Cassiar Hwy (August 18-19) - We had an hour and a half drive from Tok to the border crossing, where we would enter the Yukon. It was a nice day out and we were sad to be leaving Alaska but excited to see what was ahead of us. Sam scheduled a work meeting in Vancouver on the 23rd so we knew we had to be there the night before. That meant some big driving days ahead! We went about 5.5 hours that day until we got to Kluane Lake and decided to take a break. When we get in sight of any body of water Nelly grabs her frisbee and expects a stop and 9 times out of 10, we stop. It was so sunny and the water was crystal clear. Nelly had a great time running up and down the beach and flipping her frisbee in between throws. We had lunch and from there we hit the road to make it to our final destination for the night (high lake), which is located just 3 miles south once you turn off the Alaska Highway onto the Cassiar Highway, which is now British Columbia. We got in really late, tired and hungry. We ended up driving 13.5 hours that day (by "we" I mean Sam)! Nelly was excited to get out of the truck, picked up her frisbee per usual and explored the area. We moved our things back to semi permanent spots for the night (have to take things down for the bumpy drives) and started boiling some water for pasta. I wont get into it but, the pot of boiling water ended up spilling and burning Sams hands, really bad! Having no ice packs, he resorted to the halibut, which was pretty perfect. Unfortunately, he was in excruciating pain all night but was eventually able to fall asleep. We woke up early for another long day of driving. Made our coffee, went down to the lake, and we were back on the road. The Fox (August 19) - Shortly after leaving high lake we had our favorite wildlife encounter (so far). The Cassiar Highway is pretty deserted up north (I mean the Alaska highway is too, but even more so) so we had a feeling we may come across some wildlife. Sam stopped the truck after noticing something run down the ditch. He got out staying near the truck and a little fox appeared! This little guy kept getting closer and closer to Sam, not afraid at all, but curious. I also was getting curious :) I stepped out and he got scared, running away. Whoops. Sam called him back, we offered a dog treat which he denied, and that was it. But man, it was so exciting! Jade City (August 19) - We stopped in Jade City, which is a hwy community made up of one jade business that specializes in jade products. Fun fact: the miners in the Cassiar Mountain Range produce about 1 million pounds of jade each year, and half of that is exported. It was so neat to see all of the jewelry and other items that artists made. Great spot for Christmas gifts ;) Will you be the lucky one? Stewart (B.C.)/Hyder (AK) (August 19-20) - Take Hwy37A off the Cassiar Hwy(37) and you`ll reach Stewart (B.C.) in 40 miles and Hyder (AK) 2.3 miles further. We didn`t realize there was this part of Alaska, so once we did, it was a must stop. About 15 miles in we stopped to look at Bear Glacier, which used to reach the hwy. Stewart was just 25 miles further and is home to about 700 people. We saw a bear in somebody's yard and a couple blocks down thought we saw another, but just a Rottweiler :) Stewart`s Ripley Creek Inn is a collection of 9 historic buildings offering 37 rooms total, all with antique furniture and modern conveniences. It was so cute, but we didn`t even bother calling for a room because most likely Nelly would not have been allowed, but who knows! Hyder is even smaller than Stewart, with a population of 100. It was exciting to be back in Alaska! It was raining, but we later found out that`s quite common there. They get a total of 93 inches of rain/year, compared to the U.S. average of 39 inches. We headed to the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Area for a chance to observe black and brown bears fish for salmon in the shallow waters of the Fish Creek and Marx Creek. It was $5 to enter and coincidentally we were there during a prime time for bears to eat, the evening. We were waiting and waiting, in the rain, and decided to go back to the truck quick and grab the umbrella for camera protection. Within 10 minutes once we returned, black bears appeared! Everyone there huddled together, quiet, waiting to see what the bears were about to do. We ended up watching a 2 year old make two attempts at catching a fish but in the end, grabbed some leftovers off the side. We were content with that experience so got back in the truck and headed for Clements Lake Recreation Site, which has 5 first come first serve spots. It was hard to see what was all around us when we got in, but knowing there were bears in the area, the exploring would wait till morning. It was a beautiful site to wake up to! The fog was sitting low in the mountains and the lake was calm. 100 Mile House (August 20-21) - The drive from Clements Lake to 100 Mile House was just over 12 hours and we made home at the Safeway in town. This was simply a drive day, filled with beautiful sights as always! You`re wondering how British Columbia came up with such a unique name for a city, aren`t you? Well, 100 Mile House acquired its current name (first named Bridge Creek House) during the Cariboo Gold Rush where a roadhouse was constructed in 1862 at the 100 mile (160 km) mark up the Old Cariboo Road from Lillooet. They also have 70 Mile House and 150 Mile House. Squamish (August 21-22) - We woke up and weren't sure how far we were gunna go for the day. It was around 10:30 a.m. when we stopped at a gas station because we had just hit 10,000 miles on our trip! Unlike the rest of the world, we had totally forgotten about the eclipse but a nice man let us borrow his welding plate to look through, and it was amazing! When we got to Whistler it was fun to drive around and see what the area is all about, but that's all we did. It was lively and seemed like a great spot to waste the day, but our logic was that we couldn't afford any of the shops in the area anyway, so why pay $5/hour (parking) to window shop. We'll return one day! We decided to stop at Brandywine Falls Provincial Park for a short hike. It was nice to get out of the car for awhile and take a short hike to the 230 foot falls. We drove a bit further, just past Squamish down a forest road, to find our spot for the night. We found this location on freecampsites.net and were super excited when we got in and found nice big spot. We relaxed with a drink and made some calls, then had a truck pull up. Sam stuck his head out to see what was up and this man was stressing that we were parked in a "climbers only area" and that we'd be towed away. He was so rude about it that we just said ok and decided to stay put. You could say we were a bit paranoid that night thinking he`d call us in and we`d get a knock on our door in the middle of the night, but we were just fine and out of there by 8 the next morning. Vancouver (August 22-23) - It was only an hour and a half to get into Vancouver. We were making our way to the Kitsilano Community Center to take a free shower :) I think we were the only camper in the city and it was certainly our last time! The woman on the phone from the community center had told us there would be a spot for us to park with the trailer but when we got there we saw only one small parking lot, which we were not about to fit in, and street parking. Ever parallel park a camper? Us either! Luckily we were able to find a spot after a couple circles around the neighborhood. After showering we got a call from our host for the night that he was home early so we headed over to his place in Burnaby, just south of Vancouver. It was a beautiful area with nicely landscaped, gated properties and close to Deer Lake. After settling in and meeting Jack we took Nelly down to walk along the lake. For dinner, we took advantage of a Groupon and went to Agra Tandoori for some chicken tikka masala and butter chicken! The next morning Sam had his first work meeting of the trip, and first meeting with a CFO by himself. Had to capture the first time he got out of the camper in a suit! It was a beautiful drive to the office for him and he was pleased with how it went. We definitely rushed this area and did not spend any time exploring Vancouver itself. We just found it was busy and not the most camper friendly for those working with a budget. We will definitely return without the camper and Nelly one day to stay in the downtown area and get some poutine! We left for Seattle around 3 p.m. after Sam`s meeting. You`d think driving through this time would be horrible due to rush hour, but we were just fine and the border crossing took only 5-10 minutes. You could say Nelly is happy to be done with those :) We put a muzzle on her just to keep her quiet, cause its a hit or miss when she barks at someone coming to our truck, and we were not going to risk her making an officer upset. So long Canada, until next summer when we hit the Eastern provinces!
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