Riding the Cassiar Highway – Part 1

June 18^th, 2026

Tatogga Lake, British Columbia, Canada

Woke at 5:30 this morning to piss.  I was actually awake, but that was too early to start packing and such, so went back to bed.

Woke again at 6:30 a.m.

This time I decided to stay up.

Took a shower and packed up the gear, then loaded the bike.

Once read, rode over to the office and checked out of the hotel.

I then went a mile back toward town to fuel up the bike, and also put fuel in the spare 3.5-liter fuel-bag I have. (It took me about 15 minutes this morning to figure out a method for securing this to the bike once full, empty it just folds up and fits in the pannier with my tools).

Once done with that, we hit the highway again.  Took BC16 back the way we had come the other day for bit over an hour, then turned off onto 37 north, the Stewart Cassiar Alaska Highway.

I stopped at the interchange at the fuel station there to use the restroom and buy breakfast. 

After some way overpriced packaged donuts, it was time to hit the road north.

This highway is a long stretch of road through the wilderness.  There are a few small villages in the south part in the tribal areas, but not much else.  A few stops have been built along the way, usually a lodge and fuel station, perhaps a few homes nearby.  Few small towns farther north, and several recreation areas, and even a few campsites managed by province.

It starts by crossing over the Skeena River.

I then pulled off into the small village on the other side to see some traditional totem poles.  The village has about 8 or so along the street in town.  Some are larger, but simpler, not painted, or paint has long since faded if it was there.

Spent a few minutes taking pictures, admiring the poles carvings and listening to the large black raven on the telephone pole nearby screeching at me.

Got back on the highway and started the long stretch northward.

My trip this morning was roughly 390km to reach my first fuel stop.  The bike normally says I can do 400-425km on a full tank, but typically that number starts dropping faster, and I end up only getting about 320km.

After the last week watching how the bike uses fuel while in various gears and engine revs, I have found if I keep the bike under 4500 RPM as I cruise it will do good, even better if I stay around 4000.  This means typically riding about 56MPH with a few times going slower and maybe a couple times hitting 60.

I had the spare fuel, which would give me about 60-70km of extra distance.

I had a fuel stop prior to the one I was targeting as well if I really needed it.

However, keeping speed down, not accelerating fast, and being mindful of keeping a more constant rev on the engine, I arrived at my fuel stop with about 75km of fuel range left, and still not used the spare fuel.

I filled the tank at the station and then went inside to have lunch at the café.

Food is crazy prices up here (though I do see some benefit from the conversion of currency, things are not quite as costly when I put them in US Dollars vs CA Dollars.

Chatted with a few people very briefly while getting fuel, otherwise just kept to myself on this trip.

After the fuel stop, it was about 1.5 hours to reach the motel I had booked the previous night.

The road was generally the same most of this route.  Lots of trees along the side, mountain views ahead and behind, occasional river crossings, and a few lakes along the road.

The bridges were interesting.  While many were normal highway bridges of asphalt or rougher concrete, there were a few that were the grating that you can see down through and are bit difficult to ride on as the grating can cause some wheel instability.

Also had a few bridges that looked to be surfaced with heavy wood planks.  They had signs warning about slippery surface, and it did feel a bit loose going over those, glad it was not raining, would made it worse.

In the last few miles before my motel, I stopped for the 2^nd time at a rest area to use the toilet.  The cold air makes me piss far more often!

The mosquitoes here are next level.  Not only are they the size of a house fly, but you get about 5 seconds after getting off the bike before you have 3 dozen swarming around you.

With the riding hear I was covered pretty good, so not much real estate for them, so they focused mostly on my head, and bit on the hands.  I need to remove gloves, so at risk there, and after the first stop, I just left the helmet on any other time I stopped.  That kept them away from my face at least, just buzzing around the helmet.

I did manage to get a few bites though the first time I stopped before lunch.

Once done with my stop, I then headed the last half hour to the motel.  But now the temperature was getting lower, and it was even sprinkling a bit.

I arrived at the motel and went to the main building with the restaurant where I suspected the check in would be.

Got my key and then rode back over to the row of rooms.  Parked up the bike and started to unload, but was only about half done when it started to rain steadily.

I also discovered a large type of bee stuck in a crevice of one of my bag straps, it was still alive, so not sure if it got in there while I was parked and went for a ride or was caught while riding, but usually a high-speed impact would kill them.

It was moving, though very jerky and unstable.  It did not want to let go of the bag either.  I took the bag over to the table outside the room and knocked it onto the table, then righting it since it landed upside down.

It was moving badly around the table, was not sure if both wings worked or if it would survive.

I at least got it out of the rain, but was also windy and cold.  Wind actually blew it off the table onto the chair, but since the chair was fabric, it was able to cling better to that.

I pushed the chair in under table, hoping that would keep wind and rain away and went back to unloading.

While I still had my rain jacket on, the bags still on the bike and the bike were getting wet.

While not a big issue, I still need to cover the bike to keep it from getting soaked and helps keep it out of view (out of sight, out of mind concept).  So ended up covering the bike after it was already wet.  Hopefully it will mostly dry off overnight, and will make sure I get it uncovered right away in the morning (assuming it is not raining).

I checked on my bee again, he was not moving, I touched it lightly with the room key and it lifted a leg and wiggled a bit, but not much.  I suspect it will not survive, but to keep the wind down I grabbed some larger dandelion leaves growing along the front of the board walk and covered it with those.  Maybe that will let him relax and get back to normal.

Once bike was secured, I sat inside the room and organized bags a bit so I can do things, then got online to check things as I have been without cell service most of the day due to the remote locations.  The hotel has a Starlink Wifi setup for us to use.

I then changed out of the riding gear and into my regular clothes.

Walked over to the restaurant to have dinner. The place is interesting, has lots of taxidermy animals around the place and some seating areas for people to gather.

Main dining area was just tables and that was where I sat down.

Again, with the crazy food prices, but the food was really good.  Had a bowl of thick potato soup with large strips of bacon and sprinkled with cheese, then had a large burger.

I then bought a few drinks as well when I paid and walked back over to the room so I could work on various things on the laptop.

I checked on the bee again, and it was gone!  I looked around on the floor to see if it had crawled and fell off, but could not see it, though possible it went down the crack between boards, there was one that probably was large enough.

The leaves were untouched, so nothing moved it, so I am hopeful it recovered enough and flew away to explore his new home as he is probably long way from where he started.

In the room now to work on this write up, track expenses and maybe work on videos.

I did have the laptop at dinner as well to move all the footage over, and also did some route planning for tomorrow.

I have decided to try another long haul, as there are not many hotel options on the route and the one campsite I know of could be full when I arrive, and also since I lack any kind of bug spray or netting, would be a miserable night, so will plan to get those in the next large city I come too, which will be tomorrow, sort of.

I have booked 3 nights at a motorcycle campsite.  I opted for the more costly fixed tents they have instead of pitching my own tent (3 times the cost, but again, need to get some bug protection first).

I will use that as my base for another day trip on Saturday, and then spend Sunday going into the nearby city to shop and also work on videos.

Guess that wraps up the day.

Catch ya down the road!

Chris