After our muffins and coffee, it was time to leave Kinaskan Park and head on further down the Cassiar Highway.
After 4 or 5 days of rain, we were delighted to see the weather report for the area that we were traveling to saying that the weather was going to clear up, blue skies, and 70°!!!
That was really going to be a wonderful thing after so many days of rain. We do know further north in the Yukon and up into Alaska, that there is a lot of rain in August. Anywhere along the whole shoreline of the ocean is kind of a rainforest terrain to begin with. But during July we still expected to have some nice weather while we were traveling southward.
We hit the road and started enjoying the landscape as it flew on past the windows. We are liking the variety of trees of different pines and firs and spruces. Once we had come through that Gnat's Pass, we noticed a difference in all of the tree species. They were more like what we are used to seeing in the lower 48 states, rather than just the tall lodgepole skinny pines of the North.
There were still some clouds and misty haze burning off up high. But we could feel the temperatures increasing from the low 40s, bit by bit, up into the higher '50s. Maybe the weathermen were right after all?
We drove along for about an hour and decided to pull off a bit to refill our coffee cups and make a quick breakfast sandwich. We cook up either sausage patties or fry some ham, scramble up some eggs in little round fry pans, and toast English muffins. We make them just like an Egg McMuffin sandwich or a Jimmy Dean Sandwich. But we make them ourselves from our own ingredients. A very handy breakfast to make to get back on the road again.
We saw this turbulent water crashing through this canyon around underneath the bridge.
It's hard to tell by a photo, but the crashing water was just roaring past. If you watch the video link below on YouTube, you will see the section that I filmed of this part of the road. It was amazing to see the strength of Mother Nature after all of the rain during the last 4 or 5 days. Just about every river we have seen now is full to the brim or overflowing it's banks.
We drove along further south, and encountered two of these interesting looking wooden bridges. I am assuming that they are checked and monitored for drivability. We scooted across in our motorhome while we held our breath.
I'm not so sure with our older, bigger motorhome how we would have felt crossing them. But the amount of logging trucks and semi trucks we see on this road, it has to be okay?
We stopped along another side roaring river to let a semi pass. It was a good time to get Nick out and about to do his "thing". We didn't get too close to the edge of the riverbank with the motorhome. The pull off looked muddy. And with all of the extra rain that has been landing in the area, the last thing we want to do is be stuck in mud. So we parked as far away as we could but still walked over to check it out. Again the roaring blasting river was just mind-boggling. You certainly didn't want to fall in because you probably couldn't get back out!
It was so turbulent it had white water waves crashing against the rocks and the shoreline. Quite awe-inspiring.
On the other side of the road was a huge rock cliff. It made a pretty backdrop for our motorhome. I suppose at one time the river had been so wide that it had eroded the earth away from these rocks too.
By early afternoon, we were very pleased to see the sky was clearing up! We actually could see patches of blue sky, dotted with puffy white clouds. The temperatures were back up in the '70s, just like the weatherman promised.
I aimed my cell phone up in the air and it compensated for the brightness of the sky and really illuminated the blue portions. I did not enhance this in any way, but the cell phone did it itself. Kind of cool, huh?
We had already been driving for a couple of hours. Our plan was to get close to this junction where 37A cuts off over to Stewart and Hyder. We knew there was a provincial park right by the junction. We stopped at the corner at a large log building called Meziadin Gas Bar and Camp. It was a series of log buildings that doubled as a hotel, hostel, RV wash as well as a convenience store, gas and propane. We filled up our propane tank here because we had not been able to further back at the start of the Cassiar Highway and we are getting quite low. We never want it to get down near empty, because any icky junk at the bottom of the tank may get sucked into our lines. Just like fuel. Never let your gas or your diesel run down to the bottom in your vehicle.
After filling things up, we ignored the turn off of 37A and went another mile or so further to Meziadin Provincial Park. (A on the map is Meziadin Lake, Stewart and Hyder are B)
Here's the link for the park for more information:
We pulled in. At first in the upper loop it was just rows of open campsites in a gravel parking lot. That didn't impress us too much. But I think those are for touring groups of RV caravans that can pull in quickly overnight, and depart without intruding on the rest of the campground.
We went down further down into the campground, closer to the lakeshore. My oh my! This was soooooo pretty!!!
The first open site I saw was right next to the boat landing. That's the one that I wanted. We did drive through the entire loop to look at the rest. Some of the sites are electrical down on the point but they are in a large group kind of in a cul-de-sac. We didn't want that. We went back to the site I saw by the boat landing and took that for the night. What a wonderful site it was!
The turnoff was just a short distance away from the Junction. Tomorrow the route called 37A around the northern part of the lake is what we are taking to get to Stewart, BC and Hyder, AK. That is only 40 miles away.
The lake is very large, but where the campground is situated, there is an island that kind of blocks any of the heavy winds blasting across the lake from the west. It is protected and calm, and a really great place to have a campground. The yellow arrow is pointing to our campsite.
The water was beautiful and calm. We had our own little rocky shoreline with this big old driftwood log at the edge. We saw little frogs, and every now and then we could hear a fish jump.
On one side of us was the boat landing, but there was nobody there. On the other side there was another camper but it was quite a ways away. We felt like we were in our little private area again. How do we keep finding these beautiful campsites? Maybe because there are so many of them, or maybe it's just the luck of the draw, who knows.
Again, I had a gorgeous view from inside while I was getting supper going. It's so easy to perform something as routine and mundane as cooking supper when you have a view like this. I whipped up some beef enchiladas and had them in the oven while Steve was putting out our lawn chairs and getting ready to build a campfire.
We had put out the back slide for our bedroom area. The queen mattress folds in half forward, like a taco, when the slide is in. When it's out, we have a full queen size bed that we can walk on each side of. Some other models of the Winnebago Views have just a bed in the corner that stays down all of the time. In that one, the inside person has to crawl over the outside person or shimmy down to the end to get out of bed if the other one is still asleep. That's why we really like this floor plan better.
The quilt is one that I had made in the fall before we left, in preparation for this trip, is perfect on the bed. We have a blanket underneath for the cold nights. The pattern is called Winter Solstice, by Patty Carey. I happened to finish it up on the actual Winter Solstice date in December. The tag on the underside reads "North to Alaska 2025". I think it looks so nice with the little matching pillows.
Because we were backed up so far in the campsite to the lake, it was like having the lake all around on all three sides as we looked out the windows of the bedroom. What a beautiful view!
Can you imagine waking up, pulling up the window shade, and seeing this?
Steve got out the lawn chairs while I was finishing up the dishes after dinner. He was relaxing and enjoying the beautiful view, after a really nice day of driving. Since we've switched to the Cassiar Highway to go home, it's been so relaxing and comfortable. We are really glad we are now avoiding the rugged roads of The Alcan and especially Destruction Bay.
We are now almost at 7,000 miles of our travels in 3 months. It might be nice to slow down a little bit and enjoy the milder road conditions.
We could see the people across on the other point, in the electrical sites. Most of them were fishermen with their boats tied up nearby. Everyone was quiet. When the attendant came around to collect our money, he said that they rarely have any problem with rowdy people. It's a very quiet lake, usually with retirees and fishermen occupying the sites. They do have a prevalent bear problem, so tents or soft-sided camping trailers are not allowed. Only hard-sided and you still were warned to be careful with your food storage, and not to leave anything out in your campsite that would attract the bears.
Every once in awhile we saw a small fishing boat go out around the island. It is really nice that it shelters this cove or lagoon a little bit from the wind.
The greens were soooo vivid green, in the blues have that turquoise color to it from glacial runoff. I do nothing to enhance my photos, these are all original, straight from the camera. Sometimes I open them up and straighten out a horizon or a lakeshore more horizontally. Other times I may crop out the sides of the photo that aren't interesting or get rid of the side view mirror as we are moving down the road. But I really do nothing else to enhance my photos. This is REALLY what it looked like.
I enjoyed the reflections of the overhead sun flickering back on the ripples to create some beautiful lighting.
The random weeds along the shoreline created an interesting foreground to the beautiful waters in the background.
Most of the clouds have now moved away and the water was reflecting the beautiful blue sky. If I painted a picture like this, nobody would think those were the true colors that we were actually seeing.
I took a walk around the campground a little bit with the dog. He enjoyed getting out to sniff a bit. I snapped this picture on the way back. How pleasant that looks nestled in against the lake in the background. With Steve still relaxing in his lawn chair, all I could see was serenity and peace.
These are the types of things that I want to remember from our trip. As things are winding down, I want to hang on to the precious memories and try to capture them with film or photo.
Even something as silly as looking at the beauty of this moss covered rock that was located right outside of our camper door. There are amazing artistic natural displays by Mother Nature everywhere.
Steve said after dinner, perhaps we would like to relax with a campfire.
Things were calm and with all the recent rain they had, the ranger said that it was fine to start a campfire. My Brawny Lumberjack man started chopping up some of the dry firewood that we had purchased at the crossroads store. It wasn't a lot, but it would make a cheery little fire to sit by for the evening.
This campground also had the same pretty tables that the previous one had at Kinaskan Lake. It takes a while for the rain to dry off the beaded up surface of rain on the varnish, but they are still absolutely beautiful tables.
Steve pulled out his little magic box of "fire starts" from Duraflame. They are small packages that you only need one to light up, and stick it in a little bundle of kindling in the campfire pit. Within 5-10 minutes you have a beautiful fire!
See?? So much better than lighter fluid, or tiki torch fluid that Steve used to use, or heaven forbid, gasoline like we see some people do. These little teeny blocks and some dry kindling are all you need to have a fire going in no time.
Steve added more firewood over time, and soon there was a good bed of coals. Absolutely perfect for roasting marshmallows.
I got out the graham crackers and the Hershey bars, and did the setups for S'mores. What a pleasant dessert after a long day.
Steve roasted the marshmallows to perfection, with a beautiful golden brown crust and didn't allow them to ignite into flames. I know some people like them burned black. But I like the golden crust with the perfectly melted marshmallow inside. I told him this was as pretty as a picture in a magazine or a recipe book!
Nick doesn't get any of the chocolate, and the marshmallow would stick in his fur. But I did give him a little corner piece of graham cracker. He seems a little indignant about that???
So I picked him up and cuddled him for a while as we watched the sunset. Slowly evening came upon us and the gentle darkness crept in across the lake. It sure had been a nice day.
We toddled off to bed, in this peaceful campground with no noise and slept soundly alongside of the lake.
I guess we really have to consider ourselves as being fortunate to travel this way.
I can't imagine being on a noisy cruise ship going up and back to Alaska. Or riding in a fast jet and dealing with crazy people in the big cities or airports or trying to arrange transportation and lodging. Staying in hotels with people up and down the hallways, thumping above you, taking loud below you, or banging doors and making noise? No thank you.
I will gladly trade that all for a peaceful night alongside of a mountain lake, with our dog curled up on the floor next to us. Our own bed (and quilt) our own bathroom, our own food in our own refrigerator with our own kitchen. Priceless.
~~~~~
The next morning, Steve opened the window shade and all I could see was the bright reflection of the water making ripples and designs on the ceiling over our bed. How cool was that?
I grabbed the camera and slid open the bedroom window and snapped this picture of the shoreline where the light was coming from.
It's another beautiful day!!!!
There wasn't any wind at all, and the lake was like glass. Look at the reflection of the trees onto the water with the blue sky overhead?
If I tried to paint this,
you would never believe it was real.
But this is a photo out of my camera,
It is real!
We got up slowly and enjoyed the morning. Steve made our pour-over coffee and we relaxed in front of this beautiful scenery as the sun went higher and higher in the sky. It was going to be a great day!
Here is the video that goes along with today's blog:
Now we are going to travel on the Glacier Highway into Stewart and Hyder... Adventure awaits!
Even though it was still kind of rainy and dreary, it seemed like the worst of any storms have now passed. At least there are no high winds, thunder or lightning. We avoided the worst of the downpours by being holed up for 2 days at Dease Lake in Brown Bird RV Park.
We left Dease Lake in British Columbia and continued further south on the Cassiar Highway.
As we wound along in between snow capped mountains, the clouds were slowly rising up to reveal their peaks. We sipped our coffee as we drove along, and appreciated that the section of road here had been completed the previous year. It was smooth and beautiful and we let the scenery unveil itself as we moved along.
It was almost like a movie...
We climbed a bit upwards in elevation, as the mountains were getting higher around us. We were now going to enter Gnat's Pass, the highest spot on the Cassiar Highway. It is at 4,000 ft.
We were twisting and turning along, not sure if this was the highest part of the pass or not. Suddenly we saw the sign! You could see the rain drops on the windshield because it started drizzling again.
We noticed the absence of trees again as we climbed in elevation. Here and there we could see spots of snow. We knew it had snowed here during the two days prior, and we were quite surprised to see some still around, even with the rain. The temperatures had dropped and there was no sunshine, so the snow was still hanging around.
It was strange to see the snow dotting the hillsides in the foggy misty morning. I guess our minds were still thinking about how it's nearing the end of July, how can there still be snow??? We just had blistering hot weather up at Dawson City in the Yukon and needed our air conditioning. But I suppose this area near the ocean, at 4,000 ft, it doesn't melt fast.
As we worked our way down the other side of the mountain pass, the trees started getting thicker and taller, but the rain sure didn't go away. It was a very peaceful morning to be out with very little traffic in such a pretty part of British Columbia.
I think the rainy weather was making us feel drowsy and dreary. We only traveled 79 miles when we saw the sign for Kinaskan Provincial Park.
We decided to loop in and take a look around. We were thinking that we really didn't want to drive all the way into Stewart BC and Hyder AK on a rainy day. We knew the upcoming scenery driving in through that route in 37A would be absolutely gorgeous. We wanted to wait for a sunny day to do that.
So we might as well hole up in a provincial park before getting there, while it's still raining for the next day or so?
This place didn't disappoint at all, even though it was a rainy day. We had absolutely gorgeous views across the lake of the mountains.
Like I said before, how many wonderful mountainside lakes are we going to find to camp by? Our luck of the draw is just amazing lately.
We found a campsite that was really close to the water. We think we have voted NUMBER ONE that this campground is having the most beautiful picnic tables!
The bottom metal pipes were all freshly painted in brown and attached nicely with strapping to the cement patios.
The top portions of the wood were all beautifully varnished in a golden color. It almost reminded me of the tung oil that I used when I refinished one of my first Union Looms in my weaving studio. It was somewhat wet from the rain, but later on we were hoping to be able to sit here for a while or maybe cook a meal?
The lake was really calm and we watched the clouds roll up over the tops of the mountains. This really was a beautiful campsite, and I sure wish the sun was shining.
We were originally thinking about pulling the motorhome in nose first, so we could look out the front windshield. But instead,! it was more level to bring it in backwards and position it further away from the table. We still had room on the other side for our slide. And this way the bedroom would stick out over towards the water.
This was the incredible view from the kitchen window as I got some lunch put together. Food just tastes so much better when you cook it when you are camping... Lol. Even if it was just grilled cheese sandwiches and raw vegetables to snack on.
In between rain showers, we did look out and notice a pair of loons floating around. We heard them calling to each other. What a peaceful relaxing summary sound. Although we have lots of loons in Wisconsin, it was a treat to see them here too.
I took some clothes up photos on my big camera too. But do you know what? They are now missing just like the up-close photos of the moose. I have gone back and forth through my files and I just can't find them anywhere. I'm usually pretty good about labeling and listing everything and saving it in files to the backup external hard drive. Somehow they either got accidentally deleted during a cut and paste? Or they're hidden in some sector that is no longer visible?
But here is proof that I did take some close-up photos!
Sometimes I snap photos of the back of my big camera using my cell phone, while we are traveling. I send those via Messenger to my two friends Linda and Rosie, as well as to our kids or grandkids while we are actually traveling. That way they don't have to wait until the blog comes out. I usually just send them the most exciting or best photos as we are moving along down the highway. It's great to have Starlink operating while we drive down the road! Of course there's absolutely no cellular service just about anywhere on the Cassiar Highway.
We dozed off in the afternoon for a while and had a little nap with the rain going pitter-pat on the roof of the motorhome. What an absolutely peaceful sound, and with the dog curled up at our feet, the afternoon slipped away with sweet dreams.
It sure turned into kind of a lazy day with only a small amount of travel, and not a lot of effort. Since it was raining, we weren't going to cook outside. I decided to whip up my easy casserole that is made with canned Aldi potatoes, frozen green beans, yellow beans and carrots, and sliced kielbasa sausage. I also add sliced Vidalia onion and chopped up garlic and spices. I will post the recipe below:
Aldi One Pan Baked Sausage Vegetable Potato Casserole Recipe:
Have dinner ready in less than an hour with this simple casserole. Prepared with just a few simple Aldi ingredients, this is one dish the entire family will ask for over and over again.
Half of an Aldi Parkview Polska Kiebasa.
One Aldi can sliced potatoes or you can use raw ones.
Half bag of Aldi Prince Edward frozen veggie medley.
and added thin sliced raw onions and minced garlic and spices, and 2 TB olive oil, and five or six pats of butter.
Preheat the oven to 400°F.
I slice up some sweet Vidalia onion and put some minced garlic into the bottom of a glass casserole dish, liberally sprayed with nonstick cooking spray.
I love these Aldi canned sliced potatoes! Cut open the top of the can and drain out the water. Then put in 2 TB of extra-virgin olive oil into the can. Put the lid back on and shake it around a little, or carefully tipping it up and down, until the potatoes are coated with the olive oil. Then dump them in the pan with the onions and minced garlic.
We really like the Polska Kielbasa from Aldi, it's the Parkview brand that they carry. I only use half of a ring of the kielbasa for the two of us. You're making a meal for 4, of course use the full ring. I slice it on an angle that makes it look kind of fancy.
Dump the sausage in over the potatoes and onion mixture. Then I liberally apply some spices. I like Lawry's, and black pepper, as well as dried parsley flakes. Then our local grocery store has a mixed seasoning bottle similar to Mrs. Dash called Harvest Blend.
Next, I cover up the entire casserole dish with tin foil and seal it around the edges, tight to the rim of the casserole dish.
Place the dish on the center rack and bake the potatoes and sausage for 20 minutes at 400°F, stirring halfway through.
Now for my third part of the ingredients, add our favorite Prince Edward Medley frozen vegetables. They are green beans, yellow wax beans, and little baby carrots. I use half a bag of this for a serving for two. I might add it's a very generous serving because Steve usually has a double serving and I have one. If you're making it for a larger group use the whole bag. If you can't find these anymore, use other frozen green beans, yellow beans, carrots etc.
(Note--If you have to use fresh carrots, I boil them up in advance separately in either the microwave or a small saucepan so they are halfway tender before I put them into the casserole. Otherwise they take too long to cook all the way through and end up being hard and everything else is completely done)
I just sprinkle the veggies over the top, add the pats of butter, and then I seal the tinfoil back around firmly on the edges. That way the steam from underneath of the potatoes and meat cook up through the vegetables. Return the dish in the oven and continue baking for an additional 20 minutes. Stirring halfway through so that all of the ingredients are fully cooked.
Enjoy!!!
It's nice sometimes to have familiar foods and a familiar meal even if we are in different locations. Really, we aren't just traveling from place to place, or just camping. We are also living day-to-day in our motorhome. When we are at home we cook almost all of our meals, so why not do it when we are on the road? We do enjoy our own cooking so much more than restaurant food. We take the time to plan ahead, shop for the items, and cook inside of our motorhome rather than just stopping off for fast food.
When you are way out here in the mountains, where in the heck do you even find fast food? Hahaha
The rain let up for a little while and we went out for a walk. Things were wet but if we stayed on the road it wasn't too bad. A little dog though has to sniff along in the ditches and got himself a tad bit dirty. We were down by the lake's edge and decided to rinse off the muddy wet feet of this little dog from his walk. He really did not enjoy it whatsoever. Just look at that face??
Shelties are definitely not "water dogs". But we got the mud off his paws and his long fur of his underbelly, and dried him off with a towel before bringing him inside of the motorhome. That helps keep things clean on the inside.
He says thank you very much, but he really didn't appreciate the bath and the lake!
It continued to rain throughout the evening, so we curled up with some YouTubes and travel videos. The soft pitter patter of the rain on the roof lulled us off to sleep. I think we slept 9 or 10 hours!!
The only thing that woke us up was the calling of the loons out on the lake in the morning. What a great way to wake up with nature's alarm clock.
I know I tried to not write about a lot of cooking on the blog, but here's one of the little mixes that we really like the flavor and taste of. It's made by Betty Crocker (sorry, I ripped off the top of the envelope before I took this photo) and it's the kind in the envelopes, not the box. We appreciate the fact that it only needs water or milk. No eggs, no oil. Easy peasy mix.
The motorhome smells so good in the morning with our coffee and the baking of the blueberry muffins. The mix makes four large muffins or six smaller ones depending on the pan you have.
It's just enough for us for an early treat with our coffee. Then later on we cook a regular breakfast if we want. This little guy gets a little teeny piece of each of ours as his "last bite" portion. Spoiled dog..
Well, it looked like it was going to be a better day and we were going to drive on down further on the Cassier Highway. We may make it as far as Meziadin Lake, and then figure out our timing to drive over into Stewart BC and Hyder AK.
Here is the video YouTube that goes along with today's blog:
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