Out of Touch...

Craig and I drove two 12 hour days to catch up with the group. Whew! It's hard to keep up with these young folks. They were just going and going. Plus we had some communication issues, like no cell service. If you drive the Alaska Highway, you just get used to it.

At any rate, we knew they would be at a provincial park (read state park) just after the turn to the Cassiar Highway. You should have seen the look on their faces when we pulled in at about 8:00 PM. They could not believe we managed to cover that amount of distance in two days. But it was worth it. It was great to see everyone, and the park was beautiful. The sites were right on the water and the lake was like glass. Yet another park to spoil us.







I was so excited (and tired) that I forgot to take some photos. Paula is a budding photographer, and took these of the group and Big Mama.We hated to leave that amazing place, but the generator hours were too short to keep up with us, so we headed on down the highway. 






When we planned the trip, I wanted to drive both of the often used routes to Alaska. We went up on the Alaska Highway through Calgary and Dawson Creek and wanted to come back on the Cassiar Highway. Mostly because it's nice to see something new. 

I had not read much about the road until we were ready to drive it. That's when we found out that the Cassiar Highway is one of the narrowest roads we've seen. Anywhere!! The Milepost notes that the northern section is two lanes with no shoulder. By that I mean, the pavement ends and the road drops off at 45 degrees to a depth of 1 to 5 feet. Did I mention that there are no lines painted on the road?

After the road improved.

This continued for the first 150 miles of the highway. The other problem was a lack of turnouts. No where to go if you had a problem. And it's a truck route!! I'm surprised we didn't lose a mirror. You can't believe how happy we were to see 12 inches of shoulder and a faint center line.

When is the last time you saw this?

As we left the beautiful lake, we figured we needed to make some reservations. Without cell service, we found a store a few miles away and went there to use the phone. That's when we found out that we needed a calling card. When was the last time you used one of those? We didn't have one, but the nice, young girl at the register let us use the store phone. Thankfully, we could make a reservation. Then the young girl informed us that we would have no cell service for 395 miles. What??? Did we hear that correctly? Almost 400 miles with not so much as 1 bar. And no way to make the phones we did find work. This road was becoming a test of patience for all of us. 


At least the scenery was beautiful, and different from any we had seen. The Cassiar Highway is lined with lush valleys and clear, blue lakes. The occasional snow covered peak makes it look like Switzerland. 


We stayed two nights at a nice park so we could take a breather and get some laundry done. It was the perfect place to have a cookout and enjoy some of Craig's catch of the day. Since the ladies wanted to contribute, we decided to go berry picking. Again, Paula rose to the occasion and documented our hard work. Maybe not so hard, but we all ended up with insect bites of various sorts. 

The berries were delicious.

Just before we left the Cassiar Highway and returned to "civilization" our boys had another chance to play good samaritan. The guys had stopped to fix Rich's windshield wipers. A young woman happened to be parked in the same rest area, and had no idea she had a flat tire. Big Mama and the boys to rescue. A little air and she was on her way.

Another win for our Angels of the Highway.