7-27-08 Day 30 Iskut to Burns Lake

Overcast and 38 this am. On the road at 6:30 to burn a tank of gas and then stop to get breakfast. Today Tom was the leader as I have led every day but the first and wanted a change. Within 5 minutes we see a moose on the left side of the road. As usual our personal cloud toys with us and we have showers off and on. The Cassier Highway south of Iskut is in good to great condition surface wise but the maintenance of the cut back clearing is poor and prevents you from going more then about 55 mph to hopefully allow you to react to wildlife. The scenery is just magnificent (see pic) as you wind through the mountains and valleys. This area is big on heli-skiing and the roads are posted/closed quite often for avalanches. See pic of whats left of one still. Along the way today we saw 4 more bears but fortunately no close encounters like yesterday. We stopped for breakfast at a place called Bell2 and also because it's the last gas for next 150 miles. The name is because this ski resort uses Bell helicopters to cater to Heli-skiers. Our waitress told us they basically stay open for the summer as good will because of being the only gas/food stop along the way but they are booked solid all winter and their ski packages are very expensive. Yesterday I mentioned that we see lots of closed down places. We'll today we're going along and see another closed gas/restaurant/conveinance store and we are talking to each other about that instead of noticing the sign which was a turn we should of made. We finally realized this when the pavement ended and there's a sign that said welcome to Hayden, Alaska!!!! This turned out to be a 100 mile (50 miles each way) wrong turn. That's why I made mention of who was leading today! We go back and make it to Kitawunga which is the end ofthe Cassier where it meets Route 16 also know as the Yellowhead highway or the Trans Canadian Highway. We get gas at the junction and grab a light late lunch as we had hoped to make Prince George today but with the wrong turn it didn't work out. We decide to call it quits for the day in Burns Lake where we gas up to be ready for the morning. The weather has warmed up to the upper 50's! We also finally wash the bikes tonight as we should be done with dirt roads.