Whitehorse to Junction 37

Posted by Alex on 15 September 2009

As we cycled out of Whitehorse and out of civilisation again two weeks ago, we knew that we had to cover another 400km going directly East before we could turn down onto the Cassiar Highway and start getting closer to Panama. The road was good however and the hills not too long or steep, so it was only to be expected that the rain should start falling halfway through the first day. Spirits still high from our last few days sitting in coffee shops and feeling a part of the modern world again, as we plodded on through what seemed to be interminable forest stretching out as far as we could see.

Yukon state campgrounds are among some of the best I have stayed in. A large covered area with a wood burning stove allowed us to dry all our gear out and escape the rain at least for the night. After several nights spent in these campgrounds, perfecting our drying system, we found ourselves to be rather dependent on these campgrounds. It was not until no campground appeared on the horizon at the end of a long day that we realized that this night was going to be damp, the wake up and putting on of wet clothes was not too pleasant but was going to become a feature of the days to come.

Even though the scenery hardly changed throughout the 4 days heading East, the changing colours of the different species of trees punctuated by large lakes was absolutely mesmerizing, both by its vastness and the constant variation in the weather, going from dense fog to sunshine in the space of a few minutes, or howling winds and horizontal rain to dead clam when coming over a hill and down into the next valley.

A large burger marked our completion of our trip East and we could finally start heading South.

13 comments. Tags: Junction 37, alex. Location: Prince Rupert, BC, Canada