Today was yet another amazing adventure. We started off at the hotel in Dease Lake. George replaced his pre-exploded upper radiator ticking-timebomb balloon with a new upper radiator hose. Evan applied an additional hose clamp on the turbo oil return. And I added another half a liter of oil to the Celica and cleaned off some of the dead bugs.
After the repairs, we ran across the street to the town grocery, gas station, post office, liquor store, restaurant, deli, video rental, and bank. To be clear: this was all one establishment. We had breakfast burgers, refueled, and grabbed a few snacks and more Canada-bucks. As locals entered, they all greeted each other by name, clearly everyone here knew everyone else. It was charming.
As we got on the road out of Dease Lake, we realized that the hint of yellow-green to the trees yesterday may actually be the start of fall colors. Today featured a lot of early-fall leaves as we made our way further north. Every day’s drive is even better than the day before, and I just don’t know how to handle it. I’m also not quite sure how the boys have managed all of this drive without being able to open the roof. What a shame… for them.
Our next stop was the “World-Famous Jade City.” Despite its self-proclaimed world famousness, I learned about this village about two hours before we arrived, so don’t feel bad if it doesn’t ring a bell. But there’s a TV show about it and everything — they were selling DVDs. The gift shop features local artists’ crafts mostly in jade and other local stone.
As it so happens, Jade City is all that remains of the township of Cassiar, supporting the mining output in the area. Cassiar puts out nearly a million pounds of jade annually, and until the 90s, it was also a primary mine and exporter of chrysotile asbestos. That means that this highway (originally built to support this mine) and its settlements are the world’s primary exporters of green knickknacks and mesothelioma commercials.
After Cassiar, we dropped by Boya Lake, a Provincial Park (as best I can determine, this is the equivalent to a State Park) in northern BC. It is maybe the most beautiful lake I have ever seen.
The striking color of the lake is thanks to the clarity of the water and the white lakebed. The bottom is composed of marl, a mixture of silt and shell fragments. We met a local couple who encouraged us to take out the rental kayaks, and given the view from the lakeside, how could we not? There were five kayaks just lying on the beach with paddles and life jackets with a sign indicating 20 canadiabucks for 2 hours, pay at the lockbox in the parking lot. In the US, these would have just been stolen.
I’m proud of Evan, it was his first time ever in a kayak. Likely also his last, but we did our best. George and I had discovered paradise. Evan… hadn’t. We kayaked up the lake to a beaver dam and back again, and it was glorious.
I also learned how to lock my trunk today, which is great. I’ve had the top down for most of the trip so far, which means my boot release latch is like… clearly visible and accessible when I’ve gone off and left the car on one our walkabouts. Apparently this is a thing I should have intuited earlier, but now I feel better about leaving a laptop, Nintendo Switch, satellite phone, and a backpack full of camera gear just chillin’ in the car park…
After our third round of boating adventures, we set off toward Watson Lake, past the terminus of the Cassiar Highway, a few kilometers east down the Alaska Highway. As of today, we’ve driven the entire Cassiar Highway, and what a treat it has been! Also we’re in Yukon now. The second half of the road was closer to the promised condition — none of today was marked or striped, and it got a rather bumpy in places, but again, still a well enough cared for road. And we’ve picked up on a Canadian highway maintenance tradition: when a small section of road is a little messed up, they appear to mark it with a tiny red sign on a stick that says “Slow.”
There, we checked into the hotel and went to dinner at the Chinese restaurant that was recommended to us at Jade City. But I think that could just be shortened to “the restaurant” because it appears to be that. Also it’s not just Chinese, but also serves Vietnamese, burgers, fried chicken, Korean, big American breakfasts, and chocolate cake.