Nina's Alaska

Today we head into Northern British Columbia, the Yukon and then Alaska, I am a little apprehensive about the next few weeks; the roads, the temperature and the lack of facilities this early in the season. At Lake Williams the lady at the Visitor Center advised us not to take the Cassiar Highway at this time of the year as she said it was built on sand and you needed 4 wheel drive.

Well we have 4W drive so are planning to embark on this route. We have decided to take the Nisgaa Highway and the Cranberry Road north to join the Cassiar about a quarter of the way north. Here in Terrace they are not advising against this decision but do not know the quality of the Cranberry Road as it is not maintained and it is not part of the BC roads responsibility but rather it is a logging road only. Even the Milepost, the Bible when driving to Alaska, now does not cover this route to the Cassiar.

As well as this we are leaving the coast and milder conditions for the much colder interior. Back at Burns Lake we had a touch of colder weather and the water to the toilet froze for a couple of hours so this could be difficult going forward. Rob has subsequently bought insulation material and a heater for the designated pipe but we have yet to install this. More accurately Rob has yet to install this.

An alternative solution to frozen pipes is to empty the water from the van and use bottled water and basins and public facilities where ever possible. It seems there are very few facilities open and operating at this time of the year and in fact until we reach Whitehorse in the Yukon in about 10 days the towns are very small. Most towns are under a thousand people so I am not sure there will be many motels or service centers etc to escape from the cold or to help with repairs should the roads prove too challenging.

Today we retraced our route back to Terrace along the Skeena River. The weather was drizzly with low cloud. The tide was coming in so the ice was flowing up the tidal section of the Skeena river. It was a very spectacular place even with overcast weather.

From Terrace we took a side trip to the villages of Kitimat and Kitimaat.

Kitimat is the site of an Alcan aluminum smelter, a company town that was situated here because of the good deep water port and proximity to the hydro power station that was built specifically for the smelter.

Kitimaat on the other hand, is a first nation township across the bay from the smelter.

Nina wanted to add some of her thoughts to todays entry. They are in the box inset on the right.