August 13, 2007
To Tanzilla River Campgound: Artic-Pacific Divide
The strong Northern wind died down last evening and the temperature dropped. The all night daylight is now over, we have to stop reading in the tent at 10pm because it gets too dark to see the letters. It also cools off a lot more than it did in Alaska. Even though we are camped right next to the lake, everything is covered with dew this morning. Our tent is soaked. We pack it up and have our cereal in the large laundry room that doubles as a church on Sunday mornings.
We are wearing our hats and gloves as we set off. Right away we come across a moose in the road. No rack so must be a cow, we look if also young is around. 10km further we see another moose in the river, sticking its head under water for a surprisingly long time to eat. The scenery is not as spectacular as yesterday, but the lake is pretty with rolling tree covered mountains around it. The road is tough, first a long gradual climb, then rolling. Sometimes we see the lake from above, then we descend almost to it. There is 26km of gravel today, the first of four sections we'll have on the Cassier. We take our first rest break at a roadside rest stop called Rabid Grizzly...that will keep camper's away! Patrick dries the tent, it looks like today will be dry all day, but always good to take the opportunity to have a dry tent when ready to camp.
A little further we run in two girls riding the Cassier, one from Victoria, the other from Burns Lake and she gives us her parents phone number in case we need a place to stay. They are headed for Whitehorse, then Skagway to take the ferry back to Vancouver Island. We go another 20km to Deese Lake and town. Our first business is to go to the bank to exchange some traveller's cheques (remember those?). Then we have lunch at Mama Z's Restaurant followed with a trip to the grocery store for some major shopping.
From here to Kitwanga, 500km down the rest of the Cassier isn't much more, we plan to make the side trip to Stewart where we can stock up one more time. We camp 10km past the town in a small forest campground run by the Deese Lake Lions Club. Rachel fixes noodles with a mushroom sauce, mushrooms, onion and clams.
We also have a bottle of wine!
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Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 12,500 km (7,763 miles)
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