Driving on and on and on

Thursday, 8-18-2011

Hopped out of bed at 2:30 and we were leaving by 3:00 a.m. eager to get on the road.  Whoa... not so fast..... border crossing.  The border crossing patrol lady took her time coming out and with a serious look ask us what we were doing out at 3:00 a.m.  We explained we had a long drive ahead of us and told her where we would be stopping - Teslin, Y.T.  Gary showed her the papers for the shotgun he had.  She had to look at it and match the serial number, some more obligatory questions and we were on our way.  Even though there was almost a full moon, it was pitch black traveling up out of the basin because of cloud cover.  We were both straining our eyes for bears and anything else that might jump out in front of us. There was a little rain here and there and some fog over the water in low lying areas.
Up and out on Rt 37 about 39 km from Dease Lake, B.C., we watched 4 Ruffed Grouse strutting down the highway.  Later, we saw Spruce Grouse on the road.  That puts a smile on Gary's face.  AT 7:06 a.m. nearing Dease Lake, a Red Fox darted across the road in front of us. 
As we're riding along, I gaze at the mountains in awe of their beauty.  There are any number of different species of pine and evergreens varying in sizes with various shades of green. All the textures add so much dimension.  God's nature WOW's me continually.  From such a distance, the mountains look like they have moss growing on them when in actuality, it is tall grasses, then the scrub trees, then the evergreens all varying in heights.

By 7:30 we are ready for breakfast and stopped in Dease Lake at a restaurant we had been to before called "Mama G's".  I went in to check to see if they were opened.  They weren't yet, but an older gentleman told us to come on in, they would get us some coffee and hot cakes - down home hospitality.  We thanked him, but said we would move on.  He told us the next restaurant was probably open now.  We  went the short distance to Rumors Cafe.  Everywhere in Canada the cash register is known as "the till".  Meet me at the till to pay your bill.  Love it!
Our first real road delay came on the Cassiar Hwy (Rt 37) north of Dease Lake.
Here is the Stikine River.  I would love to have taken a picture of every beautiful river we crossed.  If that would be the case, we would be going nowhere fast.  HA!



Crossing Stikine River early morning

Dease River

We made a stop in Jade City; so named because of the Jade mined around there in the Cassiar Mountain Range.  It was a neat stop to see the Jade in several different forms.  Would you believe they had a gift shop??????  Oh yeah..... :) I found the perfect little souvenir - a polished Jade bear with a fish in its mouth made from Rhodonite also mined in the Cassiar Mountain Range.  It is a soft glowing pink. Rhodonite, which derived its name from Greek "rhodon", meaning "rose" in allusion to its pink color is often veined by black patterns and lines of manganese oxide.  It is really a pretty stone.  I also bought a piece of unpolished Jade to set the bear on; interesting to see - the unfinished pieces sets off the polished piece.  Something I did not know is Jade ranges in colors from white to various shades of green to black.   See, just learning that little fact made the stop worthwhile.  HA!

Jade City, BC on the Cassiar Hwy



Old engine with jumbo Jade rock

 As we travel on and continue North, we approach a recent forest fire area on both sides of the road.  It must have burned 30 miles or more.  Every so often, we would get a whiff of the burn oder.   The forest floor was just turning green with new plant life including the Fire Weed plants. Those are the first to emerge after a fire. We're estimating the fire may have been just last year.  We can see in certain unburned areas where the fire jumped over.  A fire of that magnitude will create its own wind.  We could only guess how it started. Devastating to see, though Nature has its way of replenishing itself.

We cross into the Yukon Territory at 10:40 a.m.

We are making much better time than we anticipated so we decided to call and cancel our motel reservation in Teslin.  I mean it's only 10:30 in the morning, Teslin wasn't that far away.  Okay, so we might have gone over the speed limit a tad.  Hey, the speed limit is too low and it was such good road - well in our opinion anyway.  LOL
Of course, we had no cell service so we stopped in a small town to find a pay phone.  Good luck with finding a pay phone these days.  lol  I went into a little restaurant and asked about a pay phone anywhere.  A gal came out of the kitchen and told me no didn't have one there but if I was using a calling card,  I could use their phone. GREAT! - more of that down-home hospitality.  Cancelled our reservation and mushed on blowing past the motel where we were going to stay in what must have been record time.  LOL  This was 1:00.  Now, we' ve been on the road 10 hours - didn't seem like it though.  We're  retired, but one would think we had to be on a tight schedule here.  Talk about "haulin' ass and taking names", I guess that's what we were doing.  lol
Our goal was to make it to Whitehorse anyway, the capital of the Yukon Territory.  We have to make it a stop just for a meal at the Klondike Rib and Salmon. It has THE BEST food - bar none in the Yukon.  Well, we haven't tasted ALL the food in the Yukon, actually we've only eaten at the Klondike, but it's darn good food , and if it isn't the BEST in all of Y.T., it darn well should be!  From the first stop there on our first trip to Alaska, we've planned to eat there coming and going.  The Halibut Chowder is to die for, I mean really die for.  It comes with a piece of Bannock.  Bannock is a bread made by the First Nation People who fry it; Klondike uses the same recipe, but bakes it. We washed it down with a Yukon Red....... heaven..... :)

The place to eat in Whitehorse!

Factoid: 
Whitehorse is the largest city in the Yukon and is the capital with a population of 20,461.  The whole population of the Yukon Territory
is 30,195.

We got gas before getting on the road again and headed for Haines Junction, our final destination for the night.  The mountains are getting higher as we get closer to Haines Jct.   I just never tire of the landscape & views. Drive up over a knob and for as far as one can see is wilderness encased by mountains.  Some of the mountain tops are snow capped and shrouded in soft white fluffy clouds.  There are some with sharp pointed peaks and others are rounded, all with different shades of vegetation - greens, browns, gold and yellows.  Different zones show the vegetation, plateaus and higher peaks.  The vastness of it all is humbling.....

738 miles in  a 14-1/2 hour drive and we coast into Haines Junction. We were able to find a room at the Alcan Motor Inn and went to a favorite local hangout "Frosty's" for an ice cream treat. 

As we drifted off to sleep, the day played over in our heads and we were grateful for this beautiful world and the blessings of this trip.

Peace.....