After Whitehorse, we follow the Alcan Highway east for a few hundred miles to Watson Lake. Mrs. Phred has been suggesting travel along the Cassiar Highway for something different. The Cassiar has been closed by a wash out for a couple of weeks, but we ask around and it is thought that they are now allowing one-way traffic at the washout 300 miles south. We drive around the “road closed” barrier at Watson Lake and head south. There is very little traffic on this road. We will follow the Cassiar about 800 miles.
We spend an evening at the Boya Lake Provincial Park and continue south to Dease Lake. This is still Gold Rush territory. Jack London casually mentions the lake in the book of short stories I’m working though again.
Mrs. Phred wants to spend the day driving 100 miles down a gravel road to Telegraph Creek, a small historic community on the Skintina River. It’s an impressive drive along an area the locals refer to as the “Grand Canyon”. The narrow road meanders along the edge of cliffs with sharp vertical drop offs and 20 degree grades. They pushed a telegraph line to Europe though here toward Russia in the 1860s before the project failed. We look at the canoes for rent there and the raging current and decide to have a sandwich instead of taking a trip down river.
Today we take another side trip, 250 miles further south, to Stewart, British Columbia. Five miles further west, we will be in Alaska briefly again in the small town of Hyder, about 200 miles South of Juneau. Hyder looks like it has good water access to the Pacific ocean as well as access by land from Brithish Columbia.
My mapping program says that it’s about 1300 miles to the US. We will reenter in Montana at Glacier National Park.
VISA fraud prevention apparently doesn’t like the geographic distribution of my ATM withdrawals. They have disabled my cash card again. My Canadian phone card doesn’t recognize 800 numbers and it’s the weekend. We're down to $50 cash and 5,000 miles from home. I love a challenge.
Here are some pictures of Boya Lake and Telegraph Creek.
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