Dawson Peaks Camp Ground, Teslin, Yukon Territory, Canada. 8 May 2003
Dear Everybody
As we write this, we are parked overlooking the mainly frozen but fast-thawing Teslin Lake, the only occupants of this idyllic forest camp ground. It's 2030 and the sun is still shining on the spectacular snow-covered mountains across the lake. We have just finished our supper of barbecued steak and toasted marshmallows, and the camp fire is slowly burning itself out. The beaver which earlier came swimming past for a closer look has not reappeared, but we can hear the spruce grouse calling from their roosts and the small red squirrels are busy as ever harvesting the thousands of fir cones that litter the floor. The only sound that tells us that there are other humans around is the faint noise of an occasional passing vehicle along the Alaska Highway just to the north of us, and that is a pleasant reminder that there is a long way to go yet and much more to see.
Last time we wrote we were in the UK for Christmas and New Year. Our winter break went on a bit longer than we had planned, and we returned to Canada at the end of March to retrieve Harvey (the RV) from his long hibernation in a friend’s garden not far from Vancouver. We were delighted to find only the smallest trace of damp inside as the tarpaulin covering the roof had done an excellent job of keeping the rain away, and we set to to tackle the few remaining weak spots. Early April in British Columbia and Washington provided an ideal mixture of rain and sunshine - the rain to help trace the leaks, and the sun to dry out the resulting interior dampness and apply more sealant. We think we have finally made Harvey waterproof! We also took the opportunity while near Vancouver to equip him with a new mattress and new seat cushions to improve the comfort factor on our journey to the Yukon and Alaska - plus two new front tyres to add to the four rear ones already bought last August. He really is a remarkably smart R.V. these days!
On the advice of friends, we decided to save ourselves several hundred miles of driving by taking the ferry from Port Hardy at the northern end of Vancouver Island to Prince Rupert on the mainland, nearly 300 miles further north. The ferry route threads its way along the Inside Passage between the British Columbian mainland and the many offshore islands. This was the route we had originally planned to take to Alaska with Island Way, and the ferry trip, although much quicker, seemed a good substitute for doing that part of the journey under our own steam. Our only hesitation was the weather. The chances of rain, cloud and fog at this time of year are quite high. However, although still very early in the season, we decided to book for 26 April, a two-stop service which gave us the longest possible sailing time of 22 hours. As we left Port Hardy at 1800, the clouds which had been with us most of the way up Vancouver Island began to clear, and by nightfall they had disappeared. The next day, apart from a half-hour patch of thick fog, we were treated to clear blue skies and some of the most spectacular scenery imagineable - snow-capped mountains as far as the eye could see, and a never ending vista of forested islands. A truly memorable voyage, made all the more so by the crew, who invited us to spend as much time on the bridge as we wanted.
We arrived in Prince Rupert in the middle of a heat-wave - local residents declaring that they ‘couldn’t take much more of this’. We could! It was tempting to stay put and enjoy the sunshine and scenery, but after a couple of days we thought we’d better capitalise on the sunshine and start the journey north. The route took us along the Trans-Canada Highway, alongside the Skeena River, for the first 150 miles (240 km) until the junction with the Cassiar Highway (the ‘short-cut’ road to the Alaska Highway) just beyond Terrace. Terrace’s claim to fame is the small population of white Kermode bears which inhabit the nearby area. The Kermode bear is not an albino, but a rarely-seen sub-species of the black bear. We were told that we had a good chance of seeing one as we headed north as the bears’ principal food at this time of year is grass, readily available on the roadside verges. We did indeed see bears - 4 in all, and while we were slightly disappointed that they were all black we were also thrilled and awed to find ourselves so close to the wild - it certainly makes us look both ways very carefully when we pull into the side of the road to answer our own calls of nature!
The Cassiar Highway was the first of the partly unpaved roads on our route, and we approached the first gravel stretch with some trepidation, having heard tales of smashed windscreens, burst tyres, deep potholes, slippery surfaces and worse. In the event, the gravel sections turned out to be nearly as good as the paved - and the volume of traffic, at around four vehicles per hour, ensured that the risk of flying pebbles was kept to a minimum. We could not resist the side-trip off the Cassiar Highway which leads west to the remote British Columbian town of Stewart (population 2000) and a short distance beyond it, the tiny Alaskan town of Hyder (population 102!). We had planned to stay in Stewart for a day or two, but, like much of the rest of the town, the camp sites were all closed, so we continued across the border to seek out the Run-A-Muck RV Park, which we eventually found, complete with ‘open’ sign. We were only their second visitors of 2003, and we had the whole campground to ourselves for our two-day stay. Hyder itself is at the head of the Portland Canal, a narrow 90-mile long saltwater fjord, and is surrounded on all sides by snow-capped mountains - really spectacular when the sun is shining, as it did for most of our visit. The road into Stewart took us past our first glacier of the trip, Bear Glacier. Glacier ice really is the most amazing blue colour and the snout was edged with massive chunks that looked ready to split from the main body and crash into the frozen lake at its foot at any moment.
We reached the Alaska Highway on Monday - a broad, tarmac-surfaced, two lane highway with wide hard shoulder on both sides. Traffic volume suddenly leapt to 15-20 vehicles per hour: busy, indeed!! Harvey could happily have eaten up the miles at 50-55 mph, but for reasons of relaxation and fuel economy we have set his cruise control at about 40, a better speed for us to enjoy the unfolding scenery and watch for wildlife. We have added 4 caribou and a moose to the bear count and are assured that we will see more and more as we get further north. With at least three months ahead of us, we are in no particular hurry, and it is wonderful to be able to linger for a few days when we find a place like the campground we are in at the moment.
Subject to random stops and interesting diversions our planned route from here will take us to Whitehorse, then to Atlin Lake, Skagway, Haines (a short ferry trip from Skagway), Haines Junction and then Fairbanks and Anchorage before we return to Vancouver via Dawson City and the Rocky Mountain national parks of Jasper and Banff. By the end of August, our thoughts will be turning to cruising once more, and we hope that we shall have tracked down a replacement boat for Island Way . When we last looked at the various Internet websites, there were over 20 Island Packet 40s for sale around the USA, and it seems very unlikely that all will be sold during the course of the summer - our fingers remain crossed that the right one will be waiting for us. Meanwhile, we are looking forward to an amazing summer and we’ll be writing again to tell you about it and, we hope, updating the web site with photos from this spectacular part of the world. Barbara reached her half-century on 10 April and as she was determined to spend the day doing something active and exciting we decided to go skiing in Whistler. We had a wonderful week with the best snow of the season falling just before we arrived and being refreshed each night of our stay. After a slightly shaky first day we both found our ski legs and our nerves again and were soon swooping (and tumbling!) down the slopes with speed and enthusiasm if not a lot of style! Barbara’s birthday present from John was a very smart digital camera. She is taking hundreds of photos and as soon as she has mastered the next tedious but essential step of downloading, organising and manipulating them she promises to revamp the website and show you some results.
We hope that you are all well and we very much look forward to hearing all your news.
With much love John & Barbara.