7/11/22
I left Whitehorse the next morning and continued down the Yukon. It's another travel day. I am making my way east to Watson Lake and then turning south to stop in either Dease Lake or Jade City. I don't know much about either place except that they're very small communities and not a lot of lodging options. So I'm kind of gambling here by not making a reservation the day before.
https://goo.gl/maps/XZ1Ae15tqpAF36uYA
It's a cold morning on the Alcan. About 60 miles into the ride I pull into a rest area to have some water and a light snack. As I slow to a stop, I see a pair of motorcycles and someone is clearly working on one of them. I take off my helmet and approach them. It's an older couple. As I get closer, I know who they are. I've been hearing from the others on the Dalton about this Danish couple that have been riding up here on a pair of 1936 Nimbus!
The Danes are Lisbeth and Eric:
I walk up to the pair and spoke to Lisbeth since the Eric was busy changing oil on one of the bikes. He was draining the old oil into a plastic bag and then will dump it back into the container of the fresh oil. Brilliant trick on how to do a road side oil change.
Lisbeth spoke pretty good English but Eric's English is pretty non-existent. I told her that they're famous and that I've been hearing about them and their bike since all the way back on the Dalton. In fact, the morning that I was leaving Deadhorse, I actually passed by these two. They were just arriving into Deadhorse as I rode passed them on my way down. Though at that point I didn't realize who they were. I thought they were riding old BMWs.
They shipped their bikes over to the US from Denmark and have been riding thru the US and Canada for the past year. We were all heading towards the Watson Lake area. Lisbeth told me that the first time they were at Watson Lake, Eric's bike's clutch died. She taught that was the end of the trip. She wondered if they were stupid to do such a daunting trip on such old bikes. But Eric was sure he could replace the clutch if he had new parts. So they shipped a whole new set of clutch plates over from Denmark. They were stuck in Watson Lake for 12 days waiting for the new clutch to arrive! Talk about an adventure!
A light rain started as they finished their oil change. We all put on our gear, said goodbye and got on our bikes. Even though we are going in the same direction, my bike was way faster than theirs and I lost them in my rear view in a matter of seconds.
I'm basically retracing my steps to Watson Lake from a few weeks ago. The road and the scenery is oddly familiar even though I've only been here once. I suppose that my constant thinking of how crazy it is of me being up here the first time made quite an impression in my brain from the sights from the road. I stop in the little village of Teslin at the Yukon Motel and Restaurant for lunch just like I did the first time I was here. The parking lot was packed with bikes so I guess everyone else decided to have lunch here too on this cold day.
I ordered the same thing as last time, coffee and fish and chips. I was seated at table with a couple guys that I briefly chatted with across the street as we were filling our tanks. They were Canadians and were riding around lower Alaska. They asked where I was going and I told them either Dease Lake or Jade City. One of them said he would much rather stay in Jade City, "there's nothing in Dease Lake," he said. "At least Jade City had a gas station and a grocery store." Good to know.
They took off after a beer. I left not too long after. 150 more Yukon miles later on the Alcan, I am just outside of Watson Lake. I stop to look at the map. Jade City was 70 miles south and Dease Lake was another 70 miles further south. I had already done around 260 miles and going to Jade City would make it around 330 miles. I felt that would be enough for the day. I call the only motel in Jade City and got a woman on the phone. I booked a room and then turned south onto YK-37, the Cassier-Stewart Highway. This road would quickly become BC-37 as I would enter back into British Columbia a mere two miles later.
The Cassier-Stewart Highway is one of only two routes from B.C. to the Yukon Terrirory and the State of Alaska. I thought it would be much like the Alcan but instead the Cassier is pretty narrow, twisty, and it was also quite scenic. Hard to believe this is one of the major highways up there. This would be just another decent country road back in NC.
70 miles of some fun curves, twists and elevation change I entered Jade City. To call this place a city would be a bold face lie. It is more of a "spot" on the road. There are a few buildings here, the main one being the jade store that sells everything made of jade. Apparently there are jade mines here and about 90% of the jade in the world is from the Cassiar Mountains in BC. I roll into the parking lot of the store and see all sorts of defunct machinery.
I then see the "motel."
It is literally four separate rooms with a shared ktichen and shared bathroom. The room is tiny. Just big enough for a double bed and little night stand and a chair. It has a certain rustic charm to it. And if the rooms were $50 then this would be a fun place to spend the night but instead it's about double that price.
I don't see any gas station or grocery store that the guy talked about. In fact, I don't see much here at all and what is here is closed.
Yup, not much here...since I thought there would be a grocery store, I didn't bring any food with me. But at least I have some granola bars and a bag of roasted almonds. I thought I was going to spend the night here all alone but then a white pickup rolls up. An older man gets out with a cooler. He's staying at one of the other rooms. He asked if I wanted some of his chicken. I said sure. The man's name is Blaine and he's from Saskatoon. He's retired, widowed, and just driving his truck around the country and camping for a few weeks. He was camping in rain the last few days so he decided he needed a dry room for tonight. And here we both are, spending a night in Jade City.