May 14, 2025
Bell 2 Lodge to Kinaskan Lake Provincial Park
BBest day ever! I know I said that yesterday, but today really was for a variety of reasons. You just never know when you’re going to reach a new fitness level and today I did. I reached my longest touring distance (73 miles) and most one-day cumulative elevation gain (4,700’). I pushed to Kinaskan Lake and rolled in around 6 PM. Because the upcoming weekend is the long weekend Victoria Day in Canada, today was the opening day of the campground. There was one camper van and me. Yep, it’s early in the season. The campground operator asked me if I was equipped for below zero temperatures, which at first threw me, then I said, “Of course!”
I guess it’s finally time to share what the heck happened 45 years ago when my friend Tom and I arrived in Telegraph Creek. After I graduated from college in 1979, I worked as a summer seasonal employee at what was then Mt. McKinley National Park. When the summer ended, I spent the winter of 1979-80 at UC Riverside. About February the thought of graduate school wasn’t sitting well and I desperately wanted to go back to Alaska. That winter I read John Muir’s Travels in Alaska, Edward Hoagland’s Notes From a Century Before, and S. Hall Young’s Alaska Days with John Muir and was determined to learn more about the region I’m now pedaling through.
After enlisting my friend Tom to join me, I concocted a plan to fly to Telegraph Creek from Wrangell, find a way to cross the Stikine River, and hike across Mt. Edziza Provincial Park exiting at Iskut on the Cassiar Highway. There were two obstacles I didn’t anticipate: a trail and grizzly bears. When we landed in Telegraph Creek, the RCMP policeman checked our IDs and asked us why we were there. After I shared my plan with him I asked him if he could take us across the river. He looked us over closely attempting to gauge our preparedness.
”Are you carrying any firearms?” he asked.
“No, why?” I responded.
”What if you encounter a bear? Also, there isn't a trail. How are you planning to cross the park?” He was really trying to figure out how to school a couple of young twenty-something city slickers.
Then he frankly stated the obvious. “You’re not going across that river.”
At that point, Tom and I figured our only option was to hike with our backpacks — and hitchhike — from Telegraph Creek, to Dease Lake, and then south to Stewart, about 300 miles total. It would be a long trip, but we didn’t have many options.
One day, while taking a break along the road, Tom and I met a young British bicyclist, Simon, who was making his way from New York City to Alaska. The Cassiar then was less a highway and more of a gravel mess with dust everywhere. Simon was covered in dirt and mud and very determined. He was on his third bicycle frame since starting his trip. I told him I would be at Denali Park and he should stop by and visit when he gets there. Eventually, in July, there was a knock at my ACCO trailer door and when I opened it, Simon said “Hello!” That was the first time I realized bicycle touring was something I wanted to explore.
One week later, Tom and I arrived in Stewart where Tom boarded a plane for Prince Rupert and then back to Seattle. I took a bus from Stewart to Prince Rupert. From there I caught the Alaska Ferry to Ketchikan, and flew to Anchorage. It wasn’t the trip we planned, but it was still an adventure!
Along the way, we learned a lot about the area. Most of the traffic consisted of ore trucks from the Cassiar asbestos mines. BC Hydro was planning to dam the Stikine and BC Rail had built a rail line from Fort St. James to Dease Lake ostensibly to move equipment, logs, and mining ore. Those massive projects all ground to a halt about the time Tom and I were on our trip. Big projects have always been a part of this world, including the Telegraph Trail built in the late 1800’s to connect the southern part of B.C. with the Yukon Klondike via telegraph.
Fast forward to 1981 when Kathy and I met at Denali. We married in June 1984, and decided to return to Denali after a year in Seattle. Our “honeymoon” consisted of driving our rusted 1979 Subaru from Seattle pulling a Fred Meyer trailer stacked with our worldly goods. We followed the Cassiar Highway north and I was ecstatic to see the area one more time. That was the last time I was on this highway until my current bicycle trip.
This is the backstory to “why” I’m riding north right now. In a couple of days, I’ll be on the AlCan and the Cassiar will be a memory. It’s still an amazing place. I’ve thought about why it’s been so important to me to return. The simple answer is I followed up on a youthful obsession to explore someplace new and found a partner with whom wanderlust was a shared desire. Somehow it all has worked out.
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Today's ride: 73 miles (117 km)
Total: 715 miles (1,151 km)
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