11 July Cassiar and YellowHead Highways

11 July
Rest of Cassiar Highway and most of YellowHead Highway

I got woken by some keen early riser at 4:30 this morning, so my own early alarm was duly ignored and I got to breakfast about 8:45, then spent a while chatting with other guests, then owners Tony and Mrs Tony. I spent a bit of time fault finding the electrics (fuse) and finally got lights working again and on the road at 11:00. 5km down the road and the speedo cable gives up the ghost! Curses, I use this to gauge my mileage, when to gas up, everything movement or distance related. Oh well, suck it and see. At least I have a couple of spare gallons, or nearly, I seem to have a bit of a leak from the $2.95 jerry can I got from Wally World, apparently it's self venting, which I think is legalese for can't guarantee the seal.
The weather is still cool with a bit of intermittent rain. Plenty of spectacular mountains, but so much cloud, not a lot of opportunity for photos.

After Iskut, there was a bit more road works, then the road turned beautiful, surface, scenery and curves.

As Professor Caluculus says; "A bit more to the west" fortunately the road does and I avoid weather.

I spotted a black bear cub by the road, but he beetled off quickly. A bit later I spotted another bear and finally got a photo, although not a great one, he only lifted his head to give me the evil eye.

Can't talk - eating

The worst of the weather is now behind me.

The view over the direction I am headed is looking clear, but I’ve been feeling a bit seedy all day and decide to give Stewart/Hyder a miss and see how close I can get to Prince George tonight. I am enjoying the road, though







although the weather is now really hot, like 32-36 degrees C.


By this time I've got to the end of the Cassiar Highway and I've joined the Yellowhead Highway which runs between Stewart and Prince George. Just before Moricetown, I get another headlight flash, the third of the day, the RCMP have been out in force this afternoon. But this is not just a speedtrap, there are full emergency services and all the drama, with a bunch of motorbikes pulled up at the scene. It seems a biker managed to miss a bend and get off the road bigtime, at least 20 ft off the road and almost to the cleared treeline. There was a gang of paramedics there doing what seemed to be dramatic stuff, so I hope the rider is OK.


In Moricetown itself I stopped for a breather at the Gorge, I'm in a bit of a dliema now. I need seat breaks but it's so hot I can't stop for more than a minute or two. The whole area is still under flood action after 3 weeks, all the rivers and creeks are torrents or very high.

Moricetown Gorge

It's ironic here that when the weather is hot, floods abound. There is still a lot of snow about to melt in the warmth.

I get into Smithers at 6:30ish and decide I need at least 2 more hours on the road, possibly 4 if I want to get to Prince George. Should eat, though, so I gas up and go to Maccas, which is really good not for the food, but for the air-conditioning. It's just after 7:00 by the time I'm back on the road, so I just go for it. At Houston I stop to check out the world's largest fly fishing rod,


...and decide maybe Fraser Lake might be my destination for the night, it's getting close to 8:00 and it's still 30+ degrees. I eventually end up at Burns Lake and a check of the book shows it's probably a better bet than Fraser, so I settle here for the night in a motel run by the local First Nation, so I got to pick up a nice souvenir hat. It's just over 2 hours from here to Prince George, so I should make Kelowna tomorrow.

Time on the road, 10 hours
distance, 617km
58mpg imperial - I think I pushed it a bit hard without being able to check my speed. I tried 3 bike shops in 3 towns over a distance of 400 km for speedo cables, but they were all order only - even though they had brand new KLRs on the floor. These guys are only really interested in quads and snowmobiles.