Day 14: Dease Lake BC - Smithers BC

Things I learned today:  Canadian fag packets open sideways!

The wildlife tally is now up to three live BEARS (plus two dead ones), as well as yesterday's fox, a coyote on the outskirts of Whitehorse and an unidentified but vaguely feline-looking beastie cross the Klondike Highway the other day.  Too far away to spot many distinguishing features.  Today's live BEARS were determined not to be photographed.  One I only had a brief sight of as I was behind a bus-sized motorhome; the other got spooked by That Shitbox Dodge creeping up on him and ran off into the woods just as I was getting the camera pointed in the right direction.  I tried stopping at a rest area and making a noise like a bowl of porridge but no takers.

The Cassiar Highway south of Dease Lake is very much like the Cassiar Highway north of Dease Lake, though this morning I was sharing it with five Alaskan bikers at least until they stopped for breakfast after 100 km.

Though shortly after the Stikine River bridge, they have thrown in a kilometre or so of gravel just to keep the bikers on their toes - it being quite a steep and wiggly hill and - today at least - blanketed in low cloud.

The road heads pretty much due south,as confirmed by Emily's built-in compass and not by the similar gadget in That Shitbox Dodge.  At one point Emily had me - correctly - going south while TSD said I was going east???  Navigation did become easier at the halfway point of the Cassiar, though, because someone had managed to open BC Highways' tin of paint.

Which no doubt helped these two boy-racers at Bob Quinn Lake airport:

First of two junctions encountered in 600 km was at Meziadin Junction.  Straight on for Stewart and Hyder AK, but I went there in 2015 so turned left.  A few kilometres on I had intended to make use of the rest area at the Nass River bridge, but The Man is in the middle of replacing the old single lane bridge and the former rest area is full of Big Yellow Things doing nothing (for today is a Bank Holibob in Leftpondia).  The Nass River rest area was where I met Ursula and Farley for the first time in 2015, only to meet them again a couple of weeks later and a Several of hundreds of km away.

Ursula and Farley at Hells Gate in 2015.  Ursula is the one with the blue jumper.

Kitwanga brings civilisation or, put another way, cows.  These may actually be the first cows I've seen on the entire trip.  There is also a junction.  Left for the final run towards Smithers.  New Hazelton brings both the first traffic light in more than 1200 km and the sound of a lawnmower, for it is still just about summer down here.  And just like in 2015, Emily tries to knock 50 yards off the trip by diverting me through the residential bit of Moricetown.  This time I am not fooled and thus got to see this:

And so to Smithers.  The good news is that I am at the back of the building and thus away from BC-16, wot is the main road between the port of Prince Rupert and Prince George, the largest town in the area.  The bad news is that the railway line is on this side of the building too.  Bah!