By 'eck, we're right oop North now...

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We've finally made it to the Yukon, Canada's fourth smallest territory/province (We're not entirely sure what the difference is between a Territory and a Province, but the Yukon is a Territory and BC is a Province). For all you fact fans (there must be at least one of you out there...?), the Yukon has an area of 186,000 sq miles and a population of just 33,000 people: 75%!o(MISSING)f whom live in the "city" of Whitehorse. We are currently in the third largest "city" - Watson Lake - which apparently has a population of 846!

"That's all very well", I hear you ask (come on, work with me here) "but what have you been up to the rest of the week?"

Well, funny you should ask that...

We've been travelling up the Stewart-Cassiar highway for the last five days. After we left Smithers, we travelled about 100 km along Highway 16 before we joined Highway 37 heading north. A couple of quick stops at pretty little lakes on the way (Bonus Lake: right by the roadside, and Derrick Lake: a six km bike ride from the road). We spent the night at Meziadin Lake - a nice provincial park - parked about 3 metres from the lakeshore.

Sunday, we headed west to the town of Stewart. Stewart sits at the head of a 71 mile-long fjord (the Portland Canal), which itself forms the border between Canada & the US (Alaska). Stewart is also the town where they filmed parts of the 2002 thriller Insomnia, starring Al Pacino, Hilary Swank & Robin WIlliams. (A great film, in my opinion. Well worth watching if you haven't already seen it.).

On the way we stopped at Bear Glacier, which comes down the mountain right by the side of the road.

While we were in Stewart, we took the opportunity to cross the border into the States to visit the town of Hyder. Hyder can't be reached by road from any other town/city in the US. The only way in/out is via Canada (or by boat). And on that basis, the American's haven't even bothered with a border control point - although, oddly, the Canadians have...

We decided against driving up the Glacier Highway from Hyder on the basis that it's a 33km long mountainous gravel track - and in part due to the recommendation in the local guidebook that said it really wasn't suitable for RVs.

Instead, we got on our bikes and made the most of the level roads in Stewart. After we treated ourselves to an ice-cream in the sunshine, and as we were cycling back to the campsite, we got to a T-junction to turn right and as we looked left to check for traffic, there was a bear sitting in the road. Needless to say we didn't stick around to see if it was hungry.

Monday we headed north again. Sightseeing took a bit of a backseat as everytime we attempted to do some, events conspired against us - washed out trails, no sign-posts, etc. So we ended up travelling further north than we had planned and got to a campsite just south of the town of Dease Lake. Monday was obviously "Bear Day" though. We saw one on its own, followed by two together, followed by another lone bear, followed by yet another.

Tuesday, we drove further north (again). We stopped at Dease Lake itself, in two separate places, and spent a hour or so soaking up the sunshine. Our destination for the night was the lovely provincial park at Boya Lake. Boya Lake is a fantastic green colour (not quite as green as Emerald Lake in the Rockies, but not far off). We did a couple of lakeside walks, and managed to see two beaver dams. No sign of any beaver though...

Today we FINALLY made it to the end of the Stewart-Cassiar highway (all 725km of it). We saw a very obliging bear, right next to the highway, just before we crossed the BC/Yukon border.

And now we are relaxing in Watson Lake. After three days of brilliant sunshine, the thunder & lightening has arrived, and its just beginning to hail... We're spending tonight here and then heading off into the wilderness for a couple of nights - next major stop: Whitehorse.

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Photos

Stewart BC/Hyder AK
The snow-capped mountains on the left are in the US, the ones on the right are in Canada