Day 61, Wednesday, September 6, 2006
36 today at Watson Lake. But it's sunny and getting warmer by the minute. Sure love to see the blue sky for a second day in a row!
It's 9:00 am right now and we are the only ones left in the park. Going to do some laundry here and wash the motor home before heading out. Also will try to post our bear pictures from Haines so go back and look at Sunday's page.
More later.
Got on the Cassiar Highway just outside of town for the drive south to Stewart, BC and then the cross over the border once again to Hyder, Ak. Hyder is less than 1/2 miles from Stewart and not enough of a population to mention. But it does have bears! And lots of them from what we have heard and read – that’s why we are going. Anyway, the Cassiar is supposed to be one beautiful but very rough road to travel, all 450 miles of it, with lots of wildlife to see. We drove it for 220 miles today and did not find much beauty other than the fact we were about the only ones using the road, we were completely in the wilderness (it used to be a mining road that is now somewhat paved), fall colors in the mountains are spectacular, and we survived it so far. It is mostly paved but not well maintained and very bumpy – drove about 25-30 mph for most of it. But there were two stretches of gravel that were BAD! One was 16 miles and the second was 12 miles. Rough, pot holes, washboard, wet and muddy. Drove them 5-15 mph. Trashed the motor home again but I’m getting used to it by now. We are half way down the Cassiar with two more gravel sections to go tomorrow before we turn off for Stewart and Hyder (about a 40 mile side trip one way). After Stewart/Hyder we’ll have about 100 miles of the Cassier left to travel but it should be easy going. At the end we’ll be back on the Canadian “interstate”. We saw no wildlife today!
Gas in Watson Lake was $4.31 so I did not fill up. Gas along the Cassier was $3.80. Still expensive but $.51 cheaper than Watson Lake. Gas in Canada has been expensive the entire trip.
Stopped at Kinaskan Provencial Park on Kinaskan Lake for the night. Very clean park and almost empty. Dogs made a bee-line for the water, of course. Ellen got to build her campfire and I cooked steaks over it. For most of the day the sun was out and it was hot (and nice) to be in it. But it clouded up as we got back into higher elevations and it eventually rained a little. No hook-ups here so ended the day early.
Alaska is enormous. We drove 100 miles from Skagway to get out of Alaska and have since driven over 500 miles in Canada. After driving 200 miles tomorrow we will arrive back in Alaska to visit Hyder. Big state!
When we leave Hyder we will be out of Alaska for good (on this trip). I’ve complained a lot about the rain, and there was a lot of it to complain about, but it’s a little sad to be facing the end of the Alaska part of this adventure. We still are a long way from home and have lots yet to see, but what may turn out to be a once in a lifetime motor home trip to Alaska is about to end when we leave Hyder.
We’re not taking as many pictures of the scenery as we have in the past. It’s still beautiful but we have seen so much of it we’re a little numb from it all. What we used to stop for to stare at and take pictures we now just comment how beautiful it is and keep on driving. We’re sure you are all tired of pictures of mountains, glaciers, and water as well. As soon as we see something “new” we will put pictures on the blog.
36 today at Watson Lake. But it's sunny and getting warmer by the minute. Sure love to see the blue sky for a second day in a row!
It's 9:00 am right now and we are the only ones left in the park. Going to do some laundry here and wash the motor home before heading out. Also will try to post our bear pictures from Haines so go back and look at Sunday's page.
More later.
Got on the Cassiar Highway just outside of town for the drive south to Stewart, BC and then the cross over the border once again to Hyder, Ak. Hyder is less than 1/2 miles from Stewart and not enough of a population to mention. But it does have bears! And lots of them from what we have heard and read – that’s why we are going. Anyway, the Cassiar is supposed to be one beautiful but very rough road to travel, all 450 miles of it, with lots of wildlife to see. We drove it for 220 miles today and did not find much beauty other than the fact we were about the only ones using the road, we were completely in the wilderness (it used to be a mining road that is now somewhat paved), fall colors in the mountains are spectacular, and we survived it so far. It is mostly paved but not well maintained and very bumpy – drove about 25-30 mph for most of it. But there were two stretches of gravel that were BAD! One was 16 miles and the second was 12 miles. Rough, pot holes, washboard, wet and muddy. Drove them 5-15 mph. Trashed the motor home again but I’m getting used to it by now. We are half way down the Cassiar with two more gravel sections to go tomorrow before we turn off for Stewart and Hyder (about a 40 mile side trip one way). After Stewart/Hyder we’ll have about 100 miles of the Cassier left to travel but it should be easy going. At the end we’ll be back on the Canadian “interstate”. We saw no wildlife today!
Gas in Watson Lake was $4.31 so I did not fill up. Gas along the Cassier was $3.80. Still expensive but $.51 cheaper than Watson Lake. Gas in Canada has been expensive the entire trip.
Stopped at Kinaskan Provencial Park on Kinaskan Lake for the night. Very clean park and almost empty. Dogs made a bee-line for the water, of course. Ellen got to build her campfire and I cooked steaks over it. For most of the day the sun was out and it was hot (and nice) to be in it. But it clouded up as we got back into higher elevations and it eventually rained a little. No hook-ups here so ended the day early.
Alaska is enormous. We drove 100 miles from Skagway to get out of Alaska and have since driven over 500 miles in Canada. After driving 200 miles tomorrow we will arrive back in Alaska to visit Hyder. Big state!
When we leave Hyder we will be out of Alaska for good (on this trip). I’ve complained a lot about the rain, and there was a lot of it to complain about, but it’s a little sad to be facing the end of the Alaska part of this adventure. We still are a long way from home and have lots yet to see, but what may turn out to be a once in a lifetime motor home trip to Alaska is about to end when we leave Hyder.
We’re not taking as many pictures of the scenery as we have in the past. It’s still beautiful but we have seen so much of it we’re a little numb from it all. What we used to stop for to stare at and take pictures we now just comment how beautiful it is and keep on driving. We’re sure you are all tired of pictures of mountains, glaciers, and water as well. As soon as we see something “new” we will put pictures on the blog.
posted by TheBTCruisers | 11:56 AM
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