Day 18, Sunday, September 1, Seeley Lake Provincial Park to Kinaskan Provincial Park, northern British Columbia, 4891 miles

If ever a day could be described as glorious, this was it. We left Seeley late, which seems to be the pattern, and made it down to the intersection of 16 and 37 by noon. As I was sending that photo of the North to Alaska sign, some trucker pulled up behind me and yelled, Move that Jeep, (expletive deleted). I admit, my stopping there made it difficult for him to turn, but he could have been more polite about it. I started to respond back, It's not. Jeep, (expletive deleted), but I was technically still on the highway of tears, so I gave him the the thumbs up sign and moved, letting him get on 37 first. As I got underway, instead of This Land is Your Land, I streamed Johnny Horton's North to Alaska from YouTube and after playing it once, the Internet went silent for the next two days.

What a great hunch I had about this road, 37 or the Cassiar Highway. 250 miles of continuous, awe-inspiring natural beauty. Lakes, streams, twists and turns in the road and vistas of mountain after mountain in shapes, sizes and geologists I could not have imagined. At one stop along the way, we were besieged by an army of butterflies that seemed particularly attracted to Leben and Erde, who watched them with longing curiosity. We came across five juvenile black bears along the way, but after photographing the first hiding in the brush, I moved on when I encountered the others so as not to cause them stress at this late date in their uper-hibernation period.
There is virtually no human habitation along this 500 mile paradise, except for a few junctions 100 miles apart. No cell service either, and little traffic. God forbid if a vehicle should break down.

We made it to Kiniskan Provincial Park about 6 pm. And what a paradise this is. Even Alaskans vacation here. Our site is right on the lake, although only Erde took advantage of that. As I pen these words, sipping my bottle of Pinot Noir and listening to Rachmaninov,she is lying outside the tent in the dark and cold, either thinking about new adventures tomorrow or when this will end. Leben, on the other paw, is lying beside me in the tent, sound asleep after a hard day of searching for new places to sniff on the road.

Photos below.
Our camp at Seeley Provincial Park
A butterfly from the butterfly rest stop we visited.
The Defender alone on the Cassiar Highway
Our camp at Kinaskan Provincial Park
One of the bears we encountered hiding from us.