Day 24 - Dease Lake, BC to Smithers, BC

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Today was primarily a travel day (375 miles) and I didn't take many photos or have any significant "adventures". The weather was cloudy all day but I did have some sun breaks periodically and was able to keep the top down on the Miata for most of the day (except for an hour of showers in the afternoon).

Before leaving Dease Lake I had breakfast at the same restaurant where I had dinner last night. For dinner last night I listened to "Chicago's Greatest Hits" on the restaurant sound system and for breakfast this morning I listened to "Chicago's Greatest Hits". The restaurant has an interesting option for breakfast; you can pay your regular tab OR you have the option of flipping a coin and paying double or nothing (pay double if you lose the toss and pay nothing if you win the toss). Since I'm not much of a gambler and since I didn't want to pay $40 for my breakfast, I chose to pay the regular tab ($20).

I resumed my trek on the Cassiar Highway (300 more miles to go) and found that the highway got MUCH better as I traveled further south. I still had some gravel sections and a couple of short construction delays, but the paved sections were much better and I was able to make pretty good time. Still, driving 450 miles on a narrow mountain road was rather tedious.

I did notice LOTS of piles of poop alongside the road today (and sometimes in the middle of the road). They were nearly as large as horse poop piles but looked different (I'm not going to explain this in any more detail). Let's just say that whoever (or whatever) is pooping on the roads around here is apparently exempt from the Canadian litter law ($2000 per offense!). I was going to take a picture and solicit opinions from the fauna poop experts on this blog, but decided against it.

One of my goals on this trip was to always see something new each day (travel on highways that are new to me) and I've met that goal so far. Some days, like today, I've had to travel over a portion of highway that I used on the way up to Alaska, but I've always managed to include a stretch of new road for each day of the trip. Today, after finishing the Cassiar Highway, I had to drive 75 miles of the Yellowhead Highway to Smithers, a stretch of road that I traveled more than two weeks ago. About 20 miles outside of Smithers I reached the Moricetown Canyon and stopped to visit again. As you may recall from Day 7, this is the raging river rapids where native Indians do net fishing and where I witnessed the intentional burning of a huge debris dam. Today I was able to view the remains of the fire (I didn't stick around for the entire fire when I was here before).

Just before reaching my destination for the day at Smithers, I reached the 5,000 mile mark for this trip in the Miata. Combined with my ferry travel that makes 5500 miles traveled so far. I knew that I would eventually get very tired of driving on this trip, but fortunately that hasn't happened until now. I actually did better than I thought I would. But at this point, I'm definitely tired of driving and looking forward to getting home and seeing my honey! (That's you, Sereda!).

Having driven 450 miles due south in the past two days, I've noticed a dramatic change in the fall colors. Up north, most of the deciduous trees have already turned yellow (as I've mentioned in this blog), but now I'm seeing mostly green leaves with just a hint of yellow.

I forgot to include a couple of stories from a few days ago:

Story #1 (from Alaska): I stopped at a rest area and saw a gal there emptying the trash bins (she had a State of Alaska pickup truck). She was very friendly and told me that she drove a 150 mile stretch of the Alaska Highway twice a week, cleaning all of the rest areas along the way. I told her my story about dropping my cell phone in a rest area toilet (she laughed and said that I wasn't the first) and then told me about a guy (she swears this is true) who dropped his wallet in the toilet, climbed in to retrieve it but then couldn't get back out. He spent two days in the muck before somebody came along to get help.

Story #2 (from Yukon Territory): I stopped at a roadside cafe for breakfast where the only other patron was a weird old guy who immediately asked me where I was from. When I said "near Portland, Oregon", he replied, "Oh yeah? I have a sister in Portland, but I haven't seen her or talked with her in 58 years." When I asked him why, he said "I don't care about my relatives any more than I care about you. When you die, I'm not going to your funeral and I'm not going to their funerals either." After he left the cafe, the proprietor said that everyone calls him The Crazy Trapper. He moved to the Yukon from the lower-48 about 40 years ago and married a native Yukon Indian and he now has the right to run trap lines in the Yukon. I think that this guy was born 100 years too late!

Maybe four more days of driving and I'll be home. I always love traveling and I always love getting home; and this trip is no different.

Jack

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Comments

[Mike]

Sounds like you'll be back in time for some 90 degree weather at home. (BTW- That's BigFoot crap on the road. Don't stop to take pics!)

[soytnly]

Big Foot
Mike, I didn't think about Big Foot (scary thought!) but it did occur to me that any creature that leaves LOTS of big piles along the road is not a creature that I want to meet while I'm taking photos! Dad

[Scott]

Great Trip!
I lived in Dease Lake for a year back in 2005 and setup www.DeaseLake.net. Reading your post made me miss driving this highway several times. It is certainly very rough in places but one beautiful drive! While I don't have any particular desire to move back to Dease Lake, I certainly miss that part of the country, and can't wait to hit the road one of these days and drive through again. Your note on the "Crazy Trapper" in the Yukon reminded me of a small diner at the Junction (HWY 37 & Alaska HWY). Very small place with interesting people - and amazing breakfast! If you have any great photos from Dease Lake in particular, please stop by my site and upload a photo from the photos page!