

While we took in the view, a massive, earth roamer-style vehicle arrived.   It was being driven by a couple from Switzerland who had been on the road since early January after their vehicle was shipped from Europe to eastern Canada.  We took comfort knowing that even earth roamer vehicles had to turn around! See RabbiTRAILS blog post from 2018 with Salmon Glacier view

Cassiar Lakeside Camping

We spent three nights at several provincial parks along the Cassiar. where we camped just a few feet from the water’s edge of several beautiful lakes.  We enjoyed mountain views and calm, mirror-smooth water each morning.  Loons and their eerie, beautiful calls, as well as bugling elk, could be heard in the distance.  Our peace was interrupted only by clouds of hungry mosquitoes seeking their next meal (us)!

^{Lake camping along the Cassiar Highway}

^{Three beautiful lakes along the Cassiar – Meziadin Lake, Boya Lake and Kinaskan Lake}

Watson Lake and the Sign Post Forest

Our Cassiar drive concluded with a night at Watson Lake, a small town on the Alaska Highway known for its sign post forest.  

During the Alaska Highway Project in 1942, a US soldier was ordered to repair the directional signposts in the town, and while completing the job, he added a sign with the direction and mileage to his hometown.  Others added similar signs, and for 80+ years, travelers from around the world have been posting signs from their hometowns.  Nearly 100,000 signs have been posted, including two RabbiTRAILS signs!

^{Our 2023 and 2018 signs at the Watson Lake Sign Post Forest}

Critter Count

Moose – 1 cow

Black Bear – 5 (including 2 babies)

Highland cattle – 3

Bald eagle – 1

Ducks, swans, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, vole

^{Critters along the Cassiar – momma and baby bears, and a fleeing moose}

Next week: 

We visit Whitehorse, capital of Yukon Territory, camp in Kluane NP and have a memorable arrival in Alaska.