The Lost World

Cassiar Highway

Along this trip we’ve seen some amazing things so far. It’s hard to believe that things can keep getting better, but they do. The ride from Watson Lake down the Cassiar highway over to Stewart and Hyder (on the Alaska and Canada border) was absolutely phenomenal. It would be impossible to describe it to any degree of justice and I’m certainly no photographer. To my dismay, every time I take a photo of something that looks amazing in person it never quite captures it. I’ve developed a real appreciation for photographers that are able to capture these sorts of things, but I’m certainly not one of them. But in this instance, I know words and photos will fall short and I write this wishing I could bottle up a part of the Cassiar highway for you – it would be an amazing thing to share.

We stayed the night in Watson Lake, a small community along the Alaska highway that started by consequence of the building of the highway during WWII. Upon recommendation, we stayed at the historic Air Force Lodge, where we were greeted by the owners, Michael (pronounced Mic-ai-il in German) and his Austrian wife. Michael, a congenial, double-dimpled fellow, kindly requested us to remove our shoes, showed us the ropes and gave us the history of the building and his painstaking restoration of it. It was the only remaining one of over a hundred similar buildings erected to house the military during the construction of the highway. This particular building served as barracks for air force pilots, and although all the rooms and bathroom facilities are exactly where they were 70 years ago, everything has been redone and is simple, yet clean and comfortable.

We made off from Watson Lake and very soon hit the Cassiar Highway. It was like stepping into a watercolor painting. The multi-hued slopes where anchored by trees of every shade of green. Wildflowers in bright colors line the road taking center stage as the foreground and background constantly compete for your attention. Waterfalls cascade from white capped mountains down rocky faces in to jade greens. We passed signs warning about avalanche areas and looking up could see fallen trees in rows down the slopes – victims of previous winters.

Some of the road was dirt, but most has been paved and I was left with the feeling that I could ride up and down that stretch and never tire of it. I often gasped in my helmet at something particularly beautiful, taking mental pictures that I’ll keep with me forever.

The road y’s and we went right, towards Stewart and Hyder. The two towns, one in Canada and one in Alaska, are contiguous and it’s difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins were it not for the small border crossing building. Here the Pacific Ocean creeps inland just a ways where it meets Stewart and Hyder. I’m not sure the history of this place, it’s origins or beginnings, but just as I was thinking that it was very quickly on its way to becoming a ghost town I see a sign overhead that says, “Welcome to Hyder – the friendliest ghost town.” It truly looks like a lost world and you can see from the barren pilings sticking out of the misty water that this place once hosted busy piers and boardwalks. But now you might expect the Black Pearl ghost pirate ship to roll in at any moment.

This place is beautifully mysterious, with thick cloud cover above and a soupy mist hanging just over the water. Between the grey, spruce and cedar now host hanging mosses in light greens. We stopped at the wildlife viewing area and then headed down the road a ways to see Salmon and Bear glaciers but the road was closed. We rode past the closed signs to see that the night before the road had been completely washed away. Powerful water rushes by below and you can hear large stones knocking against others as they are tumbled down the river, probably once part of the road. Not wanting to miss the glaciers, James had thought that maybe we could skirt around the edge. Taking a look, we decided that there was too little left and deeming the prospect way too pass or fail, we turned around and began heading back out to the Cassiar, to the point at which the road y’ed before. We still had about 100 miles to go for the day and forgetting how south we had traveled, we underestimated our amount of daylight and as it began to rain I had immediately regretted our decision to press on. Just as we started back out, two black bears ran out in front of James. James, putting the ABS to work, grabbed the brakes and had a thought flash through his head, as the brakes grappled with the demands, of him sliding up to the bear, disabled but alive and serving up dinner to the bear.

The bike remained composed and we continued on, making our way back out past glaciers and rivers. Just at the point where we could see the break in clouds ahead of us there was a rainbow. We stopped to try and take picture and noticed gentle upward breezes where raising the cloud cover. James remarked that the colors, somehow bright yet muted and misty at the same time, were like that of a dream.

We made it to Meziandin Lake and camped for the night where James and I almost went to blows over the installation of our rain cover Kelty tarp. Funny thing about that dang tarp, that’s meant to keep our tent and other gear dry when it’s raining, is that of everything that’s happened on this trip that dang tarp has the potential to be a divorce-in-a-bag. As soon as that tarp comes out my blood pressure rises and I’ve decided that James and I just have fundamental differences in our tarp erecting methodology. All that aside James and I managed to remain on speaking terms and we got a good night’s rest.

The next morning just 50 miles or so from where we camped and we were off of the Cassiar. That which would ordinarily be considered quite pretty, in contrast was now, well, quite ordinary.

Our accommodations at Watson Lake:

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

Adding our sign to the sign forest:

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

If you look closely you can see the rainbow:

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

From pics – watson lake through Cassiar

1 Comment

Leave a Reply