PETE: Well, I should have knocked on wood harder !!! After enjoying decent to good road conditions in Canada we finally hit what everyone at one time or another warned up about concerning the roads. Frost heaves and sections of gravel started just South of Dease Lake, BC and continued almost to the Cassiar Highway 37 Junction with the Alaskan Highway 1. Some of the gravel sections were so bad that I drove for many miles at 10 mph hoping and praying that no one would be coming the other direction cause there were too many stretches where the Cassiar Highway was barely wider than 1 lane. Road shoulders as we know them are non existent and there’s a 3 to 4 foot drop on each side of the highway. Even in the paved sections there are little red slow signs indicating a hazardous road condition. Under no circumstances should you ignore any of these warnings. On the Alaskan highway there are red flags on short poles and I made sure that I always slowed way down. Trust me, you don’t want to ignore those warnings … Here are some shots of the gravel road conditions.
We saw 2 more black bears today. The first one was heading towards the woods but Karen was able to catch the following bear shots. A little down the road we were fortunate enough to find our first performing black bear. This guy was in no hurry to run off into the woods and Karen was able to take the following black bear video. We also saw our first 3 Caribou. We’re able to get any shots of them but it was neat seeing them. You know you’re way up North when you start seeing Caribou.
If you love jade then you would be in heaven in Jade City, BC. Turns out that 90% of the whole world’s jade comes from British Columbia. Found out that jade is so expensive because it’s not only beautiful but it’s also the hardest rock in the world. You have to use diamond blades to cut it and has to be basically carved by hand. Too bad it cost so much $$$ cause Karen would have loved to buy more than she did. Here are photos of Jade City, BC.
Our mini impromptu caravan continued and we met Debbie and Terry at Junction City, YT. It was really comforting to know that they were about 20 minutes behind us on the Cassiar Highway. As I said, knowing that they were there protecting my six in the event of a problem was comforting. Nearby Watson Lake, YT really didn’t have any decent places to eat but a small establishment known as Sally’s provided us with a nice home cooked meal at a reasonable price. We took pictures of our friends cause we will be parting ways tomorrow and hope to rekindle our friendship in June in Wasilla, Alaska. Here are photos of our friends. They are heading to Skagway, Alaska and we are heading to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.
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