The first night gave me a reality check for what I was doing and forced me to recognize that I need to plan a little better. I intended to get to Tok around 3pm and find a place to camp, ideally for free. I hadn’t eaten enough because I was trying to get on the road, was late leaving and didn’t get in until around 730. I decided to stay at a campground, because it was too late and I was too tired to spend time looking for something free. But it was also very isolating because I was the only one camping there. I got setup but it was going to take too much time and be too difficult to cook a meal, so I ate a protein bar and went to sleep.
I woke up refreshed, made some coffee, packed up and got on the road. Part of my issue is that I am limited on what I can have easy access to and most of my cooking gear was secondary. I wanted to take the drive through Canada slower and enjoy it, but it’s an environment that I just don’t enjoy camping in. Gas was also $9 a gallon through much of Canada! All that said, I decided to drive straight through most of it.
I made it to Whitehorse the second day. It was a lot nicer than I remember when I drove up, I think it was the difference of showing up in spring instead of winter. I was able to pick up some things I forgot and some fresh vegetables. Though, my cooler was waiting for me in Washington, so I couldn’t grab much in the way of fresh foods.
On the third day I had planned to go to Watson lake and see the sign post forest. I have an app that claimed there was free camping near by and I was going to stay there. I got there and was able to explore the forest, but when I got out it was pouring down rain and there were a bunch of no camping signs. I decided to continue on to Liard Hot Springs, 20 minutes down the road and it was a beautiful evening of sunshine. I was planning on staying here the following night, but I’m glad I showed up a day early. It gave me all of day four as a rest day.
This was the first place where there were other people, I got one of the last few spots in the campground. I ended up talking to a few different people, most of them locals just up for the weekend. I took my bike out and got some up close pictures of some Bison, before turning around. I didn’t realize it at the time since I was focused on the one glaring at me, but further back there was a new born. Unfortunately, I completely forgot to get a picture of the hot springs themselves.. I was too focused on relaxing!
I spent some time reorganizing my packing situation. I was trying to reduce how many things I needed to pull out for any specific task and created a quick access bin for my most used things; coffee and snacks mostly. I packed everything up this night because I had a long way to go tomorrow and wanted to get an early start.
Day five was mostly uneventful, but I got some amazing views of the landscape. I made it all the way down to Dawson Creek, where I got a hotel room for a much needed shower.
Day six, I made it to Cache Creek, I pulled in around 7pm and really wanted to keep going. I had six more hours to drive to get to my friend, John’s house, but everything I read about the rest of the way was a winding cliffside road, so I overnighted here.
Day seven, my last day driving! I got started and was immediately glad that I had waited til the daylight to make the drive. The view was absolutely stunning. It’s a lot of rolling hill farm land, but in the mountains. The road was along a cliff, following the Fraser river. The border crossing, wasn’t too bad, maybe a 20 minute delay. From there it was another few hours to John’s. I’m spending a bit of time here, visiting friends, repacking (I have a powered cooler and a jackery to add), and planning the next stage.