Dease Lake to Smithers

Day 17 (20 Sep) — South

Dease Lake to Smithers

Dease Lake was without doubt the smallest town so far. And it was unimaginably cold. The proof: when we went back to the car in the morning, the cut salad we had bought a few days before was frozen...

Like yesterday, we drove a road with a beautiful contrast between autumn leaves and snowy mountains.

There was nothing like a town at all, but for some reason an airfield stood all alone. One helicopter was parked there, but there was nobody around. No control tower either; it seemed to be a completely unmanned airfield.

There were no petrol stations on Highway 37 until the small town just before it joins Highway 16. That was a big miscalculation, and the fuel gauge got low enough for the warning light to come on. Running out of fuel on a road with so little traffic would be serious. From now on I must make sure to refuel with plenty of margin!

Major roadworks underway.

After joining Highway 16 we drove about 100 km east and arrived in the town of Smithers. For the first time in quite a while we had come to a town where, if not a city, I could imagine living. There are plenty of places to eat, A&W included. At the supermarket we bought a risotto-like dish you just heat in the microwave, and frankfurters, and decided to eat at the motel. Tonight's lodging, the Florence Motel, had a kitchen. All the kitchens in Canadian lodgings had electric hobs rather than gas like in Japan. Electric, but not the induction hobs of Japan: the type where a coiled heating element glows red-hot.