The Adventures of Goldi . . .: Northern BC and Eastern Alaska

After spending several days crossing the Interior Plateau of British Columbia and securing provisions in Prince George, we were happy to be headed for the famed Cassiar Highway. Our route west of Prince George would first take us along the western Yellowhead Highway towards Prince Rupert. This proved to be an exciting part of the journey where we re-entered the Coast Mountains and started to see some wildlife for which northern British Columbia is known. We spent the first two nights at Kager Lake/Boer Mountain, another fantastic and free forest service recreation site outside of Burns Lake. Situated in a mixed, fairly dense hardwood/coniferous forest, the site is well known for its great mountain bike trails and fishing. Here we met some locals camped out from Smithers, a pretty hip town towards Prince Rupert. They were nice enough to invite us over to their fire and offer us some fresh caught Rainbow Trout. Perhaps it was the irresistible smell of fresh trout on the grill that drew a black bear into our camp. Whatever the draw, it wanted to make quick friends with Kristen, but their dogs ended up scaring it away. As it was Father’s Day weekend, we could fish without a license, so I threw in a line but didn’t land anything. Regardless, we had a great time mountain biking, fishing, and getting a few tips for our journey from the very generous locals.

The camp at Kager Lake/Boer Mountain

Kager Lake, a beautiful fishing spot

Fresh Rainbow Trout on the grill

We weren't the only hungry ones in the woods

As we continued towards Prince Rupert the mountains began to loom larger and larger. Outside of Smithers we hiked up to the beautiful Twin Falls that roar down a vertical headwall just below the Hudson Bay Glacier. Back on the road, I saw in the distance what appeared to be horses on steroids ambling about on a large grassy hill: we had seen our first Moose! As the mountains grew, the size and sound of the rivers coursing between them grew as well. The Bulkley and Skeena Rivers in this section were truly amazing, tearing through steep walled canyons. In the small First Nations town of Hazelton we learned the history of a historic bridge spanning the dizzying heights of the Skeena River canyon. The bridge, in its earliest incarnation in the mid to late 1800’s was a testament to Native ingenuity. The First Nations, Canada’s indigenous people, are very active in preserving their culture in this region, as was made clear by the abundance of historic totem poles, native villages, and sacred places. Just after turning north onto the Cassiar Highway we spent the night in Kitwanga, a quaint, predominantly First Nations village with free camping complete with free firewood. Kitwanga is an old village site with the significant Kitwanga Fort National Historical Park, a fortress site where a famous chief defended the Gitsxan people and territory. Stories of the chief’s exploits are told today in the symbols adorning totem poles throughout the area.

The short, but beautiful hike up to Twin Falls

Hudson Bay Mountain and its glacier above the falls

The bridge in Hazelton high above the roaring Skeena River

The Bulkley River and its canyon

Refueling at the junction with the Cassiar Highway

Totem poles at the First Nation village of Kitwancool

Intricate designs and motifs adorned the totem poles

Salmon, beaver, frogs and other human and non-human figures

The Cassiar Highway is a relatively new road completed in the early 1970’s and now mostly paved that heads north from Kitwanga, stretching more than 450 miles with few refueling points and several great side trip opportunities to Stewart, B.C. and Hyder, AK. Its remoteness soon became apparent as wildlife sightings such as black and brown (grizzly) bears exploded in number. Although the camping at free forest service recreation sites continued to benefit us, the mosquitoes were ever present and began to increase in numbers as well. Our side trip on the Glacier Highway from Meziadin Junction to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK was absolutely breathtaking. Another grizzly bear was spotted as we coursed through the Bear River canyon below towering mountains covered in glaciers. Fantastic blue ice falls seemed to hang suspended a thousand feet above us and the massive cone-shaped avalanche fans were a reminder of the danger here in winter. The Bear Glacier and its moraine dammed lake were very impressive, as was the Salmon Glacier, where we spent a fantastic Summer Solstice evening overlooking the entire glacier and gazing beyond to the glacier topped mountains that comprise the upper portions of Misty Fjords National Monument. We spotted an elusive pine marten darting about the glacier overlook, high in the alpine zone where they are not usually found. Although the hamlet of Hyder was only the southern tip, we had made it to Alaska by Solstice. It never really became dark that night, and the eye covers came in handy for sleeping.

We made it to Alaska... at least to Hyder, AK

Bear Glacier... geo-geeks will note two recessional moraines

Salmon Glacier terminus and moraine lake

Upper portion of the Salmon Glacier

Not a bad spot to spend the Summer Solstice!

Our Pine Marten friend

After returning to the Cassiar Highway from our short detour, we continued north and found more incredible and empty free forest service recreation sites, all situated on beautiful lakes. At Morcheau Lake, we enjoyed a small but tasty harvest of morel mushrooms. We also found several small birch bolete mushrooms, but, as they are not really familiar to us, did not harvest them. Passing glacially-clad mountains of incredible beauty northbound on the Cassiar, we eventually crossed the historic Stikine River, the liquid highway to the Cassiar gold fields for many miners in the late 1800’s. I had been reading John Muir’s Travels in Alaska; a great read that details Muir’s observations of this area during that time. The lenghty Dease Lake brought another incredible campsite at its northeastern shore, but the rough weather made it a little less appealing. The weather had been off and on rainy and partly sunny, but at Dease Lake a massive thunder storm lashed the area with heavy winds and rain.

Mountain views along the Cassiar Highway

More mountain views and an airstrip to access the remote area

Our campsite at Morcheau Lake

What's that buzzing sound?

Our camp at Dease Lake in the afterglow of the evening thunderstorm

Continuing northward after having crossed the continental divide south of Dease Lake, we planned to kayak in Boya Lake Provincial Park. Boya Lake is an incredibly beautiful, glacial lake whose colors are reminiscent of Lake Tahoe. The clear sunny day was a perfect match for the color of the water. We kept thinking that it was like Lake Tahoe with half the people… scratch that, none of the people! There were probably more beavers in the lake than people, and their handywork could be seen on nearly every treeless south-facing slope. We first wondered if these areas were clearcuts, but upon landing saw all of the chewed stumps. Several beaver lodges and dams were evident along the shores and bridging narrows between different arms of the lake. It was a fantastic day, and we were happy to make use of the inflatable tandem kayak that fits perfectly in our bus, but had not been used since Olympic National Park.

Kayaking on Boya Lake

Precipitated calcium carbonate on the lake floor creates brilliant colors

Just like Tahoe, but with beavers instead of people

Beaver dam between two sections of Boya Lake

Southern slopes devoid of trees

That night we camped along the Dease River at another great forest service recreation site, although this one was different: it was full of people! It appeared to us that people had been set up here for some time and may have been living here. Many of them appeared to be First Nations folks, and several trucks pulled in loaded with buckets in the back. Strange we thought, but didn’t pay much attention to this as we were anxious to explore the 35,000 acre fire that had happened the year before and see if we could find some morels. The next day, as we drove into the burned landscape dotted with makeshift camps and vehicles scattered along the roadside, and noticed all of the stooped over people in the woods carrying buckets, it all made sense. This was a gold rush of sorts, and there was money to be made by anyone who could cut a morel mushroom from the ground, put it in a bucket, and bring the harvest to a buyer! Fortunately, everyone was very friendly, showed off their harvest with pride, and graciously complimented us on ours. As we were negotiating with the buyer over our last harvest, a young man hitchhiking from southern BC to Yukon Territory told his ride spur of the moment that he would stop here for several days to pick and make some money- he had never harvested mushrooms before. Over two days we harvested about 50 pounds of morel mushrooms and were able to sell all of it. With Canadian gas prices running in excess of $6 per gallon, this was a good thing.

Not your typical migrant ag worker couple?

The mushroom camp processing 100's of pounds of morels

We had contemplated staying longer at the mushroom camps, but harvesting had begun to feel strangely like work. While it was great work involving hiking in the woods and gathering food, it was also hard work as a migrant agricultural laborer, and my back felt like it. Reaching the northern end of the Cassiar, we turned west onto the Alaska Highway, headed towards Whitehorse, where we would resupply before carrying on through the Yukon Territory. The landscape had changed somewhat, with gentler mountains replacing the rugged terrain of the Cassiar. The wildlife continued to amaze us, as we saw porcupine and more black bear. We camped one last night in BC at yet another beautiful, free BC campsite right on the shores of Morley Lake.

Driving on the Alaska Highway towards Whitehorse brought some amazing scenery, including several large lakes and rivers. We passed through Teslin Lake and met some folks who were about to embark on an amazing boat trip down the Teslin River and onto the Yukon River for six weeks! Whitehorse was a great little provincial capital with most of the conveniences of modern civilization in a very scenic setting, except we had a difficult time getting online to research the rest of our journey. We had been debating backpacking either in Kluane National Park in Yukon Territory or continuing on to Wrangell-St Elias National Park in Alaska. Eventually, we decided that we would pass through Kluane and try to spend time in the northern part of Wrangell. Although we had had a difficult day in Whitehorse and were in poor spirits, two guys at the lake where we cooked dinner raved about our bus, how fantastic our trip sounded, and exclaimed that we were living their dream. All we needed was a little perspective as we pulled back onto the Alaska Highway, the evening light shining on the strikingly beautiful St Elias Mountains.

The St Elias Mountains in Kluane National Park

Evening light of the massive peaks, though this was just the front range

Massive Kluane Lake, mountains and Lupine wildflowers in full show

We camped north of Kluane Lake that night at a rest area. We didn’t sleep up in the pop top that night, not on account of the weather, but because we had seen a gigantic grizzly bear grazing about ¼ mile away. The following morning we dealt with a nasty section of road before crossing into Alaska. The road in this section, although mostly paved, is heavily damaged from frost heaves, and has large rolling dips (speed-bumps) and sections of uneven road surfaces. We passed into Alaska at Beaver Creek and passed through the Tetlin Wildlife Refuge, an area of rolling green hills and short spruce trees dotted with thousands of shallow lakes (aka mosquito maternity wards). We refueled in Tok before turning southwest towards Wrangell St Elias National Park, where we had decided to spend several days on the Nebesna Road. We had considered backpacking, but there aren’t really any trails in the park, and we thought it better to just do some day hikes to get our feet wet, literally and figuratively. Unfortunately, the weather was mostly cloudy and obscured most of the higher peaks such as Mount Wrangell and Mount Sanford, but we could see massive glaciers flowing through deep valleys on their lower flanks. We enjoyed a day hike up over spongy ground with stunted black spruce trees up to a public-use cabin several miles up Caribou Canyon, and ended up camping at a nice roadside site above Twin Lakes for several nights.

Alaska!

Hiking the Caribou Creek trail; Alaskan headgear mandatory

The public use cabin at Caribou Creek

Glaciers flowing from the slopes of Mount Sanford in the distance

Our last full day in the park was spent biking and hiking up to the old abandoned mine at Nebesna. The weather had cleared somewhat, and we enjoyed an exciting 36 mile ride on the rough dirt road with several stream crossings, passing through a landscape of high, glacially sculpted mountains of volcanic and metamorphic rock. We explored the abandoned gold mine perched on a mountainside overlooking the scenic Nebesna River just below where it emerges from the glacier of the same name. It appeared that the mine was visited only infrequently, and there we no tourist facilities or interpretive signs to speak of. The old mine buildings were mostly still intact, and even some of the original receipts (typed and dated 1946) from the US General Land Office for payment on the mining operation were scattered on one of the desks. Back at camp, we were weary after a long day of riding and exploring. We pulled out our outdoor shower and showered above Twin Lakes… we really enjoyed the hot water that night. The next morning we departed for Anchorage for the 4^th of July weekend, ready for some time in civilization and looking forward to visiting Kaarle, a friend of Kristen’s from Quincy.