So we awoke to the day that would see us say goodbye to our new friend that is Prince Rupert. Strangely, she was still in a great mood and we looked out to see blue skies yet again. We had a quick breakfast and loaded the car, our first stop would be the creek walk along McClymont Park Trail. Jebo still seemed a bit tired but seemed ready to pose for a few pictures in the mossy interior of the park trail
We then got on the road, the Yellowhead Highway headed past Terrace to the start of the Cassiar Highway, part of the Alaska Highway network. If we somehow forgot to make the turn on the Cassiar and just kept chatting for a few days we would actually end up in Winnipeg. The Yellowhead (Highway 16) is a 2000 km highway through Western Canada that flows through Edmonton and Saskatoon en route to Winnipeg. The Highway is named after the Yellowhead pass, a pass used by fur traders that was apparently discovered by Pierre Bostonais, a Frenchman with yellow streaks in his hair, hence the nick name “Tete Jaune.”
The drive out of Prince Rupert was truly beautiful with the blue skies wrapping around the mountains, it seemed even more beautiful than the drive in a few days ago
Once past Terrace, the drive becomes less spectacular and we settled in to listen to some Spanish lessons to the pass the time, but then that was interrupted by a little black bear on the side of the road that didn’t seem at all bothered by us stopping and grabbing a photo of him.
We said our goodbyes to the bruin, continued on our trip east, continued our Spanish lesson and somehow in the midst of all of this caught the turn to the Cassiar and started our journey north.
We had looked so forward to getting on the Cassiar and have to say that the first hour or so is very underwhelming, it is treed and virtually nothing to look at for the first hour and a half. It was a good time to work on more Spanish
But as we approached the Meziadin Junction and turn towards Stewart, the mountains were just jaw-droppingly amazing. Stunning in their stature, sheer faces and so close to the road, they towered over us as we headed down Highway 37A. The glaciers running right down to the surface were utterly amazing to us, especially considering the ambient temperatures today were into the 20’s
The speed of our progress slowed considerably as it was so hard to keep eyes on the road and somehow, the feeling of being so small in a huge environment just didn’t promote aggressive driving.
It was rather fortunate that we were going so slow as around the next corner a mom and two of her cubs approached the road to grab a snack and chatted with us for a bit
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We arrived in Stewart this afternoon (Sunday) to find virtually everything closed except the ice-cream shop and our hotel.
and given the beautiful warm day, it seemed like the perfect thing to do was get an ice cream and explore some trails with Jebo.
It was a fun day and we cant wait to head into Hyder, Alaska tomorrow, we are just a few minutes from the border
The trip so far looks like this, 23;43 HRS, 2037 KM
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