May 18, 2025

Vines & Puppies B&B to Blue River Bridge

Leaving Vines and Puppies B&B was difficult. It was one of those places where an 18-hour stay was not long enough. Kristy left the fridge very well-stocked, so I heated the leftover casserole, cooked a couple of poached eggs, placed them on top, and smeared homemade wild blueberry jam on a slice of the bread she baked. I won’t forget that breakfast for some time. [Why the name? The cabin was on Vines Lake, and Kristy has raised a number of dogs over the years. Now you know.]

I didn’t ride far before I came to Jade City. Jade City was the site where the reality TV show, Jade Fever was filmed. I never saw the series, but I learned about it while visiting the Jade City gift shop, the only business in “town”. Their free coffee sign drew me in and I stayed for the company. As always, I had an interesting discussion with the two young women who had started to take over the business. I can’t think of a more remote place to have a gift shop, or any business for that matter. The gold miners in this area have been small operations, but there is one large company investing in prospecting and they had a large camp where a gas station once stood.

The highway followed the Dease River before crossing it. The river veered east where it would empty into the Liard River, the MacKenzie River, and eventually into the Arctic Ocean, near Inuvik, an Inuit village in Northwest Territories. It’s easy to understand how people in the north were able to move and spread out many years ago by following these rivers to places like these small villages I’m riding through.

The river crossing is a boundary between the Tahltan First Nation people and the Kaska First Nation people. The village of Good Hope Lake is at the southern edge of a large territory that belongs to the Kaska. Kaska is an Athabaskan language closely related to the Tahltan and other First Nation residents in this region. As I rode through the village of Good Hope Lake, the only sound I heard was a barking dog. Because it was Sunday and a holiday weekend, maybe it was a good day to hunt and fish.

Pretty soon I encountered another black bear which was following the identical behavioral pattern of earlier bears by eating the grass growing along the road banks. As I approached, it fled quickly into the brush and I pedaled on. Before long a significant change in the roadside vegetation made me forget the bears. The brush and forest disappeared.

The forest-to-burn scars suddenly appeared. For hundreds and hundreds of miles in all directions, there were no trees. The fires that burned in this area consumed every single lodge pole pine there was. All that was left were charred remains on the ground. The soil didn’t support much new life, but in a few areas willows and other shrubs were beginning to establish themselves. This would be a miserable place to ride a bike in summer. There was absolutely no shade. I saw many emerging lupine on the road edge and the color was a nice distraction.

Before Kristy left me at the cabin last night, she told me about the lake where she caught the pike and a possible campsite for tonight. The gravel road leading to the lake was hidden and I passed it somehow. So, I kept riding north and found a nice wild camp site along the Blue River bridge. Pleased with myself, I started to unpack my gear and get ready to heat some water. OK, so this is where I will be completely transparent. I left my stove and cook pot someplace, either at Kinaskan Lake, Dease Lake, or Vines & Puppies. I hadn’t used it since Kinaskan Lake. No longer pleased with myself, I made due with what food I had and got an early jump on sleep.

Today's ride: 61 miles (98 km)
Total: 920 miles (1,481 km)

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Lou JurcikOk, this is the one puts me over the edge, causing enough envy that I cant concentrate here in my excellent little world. So so glad its working out for you. Sheesh to I get the annoyance/chagring of leaving a campstove behind.... This morning I left a nice chunk of salmon on the counter at the grocery store, having been too busy packing up for my bike than to make sure to look behind. NOT the same thing as your stove, but....
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