Day 13 along Stewart=Cassiar Hwy

Day 13 - Sunday, July 12/2009
Starting Location: Houston, West of Smithers, BC

Ending Location: Dease Lake, BC
Distance Travelled: 511 miles or 828 km
Distance Travelled to date: 4271 miles or 6919 km

Today, we started off at the Houston, just east of Smithers, BC. The weather was perfect. Smithers is a very quaint skiing town and home of cattle raising. Magnificant mountains in the area and huge foothills for cattle.
From Smithers, we drove along Hwy 16 to Kitwanga, BC, at the junction of Hwy 37 or the Stewart-Cassiar Hwy. The ride was one of my best rides ever, It was warm, no wind, blue sky and the roads were excellent. Perfect surface and little traffic. Cruised at 100mph while really enjoying the moment. Filled up at since there is very little service along the Stewart-Cassiar Hwy and the area is very remote. Heard a lot of bad things of the highways condition, but for the first 375 km, it was perfect,

Little traffic and the road surface was extremely good, alleviating concerns for the time being. The scenery was excellent as we drove between the Rocky ranges. Huge,
huge wooded mountains would all of a sudden become snow patched and rise high into the sky. Very impressive sights. Only problem, was that it was about 28 degrees C and the mountains had a constant haze, not good for photo taking.
Took a side trip to Stuart which is right on the B.C. /Alaska border. Huge ountains and glaciers everywhere. Some glaciers are right at the road side. They were huge and you can see how they were breaking apart. Due to the time of day and the constant haze, could ot take photos that truly represented the view. From Stuart we decided to try and make it to Dease Lake for the day as there is supposed to be gravel sections and construction. We went thru Bells 2 and were mezmerized by the scenery. Snow covered mountains that looked like zebra colours were everywhere and the vegetation was extremely lush.
Amazing how much greener could exist so far north. From this area, we proceeded to Dease Lake. Hit about a 5km stretch of gravel road. The surface was hard packed but had a gravel base. It also started to rain for about 5 minutes. Once we got past the gravel section, the road into Dease Lake was great. We learned that there are gravelly sections ahead of us as we try to make it to Skagway, AK tomorrow

Gas:
Smithers, BC $1.099/li 15.2 litres $16.75 total
Kitwanga, BC $1.099/li 5.545 litres $6.09 total
Stewart, BC $1.139/li 11.89 litres $13.66 total
Bells ll, BC $1.25/li 8.399 litres $10.50 total

Accomodations: Northland Motel, Dease Lake, $99 with wifi
Road Condition: Hwy 16 West was in great shape without any potholes, bumps or construction. Can cruise at 100-120 effortlessly. First 375km of Stewart-Cassiar Hwy was a perfect paved surface, with little traffic
Weather: Temperature was perfect, reaching a high of 28 degrees Celcius. Clouded over at about 9:00 p.m.,