I've had vacation time scheduled for the first week of August for several months. I had a rough plan of riding up to Hyder, AK and them maybe up the Cassiar Highway to Telegraph Creek. I mentioned my plan to Danodemotoman a week before departure and he wanted to come along. So, Dan met me after work on Thursday, 8/2 in Bellevue, WA. We headed north taking the back roads to the Sumas border crossing. We had a little excitement at the border crossing, I went through first and told the border patrol agent we were going to Hyder, AK. When Dan went through, he told the agent we were going to Harrison Hot Springs. The made him pull over for further inspection and took his keys! They allowed him to continue after few minutes of questions. Apparently, Dan didn't take me seriously when I said I want to go to Hyder and Telegraph Creek! Then on the the Chehalis River Campground north of Harrison Mills, BC. My KLR650 loaded up and ready to go! Starting mileage. Our campsite for the night, Chehalis River Campground, Harrison Mills, BC.
Since there were 2 of us, we decided to ride jeep trails and forest roads up the west side of Harrison Lake. The roads along Harrison Lake were great fun. About 10 miles of them were a bit of a challenge at times on our fully loaded KLRs. There were many steep hills and lots of loose rocks and ruts. Harrison Lake in the morning light. Danodemotoman having a little fun in a little water crossing. More water fun. Waterfall along the jeep trails on the west side of Harrison Lake. Large logging operation on the north end of Harrison Lake. Indian village north of Harrison Lake. We rode forest roads up to Pemberton for fuel and then hwy 99 and hwy 97 to Lac La Hashe where we camped for the night a nice little campground along the side of the highway. Spectacular mountain views along hwy 99. Campgound at Lac La Hache, BC.
Yup, we had a great adventure fer sure. Happily joined Steven's adv ride. A great riding partner. No serious problems not even a bike drop tho a 10km section along Lake Harrison has portions that were 4X4 difficult on loaded KLR's. 3300 mi approx, 9 days with 8 of them camping and cooking off the bike. We had GREAT weather conditions, mosquitoes were bad a couple days, worst was Laird Hot Springs. The mineral springs was fine reconditioning for the next day(s) ride. Will add more photos later.
On day 3, we rode Hwy 97 and Hwy 16 from Lac La Hache to Tyhee Lake Provincial Park near Smithers, BC. It was all highway, but the scenery was nice. Tyhee Lake Our campsite for the night. Our trusty KLR650s.
Day 4, we ride from Thyee Lake Provincial Park to Hyder, Alaska. The scenery was spectacular, lots of bears and glaciers! Indian salmon fishing with a net. The beginning of the Cassiar Highway. Bear Glacier viewed from Hwy 37A. Bear Glacier Entering Stewart, BC. Stewart, BC street scene. We made it to Hyder!!! Beautiful little lake north of Hyder.
We rode to the Fish Creek Wildlife Viewing area north of Hyder where we see several bears. <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/2019070476_QpZfZhp?width=640&height=360"></iframe> <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/2019072775_7w5LDxP?width=640&height=360"></iframe> <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/2019074120_JCVDLjF?width=640&height=360"></iframe> <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/2019074784_9Tc3T37?width=640&height=360"></iframe>
While in Hyder we met Mark, a V-Strom rider from Victoria. The 3 of decided to ride up to the Salmon Glacier north of Hyder. The glacier is spectacular! Mark and his V-Strom and me and my trusty KLR. <iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="https://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/2019992478_Hp7cLdW?width=640&height=360"></iframe>
Thanks for posting Steven. Great photos and video as usual. Give us your impressions and anecdotes as well. You're a great observer as well as photographer. Thanks again, Dave
On Tuesday, we had a nice breakfast with our new friend Mark from Victoria in at a nice little bakery in Stewart. Then the 3 of us headed north to Telegraph Creek. We had to stop for one last picture at the Bear Glacier on the way out. A nice R1200GS rider from Mexico City took our picture. The scenery along the Cassiar Highway was great. We gassed up a rather busy gas station in Dease Lake. Apparently, It is good for business to be the only gas station in 50 miles! The we started the 75 mile trek to Telegraph Creek. The road was in excellent condition and we thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Mark crossing the Tuya River, one of several rivers that run into the Stakine River. Mark and I with the Grand Canyon of the Stakine in the background. This rock formation looks like a Smiley face to me! A Tahltan Indian village in the canyon. Danodemotoman Mark The Grand Canyon of the Stakine River Old church in Telegraph Creek. There is not much in Telegraph creek. The guides books and maps are out of date. The restaurant and campgrounds are closed. We only found the local store, a tin building with no signs out front, because the local mountie directed us to it after he found us filling our water bottles from the water hose in front of the local RCMP station. It turned out to be a fairly well stocked little store ran by the Tahltan Indians. We ended up riding down the road to Glenora, where the only place we could find to camp turned out to be the Thaltan Summer fish camp. They were nice enough to let us camp there. The Stakine River at Glenora. Our campsite at the Thaltan fish camp. We prepared our dinner and breakfast at an old picnic table a couple of hundred feet from where we set up tents in case we had any bear visits during the night. The next morning we rode back out to Dease Lake. The ride from Dease Lake to Telegraph Creek was one of the highlights of the trip!
very nice pix and story- looks like a beautiful time!! a kewl ride would be keep going north past dease and do the loop back towards fort nelson and come back out at Prince George to head south again- all beautiful country!
On Wednesday morning, we rode back to Dease Lake and headed north to Watson Lake. We stopped in a Jade City, so Mark could pick up some nice gifts for his wife. It's a nice place to stop, they have lots of beautiful jade figures and art. Cutting jade. Boya Lake Provincial Park along the Cassiar Highway. We say good bye to British Columbia, temporarily, and enter the Yukon Territory. We stopped for hamburgers a restaurant at the junction of the Cassiar and Alaska highways. We say good buy to Mark, he is continuing north up to the Dempster Highway. Unfortunately, due to time constraints it is time for Dan and I to start heading home. We ride on to Watson Lake and check out the wold famous Sign Post Forest. The we continued south on the Alaska Highway back into to BC to the Liard Hot Springs, where we braved vicious mosquitoes and camped for the night. Dan enjoying the relaxing hot springs. I thoroughly enjoyed soaking in the springs, a perfect ending to a great day of riding.
Steven, well done on the travel log! We still have tire kicking and breakfast to do on the 2nd to last day.
Great ride. As I sit here with a degenerating muscle disease, unable to ride, glad a neighbor can help me dream of doing a ride. I will map out this route and put something similar on my to do list.
As an aspiring adv rider (and current sport bike rider), well done. Looked like and absolute blast...
When I woke on on Wednesday morning, I could see hundreds of mosquitoes clinging the the vents on my tent. I laid there for a while wishfully hoping that they would fly away before I had to get up. I gave up and quickly packed up my gear, skipping out on our normal coffee and breakfast. While I was loading up my bike, it fell over. I picked it up quickly and finished loading it up without taking time to investigate what was making it so unstable. As we were riding through the campground on our way to the highway, it became apparent that my back tire was mostly flat! Now I knew why the bike fell over! The mosquitoes were so vicious that we pumped it up to 45lbs hoping it would stay inflated long enough to get down the road to a location with fewer mosquitoes where we could fix it properly. BC's Hwy 97 had a lot of wildlife. We had to stop and wait on this herd of Buffalo to cross the road. We encountered a lot of these little fellows. They were licking up road salt according to a truck driver we met. The scenery was beautiful. My back tire didn't seem to be losing much air so we didn't stop to fix it. We stopped for breakfast a little gas station / cafe just south of Muncho Lake. The place was a one man operation ran by an incredible cranky proprietor! If there had been anyplace to get breakfast near by, I would have left. His breakfast turned out to be excellent. He served us very think slices of toast made from bread he baked on site himself. His bacon was very think and perfectly cooked. He even grated potatoes while we waited to make fresh hashbrowns. The breakfast was great. While we were there a truck driver came in and ordered breakfast. The cranky proprietor quizzed him to determine if he could actually eat a full order because he didn't want to waste any food. The truck driver convinced him that it could eat it all, so he allowed he to order the full breakfast! We left so I don't if he was able to eat it all. We needed gas, but we elected to continue on to the next gas station so we didn't have to deal with Mr. Cranky anymore. I checked my back tire every time we stopped and it wasn't losing much air so we continued on. Since the air was leaking out of my tire very slowly, it only lost 10 lbs by the end of the day. I bought a bottle of Slime and put it in it. The Slime actually sealed the leak and it hasn't lost any more air. We ended up camping for the night at a great little campgound just south of Hudson's Hope on a bluff overlooking the Peace River.