2-4 de septiembre de 2008: Cassiar Highway: Bosques, lagos, zorros y osos.

Día 53-62: 2- 11 de septiembre 2008-  Cassiar Highway

Por supuesto tomamos la ruta menos transitada.

La Cassiar Highway, 1000 km largos, conocidos para la carencia de servicios, del mal  tiempo, de abundancia de osos y por su falta de pavimento.

Aparentemente el ultimo problema se habria solucionado en  parte. Pero y los demas ?  Habiamos escuchado de muchos cicloturistas que habian tenido tanta lluvia en la ruta, que habian pensado al final seguir el camino en bote.  Nosotros veniamos teniendo un poco mas de suerte desde Canada, con las lluvias, esprabamos el milagro de que cotinuara!.

2 de septiembre:  Nugget City- French Creek 58km

Otro dia lindo : soleado y calido, no tuvimos mucho exito para aprovisionarnos de comida suficiente, antes de salir, pero ibamos felices y tarde , como siempre, recien empezamos a mediodia. !

Ibamos felices, pero, apenas doblamos para tomar la ruta vedaderamente, hacia el sur , el viento cambio y se instalo de frente para el resto del viaje y la ruta parecia un acordeon de colinas, y el pavimento…?  bueno, el pavimento simplemente desaparecio …

» El resto de la ruta va a ser toda asi ? » Pregunte con el peor humor a Harry, a quien no parecia molestarle. Yo no podia dejar de recordar los 15 dias sin pavimento y montanas de la Dalton y pense aca vamos otra vez !  … Inmediatamete yo queria dar media vuelta y tomar la otra opcion que aunque sea iba a tener pavimento. Pero la ruta prometia ser tan bonita y Harry ya habia decidido… y cotinuamos …

Subiendo y bajando, esuivando piedras y empujando la bici cuado me cansaba de subir en las partes mas empinadas. Y empujando mi mal humor sola, porque Harry mas rapido se perdio entre las colinas  y ya no tuve  ni con quien quejarme.

En una de las bajadas y entre unos arbustos, vi algo negro que se movia. Me llevo unos segundos darme cuenta que era un oso …

Rapidamente tuve que decidir si parar justo enfrente  para mirarlo, o seguir rapido, bajando. Como se veia chiquito y no estaba ta cerca mio, decidi pasarlo y despues parar un poco mas lejos, para que me diera tiempo de escaparm,el si el oso se ponia peligroso.

Nos estuvimos mirando unos minutos y le saque una foto y un video cortito donde pueden ver qu no estaba muy preocupado por mi. Estaba comiendo berries y mirando a ver que es lo que yo hacia.

Me dio la impresion de que era un oso chiquito, de travesuras , cerca  de la ruta, donde, seguro sabia,  no deberia estar.  Era tan bonito. Estaba lejos, de todas maneras como era Harry quien tenia el Pepper – spray  o  spray anti osos, cuando el oso comenzó a levantarse, yo salte a la bici y segui camino abajo.

Vole a perguntarle a Harry porque no habia parado a ver el oso. Dijo que no haia habido ningun oso y que si yo estaba realmente segura !   le mostre el video y las foto que saque .. a mi me parece que fue un oso a ustedes que les parece ?

De todas maneras se puso contento de que yo estuviera mas feliz que antes  y de que me deje de quejar de la ruta.   Con una gran sonrisa segui pedaleando y mirando a todos lados en busca de mas osos, hasta olvidarme de que iba subiendo y del cansacio.

A solo unas horas de empezar a pedalear la ruta, ya disfrutabamos de lo mas lindo, sus animales paseando tranquilos , cerca de ella. La Cassiar Highway no tienen transito comercial, por lo tanto no hay camiones, que prefieren tomar la otra que va mas rapido. Asi solo un punado de turistas en sus campervans, algunos locales  y ciclistas obstinados junto con toda la vida silvestre convivimos en alegre armonia !.

Teniamos un mapa con las areas de descanso, unos dos pueblos, y dos o tres campings a lo largo del camino; que era importantes para comprar mas comida y encontrar unlugar donde guardarla en la noche para acampar seguros. ( de los osos)

Pero unos km antes de nuestro destino, encontramos un area de descanso preparada para acampar, visiblemente en desuso: French Creek. Pero estabamos solos, habia unas mesas entre el bosque y el rio y no podia ser mas perfecto.  En medio del bosque y escuchando el agua correr, mientras Harry preparaba  una fogata, yo me pase una hora juntando berries. Habian en la zona, solo unas muy rojas y bonitas no eran ricas, pero con azucar al fuego se convertian en mermelada en cinco minutos.

Bueno, tampoco resulto nada buena la mermelada, esas berries , solamente los osos , las encontraban ricas.  Pero la comimos igual, porque son silvestres y organicas.

Cenamos  junto al fuego y antes de irnos a dormir, tuvimos que colgar las bolsas de comida de unos palos muy altos. No habia compu subirse a ellos, solo un clavo sobresalia.

Digo, una escalera a un costado, sirve igual, los osos no va a saber  levantar y apoyar la escalera para subirse hasa laas bolsas,  no ?  Fue dificil pero pudimos.

3 de septiembre:  French Creek – Jade City  : 72km

Otro  día de sol y seguimos camino entre bosques, hacia las  montaña. Este camino no fue hecho claramente para el turismo o la velocidad. Esto era claro por los muchos altibajos, pero también en la carencia de servicios a lo largo del camino.

Pasamos el desvio que lleva al antiguo y ahora fantasma pueblo de Cassiar, evacuado y cerrado, pus alli se trabajaba el asbesto, (toxico y cancerigeno). Por lo cual el acceso esta prohibido.

Una gente linda nos alegro el  día, regalándonos una bolsa llena de pedazos de sandía. Hacia calor y fue muy refrescante, aparte nos encantan estas donaciones sorpresas, de cosas ricas, por la ruta.

Íbamos al  Lago Hope, un pequeñísimo pueblo de descendientes de indios o  nativos». Ellos conservaron el nombre de a tribus de sus antepsados que vivian enn la zona y tambien algunas de sus costumbres. Estan organizados, con una casa central con sus reglas, reciben un poco de dinero del gobierno a cambio de los problemas de tierras que los ha causado y por lo demas hacen vidas normales, se ven escueas, mucha scamionetas, muchas botellas de cerveza y wiskhy o vodka, tiradas al costado de la ruta.

Esta era una de estas aldeas. Justo antes de llegar al pueblo, Harry paro, para filmar y sacar foto,s y yo lo pase. Y fue uno de esos raros momentos en que yo iba adelante de el.  Cuando pasabamos por otro de los  lagos maravillosos que  habíamos visto hoy, vi de reojo, algo que cruzaba la ruta corriendo.  No era un perro, y no era ningun animal que pudiera reconocer, en un rapido escaneo mental, no pude identificarlo.  Pare  y espere a Harry, para contarle: ( todo esto en ingles )

» Algo ha cruzado la ruta corriendo , pero no se que fue ?”

“Qué?”

“No sé!”

¡“Yo no lo vi a qué se parecía”

“ No se iba corriendo con patas largas,  una cola larga tambien, era oscuro. Suena extraña, pero después pasar todas las imágenes mentales de animales en mi mente pienso  que la más cercana  es un MONO »

» No !»  » Si corria como un mono, con las patas de dos en dos» ( esto haciendo la mimica)

Después de un momento de  discusión decidimos que, como justo habiamos pasado un cartel que decia » Watch for Wildlife »  que  significa mas o menos quemires y estes atento a los animales silvestres o salvajes ; decidimos que lo que  habia visto no era nimas ni menos que un Wildlife

Ahora pensando un poco mas, y despues de haber encontrado varios mas «wildlifes»,  puedo decir que probablemente lo que vi fue un zorro de patas largas y oscuras, que corre como mono.  🙂     Especialmente, porque no son los monos la fauna tipica del lugar.! Pero parecia un mono …

El buen Lago Hope, que significa «Esperanza» prometia  tener un supermercado, que era bueno, pues casi estábamos fuera de alimento. Notamos a una muchacha con un bebé, cargando cosas en un coche.

“Está esto el supermercado?” pedimos, señalando en el edificio dañado de donde ella había aparecido, mientras que una pequeña criatura dog-like (la fauna?) raspado molesto en nuestros cargadores.

“Is this the supermarket?” we asked, pointing at the damaged building where she had appeared from, while a small dog-like creature (wildlife?) barked annoyingly at our boots.

“You caught me just in time, I was just about to head out”, she said. This was true in many ways it appeared. Not only was she about to close the shop for the day (at 2 ‘o clock in teh afternoon), but also for the season, which became painfully clear by the roughly 23 items still left for sale on the dusty shelves. Fortunately it included some biketravellers staple diet: spaghetti & noodle soups!

The windwas not so bad here and we entered Jade City while it was still light. The signs ‘Free Coffee’ and ‘Free Camping’ were both irresistible. We checked the place out, which is basically not more than a collection of some buildings and a shop where all kinds of jade thingies are being sold. We helped ourselves shamelessly to the exquisite collection of hot drinks and got to chat with Robin & Claudia and stay the rest of the day, having to pitch our tent in the dark.

I had proposed to Ivana on the summit of Kilimanjaro, 3 months before, but as I only had a carabiner at the time, we did not have rings, we both do not like too fancy jewelry anyway. We found some nice, simple, cheap -and green– jade ones in the store: perfect!

4th September: Jade City – Rabid Grizzly, 88km

We had heard some animals near our tent and the next morning we saw a big black fox cross the road. After a brief climb we enjoyed many nice downhills between logged and replanted forests and yet more Wonderful Lakes and snowy peaks.

Ivana had stopped in front of me and I saw she was looking at a fox which was hiding in the grass. Though quite shy, his curiosity apparently won as he came very close to us. We were not only enjoying being around such a wonderful creature, but also that we could take the tame and play with him for an hour or so. In the meantime maybe 3 trucks and 2 RV’s passed, at which moment we had to chase the fox off the road…

We got a triple ‘Cassiar-surprise‘ at the end of the day: rain, very steep hills and gravel, a great combination to ruin your day. We had though that we could maybe make it to Dease lake, but were beat after the muddy uphills and called it quits at the interestingly named Rabid Grizzly (though other travellers also referred to it as Rabbit Grizzly as well as Rapid Grizzly) rest area.  It still rained, so we cooked inside the small toilet.

We had to evacuate it soon after as a passing car carried some passengers that needed it. A few minutes later they came back, stopped and gave us bananas, noodle soups and other goodies, great! It still surprises us how generous so many people can be towards total strangers that might be considered bums or even hippies by others…

5/6 September: Dease Lake

After the rest of the more than 20km long hilly gravel patch we arrived in Dease Lake. Not exactly a very wild place, hardly alive at all. But it had a very well stocked supermarket with an ATM, so our moods were indestructible, we wouldn’t have to go hunt’n for a week!

After our bellies were finally full we went looking for a Wifi spot and found a great one in the learning center building, also housing the small library. When we were working, a van stopped and a guy came out, lit a cigarette and asked with a heavy french accent if we were online. It turned out that he and his friend were driving the support vehicle for a totally different kind of cyclist: Swiss Jean-Philippe Patthey is trying to set a record time for cycling from Prudhoe Bay to Ushuaia. What will take us about 3 years, he s trying to do in roughly 130 days!

As ‘Jean-Phi’ arrives on his recumbent bike a bit later, we are amazed to hear that he started only 2 weeks before. Furthermore, when we will arrive in Seattle, he will be in Panama…

It is impressive as he is not the youngest cyclist. But he is not carrying anything (all his gear is in the truck), he does not have to arrange any logistics, places to sleep or food (his team does that) and he has no time to meet people or see places along the way, which is our main goal.

Ivana is very happy when she finds out that Jean-Phi is the logistical partner and friend of Mike Horn and that she had been reading about him in one of Mike’s books.

We had secretly camped behind the Library as we could charge our batteries from our tent and do some online back-ups on our Elephant Drive while the connection was good.

The next day another van appeared and two fit Californians introduce themselves: Megan and Guy. It is nice to see their small van, a great contrast with the 10+ m Rv’s we saw before.

While we were having lunch with them, and older woman passed us and stopped for a chat. She mentioned that she would come back later and that she might have her propane tank filled by then, so we could take a a shower if we wanted. That sounded great, but when darkness came it cold very cold and so we quickly fixed our tent again. We did hear a car late at night, but we were deep inside our sleeping bags as it was close to freezing outside.

The next morning we found a note, starting off with: “Dear Travellers”, explaining that her shower was ready and that we were welcome to come by for breakfast. Signed: Holly Eden (see her picture here). It was accompanied by some great tasting cookies, all packaged in plastic to protect them from the rain and morning dew.

We did get our shower from Holly, as well as a great breakfast. While we were cooking an Indian man came by, with very long hair. He was more impressed with our hair -both quite long by now- than our trip. Holly and her church work with him and of his friends, many of whom have had serious problems with alcohol. He told with wild gestures about his recent quad-accident and then went out to help a neighbour.

When we had said goodbye he came towards me and offered me a small bottle of whiskey, secretly hidden in a pocket. I told him ‘no thanks, I do not drink that’ and he took off without saying a word with an expression on his face that showed anger, shame, disbelief and pride at the same time.

We headed out of Dease Lake, climbing almost 400 vertical meters non stop. We passed Gnat lake pass, with 1100m our second highest point so far on the trip. The landscape was probably pretty, but the rain and cold wind took away any joy that was left.

What goes up must come down and we were treated to some excellent downhill sections. Alas, it was raining and we ended up going down on 8% muddy gravel with many potholes, which was no real fun anymore.

At the bottom of the slope we ended up at the Stikine River bridge. Holly had told us about a friend of hers that lived on a ranch, close to here, so we went to find him. It was further than we though, but we arrived at a large clearing with several buildings.

Willie Williams (Please see his photo here) is a great man and he invited us in immediately and even let us sleep in his old house, lined with memories.

8- 11 September: Stikine River Ranch – Meziadin Junction, 288km. 2800m up, 3500m down..

Willie insisted that he would take us and our bikes with his pickup back to the road, over the bridge and halfway up the first hill. When we saw the muddy 8% uphill gravel road we were glad we took his offer..

We spend the night at the Kisaskan campground, arriving very late, in the dark. It was a beautiful place, next to a lake. You have to pay for it, but there was no self-registration and no park warden, so we got away cheap.

The day promised much good as it was very sunny, but soon we met the culprit of the day: a fierce wind pushed us back the entire day, exhausting us totally. Thanks to some huge downhills we managed to arrive at the Bob Quinn lake rest area (more like a parking space, next to the road, but it did have a toilet/shelter and bear-containers).

The 10th was a rainy day, a very rainy day. We made it to a wooden shelter about 25km passed Bell 2 Lodge, under which we could make a campfire and pitch our tent.

Ivana got quite nervous in the night as she heard footsteps and noises near the tent. I was too sleepy to get bothered, but the next day we found quite some mouse scat on our Ortlieb bags

We were now in a new river valley and the going was easy and the forests and valleys beautiful. We met some Dutch people at lunch who prepared a nice lunch for us!

Alas, the ‘venom was in the tail’ as we say in Holland: we were treated on some steep and long climbs out of the valley and some old-fashioned Rollercoasters to top them off and we were happy when we arrived at the Meziadin Junction. There were some abandoned buildings there, in which we could pitch our tent, but it all looked a bit spooky. we decided to pay for the acclaimed campground next to the wonderful Meziadin lake.

We were glad we did after hearing from 2 South African motor-biketravellers, Johan & Charmaine that they spotted some black bears near the buildings, less than 5 minutes after we decided not to crash there! It was the first time that Ivana had ever heard afrikaans and though she recognized some Dutch words, she could not make it out (’it’s an older code, Skipper!‘). This is what they wrote about us on their site:

Daar het ons ‘n egpaar op fietse ontmoet, Harry (Holand) en sy vrou (Argentinie) ry hul fietse vanaf Prudhoe Bay na Usiua, en julle het gedink ons is braaf?

After I had to ask the RV next door to finally shut off their outside (!) generator, we could finally sleep. Most of the infamous Cassiar Highway was done. We hated it at times, but already missed it before we were done with it… First we were going to go on a nice little side trip tomorrow: on the 37a highways, towards the small towns of Stewart & Hyder, Alaska!

———-

Below is a rough map of the section described above. For more detailed and an overal map, see the route map page here.