May 17, 2025

Dease Lake to Jade City, Vines & Puppies B&B

Yesterday’s day off was splendid. Passed much faster than I wanted it to pass.

The weather forecasts I receive from Environment Canada and from my Zoleo satellite communication device are basic templates for what I might encounter, not what I will encounter. The cloud icon with its drops of precipitation and partial sun worked just fine for me. A high of 52, with a 60% of rain and a thunderstorm. Typically this type of forecast can bring just about any type of weather. When showers threatened, it seemed like the sun counter-punched the clouds and I wound up smelling like the balsam poplars permeating the warming air. These spring days bring such an incredible mix of lighting, warmth, and southerly breezes that I can’t help but feel like the luckiest person in the world.

It also helped that it’s a holiday weekend, so there was very little traffic. I counted four semis and sometimes there were 10-15 minute intervals between cars going either direction. Today I essentially rode on the widest bicycle path ever built.

I’m going to run out of superlatives to describe my consecutive riding days. Today was no exception. Breathtaking, stunning, magical, awe-inspiring, and on and on.

The first half of the ride paralleled Dease Lake. I couldn’t see the lake the entire time, but when I did, it was captivating. It looked like an extensive, serpentine flat white ribbon atop a narrow basin with evergreen margins holding everything in place. With the sun and clouds, snow-covered mountains, and the birds singing everywhere, it was difficult to imagine hardship in the world. I don’t know exactly how long it took to cover the distance from the head of the lake where the town is located to the end of the lake, but probably around three hours. [More here about the length of Dease Lake.]

The next section of the ride followed Dease River and all of the lakes and streams that form the basin of this large tributary to the Liard River which eventually dumps into the McKenzie River before exiting land and into the Arctic Ocean. Some of the lakes and ponds were frozen and those that were not had all sorts of waterfowl plying their surfaces. I saw some gulls and some terns, but couldn’t tell which species they were.

As the Dease River headed off in a northeasterly direction, the road started to move away from the river in a northwesterly direction. I slowly climbed about 1000’ over 10 miles to about 3200’. During this climb I encountered another black bear, multiple snowshoe hare, and a willow ptarmigan trying to get to the other side. Like its Galliformes relatives (chicken-like birds), it actually remembered that it knew how to fly.

When I arrived at Vines and Puppies B&B, it was such a tremendous moment. Kristy, the proprietor, has a couple of cabins and she greets her guest with a hot meal. Mine was a casserole containing pike meat from a pike she had just caught that morning from a lake about an hour north and a fresh-baked loaf of bread. It was a charming, charming place.

Trumpeter Swan (Now called the Canadian Swan)

Today's ride: 66 miles (106 km)
Total: 859 miles (1,382 km)

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Julia BowenMost wonderful
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