Day 33-34 The Cassiar highway in fall

Thurs Sept 13, Fri 14 - Cassiar highway

We wake in Watson Lake to minus 4 C and low threatening clouds.  It's either return down the Alaska Highway, through the Peace River country that is now blanketed with snow, or continue with our original plan of the more westerly route south on the Cassiar.  We'll take our chances, mapping out a few open campgrounds en route that have power for our heater overnight.  We're getting too soft - we'd have winterized the camper and just stayed at provincial parks in the olden days!

Winter paddle with beavers.

At Boya Lake provincial park we spend a lovely afternoon paddling beneath leaden clouds.  This lake is usually covered in loons and grebes, kingfishers flashing past, osprey overhead, but today there's not a soul visible.  The beavers have amassed impressive piles of logs and shrubs outside their houses - they must know it's going to be a long winter.

Beautiful Boya Lake with snow on the distant hilltops.

Foregoing a cold night here, we head down to the one horse town of Dease Lake, and hook up for the night.  It's not pretty, but it's warm and dry.  In the morning, the truck starts reluctantly and we head off under dark heavy clouds.  Flurries come and go through the morning and snow blankets the Cassiar mountains right down to the road.

Snow in the Cassiar mountains on a chilly Sept morning.

Our lunch stop amidst the aspens, beneath the snowy mountains.

Still we marvel at the aspens decked out in their fall finery, bright beacons in the otherwise dark landscape.  They form a tapestry of colours amongst the blue-green spruce, and we list the shades:  lime, Granny Smith, lettuce leaves, pistachio ice cream, lemon, butter, egg yolk, tangerine, campfire...   It must be lunch time.  We stop at the side of deep green Eddontenajon Lake, make coffee and watch the low clouds shift across the steep and snowy peaks above us.

From here south the highway improves, but the scenery is marred by a corridor of transmission lines, built 10 years ago to promote the mining industry in the NW.  The dream of prosperity never materialized but the towers remain as a testament to political boondoggling.

Quite suddenly the northern boreal forest gives way to lush coastal vegetation.  We descend from the Spatzizi plateau into the dense hemlock, cedar and fir forest.  Distant glaciers in the coast range peak out beneath the clouds.  Even the sky begins to clear, and we arrive at Meziadin Lake in sunshine.  What a wonderful surprise!

Meziadin Lake from our campsite!