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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
679 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 12:07 AM
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Hi,
The pictures in SteveOz his post in the "Exotic Northern Canada" (http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8910) thread made me realize that I really want to make a nice long trip thru that area.
Somewhere end of July we hope to "land" in Vancouver, at that point we are most likely work- and homeless. We will spent one week requesting all the papers needed (insurance, permanent resident card and things like that, look for rental homes), but then it would be the perfect moment for 3-4 weeks of holiday.
As far as I have seen you don't get that many days of in Canada (I'm used to 26 here in the Netherlands, so a summer holiday of 3 weeks is possible), so the best opportunity to take a long holiday is between jobs..
On to the real question:
If you would have three to four weeks, around early August. What places should we really visit (rough route suggestions would be great!). Mode of transport will be by car (that we will buy first)
Thank you for your time!
Bas |
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Whistler, BC
Canada
631 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 02:38 AM
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where to start....
stewart, hyder, atlin, skagway, whitehorse, dawson... the list goes on and on and on.
theres so much to see and do up north, and i only know BC/Yukon. its beautiful country up there, and theres so much history everywhere you go. i lived in atlin when i was a kid, and ive only been back once since then, which is something i hope to change very very soon, hopefully this summer. take lots and lots of compactflash. and bug dope.
one warning...everything costs more up there, especially gas, but the experience is well worth it. |
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PoCo, British Columbia
Canada
216 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 05:44 AM
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I would hop in my car, drive north to prince george, from there either go west to smithers, terrace and other areas....or from Prince George you can head north to almost anywhere....or you can go east to the Rockies, Mt Robson, jasper and Banff...I am slightly bias towards Prince George as it is where I came from, there are a lot of great areas around there.....but I think if I had a full three weeks I would head to hyder and stewart, in and around the South Alaska/BC border, great mountain ranges wilderness and privacy.....I'm jelous...have fun
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Why do they make 1 ply TP? |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
679 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 06:57 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by hikinguy
I would hop in my car, drive north to prince george, from there either go west to smithers, terrace and other areas....or from Prince George you can head north to almost anywhere....or you can go east to the Rockies, Mt Robson, jasper and Banff...I am slightly bias towards Prince George as it is where I came from, there are a lot of great areas around there.....but I think if I had a full three weeks I would head to hyder and stewart, in and around the South Alaska/BC border, great mountain ranges wilderness and privacy.....I'm jelous...have fun
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Why do they make 1 ply TP?
Lost holiday we visited Banf, Jasper, Canmore etc..
This would really be a trip up north
Bas |
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Farmington, British Columbia
Canada
88 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 09:22 AM
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Hi Bas,
The north is a wonderful place. I moved up here a few months ago and love it. There is so much to do,its so beautiful and peaceful.  |
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Vancouver, BC
653 Posts |
Posted - 02/18/2005 : 12:18 PM
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ge-an_bas: I wasn't clear from your post whether your are planning on just driving or backpacking.
If you are just driving, I'm going to echo most what Andrew_Strain said, but I'm going to name the routes as well, in decending order of personal preference
- Haines Hwy (Haines Junction, Yukon, to Haines Alaska)
- Glacier Hwy (Meziadin (sp?) Junction@Cassiar to Stewart/Hyder)
- Cassiar Hwy (Alaska Hwy to Yellowhead Hwy)
- North Klondike Hwy - (Whitehorse to Dawson City)
- Dempster Hwy - (near Dawson to Inuvik) - I've only seen the south part
I'm probably going to offend a few people here, but I honestly wouldn't bother with the Alaska Hwy unless you want to say that you've driven it. The Cassiar is a more scenic (north part anyway), and it's more fun to drive for lead-foot types.
A bunch of us CT'ers did all the the above as a road trip (+Tombstone mentioned below) this past summer (also 3 weeks).
If you are backpacking as well, consider:
- Tombstone Territorial Park (personal rating - 6 stars out of 5)
(http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7706)
- Kluane National Park
- Chilkoot Trail (a few CT trip reports for this)
When driving, keep in mind no matter where are are going in the north, it's almost always a long drive, and the roads can be a bit rough at times.
If you want some suggestions about good camping spots, ask away, as we definitely found some great ones (and some horrible ones) along the way.
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Edited by - BeerSnob on 02/18/2005 12:19 PM |
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North Vancouver, BC
Canada
679 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2005 : 01:14 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by BeerSnob
ge-an_bas: I wasn't clear from your post whether your are planning on just driving or backpacking.
If you are just driving, I'm going to echo most what Andrew_Strain said, but I'm going to name the routes as well, in decending order of personal preference
- Haines Hwy (Haines Junction, Yukon, to Haines Alaska)
- Glacier Hwy (Meziadin (sp?) Junction@Cassiar to Stewart/Hyder)
- Cassiar Hwy (Alaska Hwy to Yellowhead Hwy)
- North Klondike Hwy - (Whitehorse to Dawson City)
- Dempster Hwy - (near Dawson to Inuvik) - I've only seen the south part
I'm probably going to offend a few people here, but I honestly wouldn't bother with the Alaska Hwy unless you want to say that you've driven it. The Cassiar is a more scenic (north part anyway), and it's more fun to drive for lead-foot types.
A bunch of us CT'ers did all the the above as a road trip (+Tombstone mentioned below) this past summer (also 3 weeks).
If you are backpacking as well, consider:
- Tombstone Territorial Park (personal rating - 6 stars out of 5)
(http://www.clubtread.com/sforum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=7706)
- Kluane National Park
- Chilkoot Trail (a few CT trip reports for this)
When driving, keep in mind no matter where are are going in the north, it's almost always a long drive, and the roads can be a bit rough at times.
If you want some suggestions about good camping spots, ask away, as we definitely found some great ones (and some horrible ones) along the way.
Thank you for the great info! We plan also to hike. But we have a (by then) two year old son. So we are limited to 15km day hikes.
If you have some camping suggestions.... Yes Please :-)
How far did you drive in 3 weeks. Is 3500km one way (so to the most northern point, 7000km round trip) possible, or is that not reasonable ? Not that we really will plan a 100% set schedule, but anyway..
Thank you,
Bas
P.s A link with extremely beautiful pictures of Alaska, http://www.alaskaphotographics.com/
Check the Northern Light and camping pictures... AMAZING! |
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Vancouver, BC
653 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2005 : 08:34 AM
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We did ~9000km in 3 weeks (starting from Vancouver), partly because we were trying to run away from all of the smoke the plagued the north last summer. That was one heck of a lot of driving though - there were a bunch of 700-900km days, with the longest being 1300km on the last day. Out of our 3 weeks, 5 days were backpacking in Tombstone, and 2 "down" days in Whitehorse.
The best campsites that we found are:
- Dezadeash Lake (Yukon Territorial) Campground in Kluane
- Meziadin (sp?) Junction (BC Provincial) on Cassiar Hwy
- Teslin Lake (Yukon Territorial) Campground
- Tombstone Campground (Yukon Territorial) on Dempster Hwy
good campsites are:
- Chilkoot Trailhead Campground (Alaska State) in Skagway, AK (not sure I have the exact name here)
- Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Site in Haines, AK
- Mountain Shadow RV Park (private) on Cassiar Hwy
- Robert Service Campground in Whitehorse (private, some hwy traffic noise, but conveniently located)
- Dawson City Campground (can't remember the name, but there's only one as far as I can remember)
bad campsites:
- the private campsite in Stewart, BC (can't remember name)
really bad campsites:
- Juniper Beach Provincial Campground, Cache Creek, BC (it's on the route north from Vancouver).
(it's located directly between the two main rain lines across Canada, and the trains run all night long)
Hope that helps,
Alan. |
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Whistler, BC
Canada
631 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2005 : 10:51 AM
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dont forget boya lake at the north end of the cassiar highway. even if you dont camp there, its something you absolutly have to see. IMO one of the most senic lakes in all of bc.
a good page for planning out the portion of your trip thatll be in BC is the misistry of water, land and air protection recreation website
http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/explore.htm |
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Vancouver, BC
653 Posts |
Posted - 02/19/2005 : 11:26 AM
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Ooops - I guess we missed that one!
quote:
Originally posted by Andrew_strain
dont forget boya lake at the north end of the cassiar highway. even if you dont camp there, its something you absolutly have to see. IMO one of the most senic lakes in all of bc.
a good page for planning out the portion of your trip thatll be in BC is the misistry of water, land and air protection recreation website
http://wlapwww.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/explore/explore.htm
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What if: If you have three weeks to go North(tm)
