Final push South

Bear Glacier on the drive into Stewart, B.C.

Rolling off the ferry in Skagway I sensed the end of the trip was near even though I still had over 1500 miles ahead of me.  I've been  guilty on past trips of picking up the pace on the final few days of a trip once the "turn around point is reached" and simply pounding out miles with a home destination the only goal. As I rolled off the ferry in a driving rain late that night I committed to continuing my established slow pace and enjoy the remaining days.  I headed about 10 miles outside of Skagway to Dyea, Alaska where I located a nice level spot around midnight and made the mad dash to pop up the camper in a torrential downpour. Skagway and Dyea are the major ports which supplied the Klondike Gold Rush. Located 600 miles south of the gold fields, towns were the closest salt water ports to the Klondike gold fields.  They became boom towns that catered to the miners.  Each was the trailhead for going over the mountain pass to the fields. From Skagway, stampeders took the White Pass and from Dyea they took the Chilkoot Pass. The rain continued throughout the night and my plans for hiking a portion of the Chilkoot Trail was not looking good.  No hiking occurred the following morning so I started east to intercept the Cassiar Hwy.   First planned stops were Hyder,  Alaska and Stewart, B.C..  I should have probably skipped this as I had been to both before.  When I reached the turn off the rain continued to follow me but I went anyway in hopes that it would subside. It didn't!  I ended up driving in, camped in the rain and fog thick as soup, and left the following morning. Since departing Haines the weather had gotten bad and was headed to worse. I had to fight the urge to just start pounding out miles.  Finally, once I got a little further south the rain decreased but the temperatures were headed in the same direction I was......south.  I had been told of a wilderness road that skirts the Spatsizi Wilderness  by a fellow I camped next to in Alaska a few weeks ago. He went on and on about its lack of people, ample wildlife and beautiful scenery.Having looked at it on my map prior to hearing about it, I had kind of written it off as it didn't show any roads going in.  For some reason, my map didn't show the road he was telling me about.  He told me what to look for and sure enough I located it.   This is one of those areas where you have to look for it. The road, which is basically an old railroad grade, is dirt and in poor conditions in places and not well marked off the main.  Four-wheel drive is a must in here especially if the road is wet.  A real possibility exists of becoming stranded should one of the stream crossings become impassable on your drive out.  It's about 60 miles into the end of the road and then you come back out the same way.  It's a beautiful drive and I did see one black and one grizzly while here along with a couple of moose.  No pictures, I've posted enough bear and moose pictures.  I didn't get anything really good anyway as both of them were spotted with hardly any light left. I only encountered two people  total while  in the area. I ended up spending two nights and should probably have spent more, but the nights were getting damn cold, and to be honest, I was getting a little road weary. I really didn't take many pictures other than the Spatsizi Wilderness area once on the Cassiar Highway so I'll just post up the few I did take and wrap up the trip.  

Dusting of snow on the first night.  Temps in the high 20's.

Fall colors all the way in.

First bridge about 20 miles in.

Road skirts the river and in higher water conditions can easily flood the road.

Small creek with fall foliage.

 

Camp the first night

Aspens

 

Lake along the Cassiar Highway

Hunters I came across had taken a big bull moose earlier that morning.  They were very excited about the kill as they stated they really needed the meat for the winter.  I stopped and talked with them about the hunt and watched them dress out the moose.  Hate to see such a magnificent animal like this taken but at the same time I understand the subsistence it provides.  It's the idiots that do this for pure sport that I have a major problem with.

A few steaks hanging here.  

Once I got back out pavement,  the "home bug" bit me and I started pounding out the miles to get back across the border.  It was a great trip.  I ended up being on the road for almost 10 weeks and travelled a little over 11,000 miles, no breakdowns other than one flat, got stuck once, had many wildlife encounters, gazed on beautiful scenery and met some interesting people while roaming around British Colombia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Alaska.  I'd load up and go again tomorrow.  There is just so much to see and do one could spend years and not see it all.  It is by far my most favorite area to explore and roam around in.  With any luck I'll be back up north soon.  In the meantime, Petey is already back in the planning stage for our next adventure. Hope you enjoyed following along via the Blog.

Petey is thinking Key West sounds good about January!