August 8, 2014
Today was a strange weather day. It started completely clouded in at Jade
City. The rest of the day it ranged from
bright sun with blue sky, to pouring rain to fine mist. It changed quickly changed from one to
another multiple times throughout the day.
Before getting on the road we spent some time talking to one
of the jade craftsman. He cuts and
polishes the stones. It was totally amazing to see the huge boulders of jade
just sitting on the side of the road.
The Chinese come to this remote location and select their boulders which
are then shipped across the world to their artisans. Another thing that was so amazing was that the
boulders and smaller pieces of stone looked like ordinary stones until you wet
them down with water and then you could start to see the green. We actually bought a couple of small pieces
of rough stone and if we didn't tell you, you would never guess it was
jade. We will keep one to be able to
show people how it looks. We are going to put a little in our rock tumbler and
see what happens. It will take much
longer to smooth and polish the jade because it is much harder than our quartz
or other stones. After spending some
time with the craftsman we went inside and talked to some of the owners and
workers in the mine and of course looked over their goods. Yes, we did have to make some small
purchases. This was a very interesting
stop and the people were so hospitable.
Free spot to boondock, good free WIFI and good free coffee as well as
good conversation. We would definitely
recommend that people consider the Cassiar for their route to or from Alaska
and definitely plan a stop at the Cassiar Mountain Jade Store.
The road when we first left the Jade Store was not bad –
speed limit 80kph/48mph, and we were driving about 44-45 comfortably. Others were driving much faster. There was a fine mist when we left. The area had many really beautiful blue
lakes. The road significantly worsened about 11:00 when we got to the north end
of Dease Lake. Interestingly, the
weather became much nicer at the same
time. Sections of this portion reminded us of the really bad section of the Tok
Cutoff or Top of the World Highway. We
thought the road had improved around Water's Edge campground, but then rounded
a curve and our hopes were dashed. The
road did improve in the town of Dease Lake but then had continued gravel
sections and construction on further south.
We stopped at the Eddontenajon Lake rest area for lunch and a
break. The morning drive was
tiring.
The roads started to improve and then suddenly about 30 miles further south there was great improvement and we actually had a center line again. The shoulders came and went and construction continued intermittently all day but the further south we got the better the roads.
The roads started to improve and then suddenly about 30 miles further south there was great improvement and we actually had a center line again. The shoulders came and went and construction continued intermittently all day but the further south we got the better the roads.
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| Beautiful place for a lunch |
Observations from today:
(1) Fall is coming here as well in the higher elevations. Our highest pass today was at Gnat Pass Summit with an elevation of 4,072 feet. In that area we noted that the cow parsnip and devil's club were all yellow and there was also color change in tree leaves. We are back down to about 1500 feet now and there is not as much change yet.
(2) Don't want to insult the British Columbia truckers, but our experience has been that the ones on the Cassiar are not nearly as considerate as the ones in Alaska. By that we mean, we grew accustomed to those we met doing as we did in the gravel/torn pavement areas – move to the right and slow down so as to not throw rocks. We did this on the Dalton and everywhere else – almost stopping at times when we met 18 wheelers and they would do the same to avoid showering us with rocks. Now we also observed other RVers not doing this and likewise the truckers would just keep on going as well and both got showered with rocks. We have seen and talked to some RVers who had to have new windshields shipped to Alaska because of so much rock damage. So far – knock on wood – we have had no damage. We attribute this to the slow speed when meeting in rocky areas. The truckers we met today seemed to want their half down the middle and never slowed down. On one narrow bridge we just had to stop and wait because the trucker just made it a one lane bridge. Just an observation and would encourage everyone to just slow down and be careful.
(3) The fire hydrants look rather strange
sticking way up in the air around Dease Lake.
We are assuming that this is so that the firemen can locate the hydrants
in the winter snow but it looks rather strange to someone from Alabama.
(4) We
are currently about 30 miles from the turn to Hyder so we still have the part
of the Cassiar south after Hyder to drive, but based on the past 2 days we are very
glad we made this trip. The scenery is
great and we like the remoteness of the area.
Now if the bears and salmon are just in the river at Hyder, please,
please, please!
(1) Fall is coming here as well in the higher elevations. Our highest pass today was at Gnat Pass Summit with an elevation of 4,072 feet. In that area we noted that the cow parsnip and devil's club were all yellow and there was also color change in tree leaves. We are back down to about 1500 feet now and there is not as much change yet.
(2) Don't want to insult the British Columbia truckers, but our experience has been that the ones on the Cassiar are not nearly as considerate as the ones in Alaska. By that we mean, we grew accustomed to those we met doing as we did in the gravel/torn pavement areas – move to the right and slow down so as to not throw rocks. We did this on the Dalton and everywhere else – almost stopping at times when we met 18 wheelers and they would do the same to avoid showering us with rocks. Now we also observed other RVers not doing this and likewise the truckers would just keep on going as well and both got showered with rocks. We have seen and talked to some RVers who had to have new windshields shipped to Alaska because of so much rock damage. So far – knock on wood – we have had no damage. We attribute this to the slow speed when meeting in rocky areas. The truckers we met today seemed to want their half down the middle and never slowed down. On one narrow bridge we just had to stop and wait because the trucker just made it a one lane bridge. Just an observation and would encourage everyone to just slow down and be careful.
Wild life we saw today - Ptarmigans, red squirrels and a
black bear. Only got a picture of the
bear. Check back tomorrow – maybe there
will be more.
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