Friday, July 15, 2011

July 12 - The Cassiar Gets Ugly

We started out early from Meziadin Lake with a long drive ahead of us.  We wanted to make it to Watson Lake in the Yukon, about 370 miles.  What we didn't know is how bad the road would get.  It went from nice blacktop, to chip and tar sealcoat, to about 25 miles of the dustiest dirt road we've ever been on!  In this pic, there was an 18 wheeler about a half mile in front of us.  If we got any closer there was no way we could see where we were going or what might be coming.  25 miles of this! 

At one point a truck going the other way threw a stone and we got our first, and hopefully last, chip in the windshield.  It seems to be a rite of passage for anyone driving to Alaska.


 About mid-afternoon, we finally crossed over into the Yukon.


While the Cassiar was still paved it was the tar and chip stuff.  Still dusty and some nasty bumps from frost heaves.  Some were marked, but a couple had the fifth wheel rocking and rolling behind us.

About 50 miles south of the north end of the Cassiar Hwy, we started seeing signs of a huge fire.  Burned areas as far as we could see.


 

We finally made it to Watson Lake at about 8:00 pm.  Good thing it never gets dark up here!  It is also very strange though.  We covered the windows to keep the light out so we could get some sleep.

2 comments:

  1. Good thing you had that loose wall fixed!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if this fire was from last summer. We were headed that direction, but there was a very large fire and they were only letting traffic through at 8 in the morning...following a lead truck. We opted to go a little farther east then south. That's where we ran into the big buffalo herd alongside the highway.

    ReplyDelete