Moving On :: The Cassiar Highway

Monday, August 30th - - Cold temperatures with blue skies and sunshine greeted me as I left Watson Lake. It was 33 degrees when I woke up at 6:30 this morning. It had been a clear, dark sky last night and it was the first time I had seen the stars since leaving Montana over a month ago!

I had to backtrack about ten miles to get onto the Cassiar Highway (Route 37) and it wasn't long before I got into a combination of smoke and fog. The smoke was due to the forest fires that started a month or so ago and were still smoldering. The road had been closed to traffic for a couple of weeks.

Early morning sun streaming through the forest. Most of the trees near the road were not affected by the fire but there was a smoky haze and acrid smell that filled the air.

This section was particularly bad because the smoke was “enhanced” by fog from a nearby lake.

Less than an hour later, I was through the burned-out area and back in sunshine.
There isn't much in the way of “civilization” along the Cassiar Highway. It travels through 450 miles of wilderness, making its way through valleys and over mountains. Not much different than many of the other highways I've traveled thus far here in Canada and Alaska. But this seemed more remote. Perhaps it was my frame of mind or the fact that there were few other vehicles on the highway. Or maybe it was because of the wildlife I saw along the way. A multicolored fox with fur of brown and red and black and with a bushy tail as long as its body. And bears. Eight of them were seen, briefly, individually, in a 100-mile stretch of the highway.

About 350 miles into the drive I was looking for a place to spend the night. There was a road that branched off of Highway 37 and it looked intriguing. It was paved, only 40 miles long, and it went to two towns next to each other – Stewart in British Columbia and Hyder in Alaska. I made the turn at the junction and headed west...

The route from Skagway – north, then east, and finally south.

Paris Recap

Our TGV ride back to Paris went off without a hitch, and we took the metro back to our hotel. (The same one we stayed in earlier.) We wandered about a bit to look for Le Maison du Chocolat, a famous Chocolate shop. On the way there we went into the Bon Marche a large high end department store. After only a few minutes, we felt out of place and exited the Bon Marche. We finally found Le Maison du Chocolat and purchased a few items before starting to make our way back to the hotel. On the way, we passed Napoleon's tomb and we visited the Eiffel Tower one more time. We went to dinner for a final time and had a nice meal before taking a stroll back to the hotel.

Napoleon's tomb

Au revoir Paris

In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, and then headed to the airport.

Overall we had a great time on this trip. We enjoyed Paris, but it reminded me just how many people in Europe smoke. (It seemed like 80% of people over age 12 in Paris.) It has been a while since I've been to Manhattan, but Paris seemed dirtier. Most likely due to people not picking up after their dogs. (In defense of Paris, they encourage street disposal of garbage like cigarette butts into the gutter where they are washed into the sewers daily.) However the air was warm and humid and left me feeling dirty every day. It took some getting used to opening the doors yourself on the metro as well, but these are quirks that are enjoyable about traveling. At first in Paris we were very shy about talking to people and we got better throughout the trip as well. There are plenty of world class museums in Paris and lots of interesting things to do. We mostly stuck to the touristy things, but those can be fun too.

Alsace was a nice change from Paris as it was small towns and cooler temps. (At least they felt cooler.) It was fun to start sampling regional cuisine and get out on bicycles. It was a wonderful experience staying in the Medieval town and in an old building as well.

Burgundy was fun too. We were hoping to have more time, but the train mishap killed that time for us. Another bike ride to vineyards was scheduled, but we had to drop it. If we were going back to France, we'd hit the dining scene in Lyon more and give Lyon a second chance as well.

What can I say about Chamonix? I could live there. Well, except for the alpinism as fashion thing. Way too many people walking around the village in mountain boots and action pants. They aren't wearing backpacks, so theoretically they could have changed into more comfortable shoes (and pants) where they left their backpack. It is like people who leave their ski lift tickets on their jackets. That style sort of irked me, but the town is nice even with its limited options.

Provence was pretty great too. Unfortunately due to the holiday, we kept our Provencal excursions to a minimum. This meant we did not make it to the French Riviera which was on our list. I am also bummed about not getting to swim in the Mediterranean Sea. Oh well, I guess there is next time. Dining in Provence gave us more access to vegetables which seemed lacking during most of our meals farther north.

We also were unable to fit in a viewing of Le Tour. This is mostly because we planned last minute and bookings were hard to come by. But also because we planned our itinerary to be almost opposite of where the tour was. We were in Colmar a week before the tour was supposed to visit, and we really hoped to watch it on TV when we got back home, but you need cable to watch the tour. Oh well. This is one reason I would consider going back during high tourist season.

We had lots of great food on the trip as well. However, I (being from the NE USA) am not used to the slow eating. Sitting down to eat would mean at least and hour and a half of restaurant time. The only way to eat quickly, which is what Jennifer and I did was to buy a baguette and cheese and eat it in the park. It is also quite difficult for Jennifer as a vegetarian in France. Fortunately she eats fish, but there are not a whole lot of main courses that don't involve meats. Some restaurants we had to seek out because they had vegetarian options. Others had noticeable vegetarian options so we chose those. It did mean we didn't always get to eat where I would like to, but compromises need to be made. France is also great for the ability to eat outdoors. I think we ate inside only three times on the trip (not including trains.) This made for some enjoyable dining. Except for when smokers would sit at the table next to you. So if you wanted to avoid smoke it made sense to eat indoors.

Our train travels and limited French vocabulary also made the trip interesting. Although it made us discuss entering The Amazing Race a bit more every time we traveled. We had a lot of fun overcoming the adversity and it made us stronger. Neither of us ever got frustrated to the point of being un-fun. (Although I was close with the unadvertised closing of the line that went to Versailles.)

Attempting to speak French was also a funny experience too. I had a few classes about 5 years ago before moving to Seattle, Jennifer actually got to finish the class, and had previous Spanish lessons, so I thought she would be better. But she often confused Spanish words with French words, while my French made me feel like I was fluent in German. (Which I am NOT.) We got by and had some fun with most people who did not speak English.

On that note, the people were very pleasant in France. There was really only one incident that is not indicative of society that stood out. We were walking down a street and a homeless Parisian man mumbled some angry stuff at me and then spit in my general direction. I am not sure that had anything to do with me being a foreigner as he may not have know that. Many times we would order from menus or ask for tickets at a museum and get replied to in French. Although I did ask for a map at Versailles (in French) and was asked if I wanted the English version of the map. (I'm sure my pronunciation is terrible for most things.) It was nice to know we could get by with our limited language skills.

Jennifer really enjoyed the trip as it was her first time off the continent of North America. Every place we went was new and exciting to her, and she always said we should have spent more time there. She had a lot of fun and it was her first time seeing, touching, and being in human structures that were 400+ years old.

It was overall a fun trip, and one that I wouldn't mind duplicating in a different country. Although I am not a big fan of going during high season because of the crowds and the costs. There are advantages though which was more festivals, special events etc. happen during the tourist season. But in the future we will have more time to plan. For now, I am glad to be back home in the Cascades.

In Print

I wanted to share that this Spring I have two pieces of writing coming out in print publications. An article on my impressions of a classic randonneuring bike will appear in the Spring issue of Bicycle Quarterly. And a reworked version of a post from last December, "Emotional Landscapes," has been included in Taking the Lane, Volume 6: Lines on the Map. If you are interested in reading these pieces and the excellent works alongside which they appear, both issues are now available to order.



Since the start of this blog I've been reluctant to commit my bicycle-related writing to print. I did not feel the writing here was good enough, and I also didn't think the style really flowed outside of the blog format. But working on the Bicycle Quarterly article and interacting with Jan Heine made me aware that I've accumulated material - stories, thoughts, ideas - that do not fit the blog format and would work better in print.



Posts like Emotional Landscapes and this earlier one about Vienna are examples of writing that really should have been longer and more nuanced, adapted for the blog only because I had no other outlet for it. Publishing a slightly altered version of the former in Taking the Lane allowed me to test the waters as to whether I felt comfortable turning non-committal blog snippets into real pieces of writing.



I think that one of my readers, who comments here as "Spindizzy" (aka Jon Gehman the rackmaker) is a genius writer who owes it to the world to write a book about life and bicycles. His comments alone are literature as far as I am concerned. I've also been inspired by the writing of Tim Krabbé, Grant Petersen and Bill Strickland (in a way I see the latter two as flip sides of the same coin), and reading their stuff has made me realise that distinguishing "bicycle writing" from "literature" is silly and a defense mechanism. I've written stuff that has been published before. But with this blog I wanted to de-stress and take the pressure off with what I initially thought was a lighthearted topic. Imagine my surprise.



TheSpring issue of Bicycle Quarterly and Taking the Lane, Volume 6 are now available, and those who order should receive theirs some time in April. I derive no financial benefit from the sales of either, but invite you to support these small, independent publications.

Glacial Water

Glacial Water, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Second Lake, near Big Pine, California.

This lake is fed by meltwater from one of the southernmost glaciers in the United States, the Palisade Glacier. The finely crushed rock washed downstream from the glacier gives the lake its milky, turquoise color.

Snow time...

Quite a bit of snow has fallen over the past week leaving plenty at Paradise (a solid 2 feet). As you can see in this John Piastuck image, skiers and boarders (32 ants by my count) are "chomping at the bit" to climb Panorama Point for early season turns... This is looking to be a very promising ski season folks. The question is, will it hold; will it continue?

The Washington State Climatologists have something to say about our weather. They just published an interesting report about our 2007 summer temperatures. It points to data that says we're still experiencing a warmer than normal trend (0.01 to be exact for Aug). I also found that they are willing to post an "Outlook" for the fall and winter. Check it out, but don't look for any clarity as it doesn't really predict anything substantial or exciting: "The Climate Prediction Center's 3-month outlook for November-December-January is for equal chances of above, below, or normal temperatures for Washington..."

Whatever the case, we're off to good start and the ants on Pan Point are seemingly stoked. With them are a few climbers who are hoping to find the summit this week. Perhaps they'll successfully weave through the upper mountain crevasses and visit Columbia Crest during this weather window.

If you are planning to climb this fall, here are few safety, registration and camping tips:

• Expect crevasses: Though it's been snowing quite a bit this Sept/Oct, be prepared for lightly covered crevasses on the mountain.
• Avalanche: Yes, slides have killed climbers in the fall on Mount Rainier and it could easily happen again. It doesn't take much to knock a team into a terrain trap (crevasse, cliff, hole) or bury someone. This is especially the case if the wind is blowing which could contribute to large snow deposits.
• Poor weather: Ok, this is a constant on Rainier, but fall is definitely the time when storms linger longer than expected and climbers regret their "fast and light" plans. Be prepared to sit out inclement weather and expect heavy wet snow.

You can register in Longmire at the museum, or self register (i.e. honor system) at Paradise on the front porch of the Jackson Visitor Center. Most teams will select the Camp Muir Public Shelter for high camp accommodations. Over the past few years, that hut has been very accessible... But you should still bring a shovel to dig out the door and always clean up after you leave. On nice/busy weekends, bring your ear plugs (snoring, running stoves, chatter) and expect to breath stove exhaust in the hut.

Fall Roses

What remains

It is amazing as to what remains of the old railway line. The old cast iron foot bridge still stands proud but forlorn without the planks for its walkway.








Droughton crossing keepers cottage and garden still in use today...