Dease Lake

Dease Lake is a little town on the Cassiar. Nothing much to do there. After getting some gas and groceries we swiftly continued because we wanted to get to Whitehorse before the night. Some 20 miles out of Dease Lake the car started acting funny; the cd player went off and on and all the meters (speedometer and tachometer) fell to zero while braking. Very scary. After checking all fuses we decided that we would continue onwards. We didn’t get very far because the car decided to give up. Being virtually in the middle of the road we were very happy that 2 friendly Alaskans were willing to help us get back to Dease Lake. They figured that our alternator stopped working and our battery was depleted. They jump-started us 4 times in total - each time was good for 9 or 10 miles. Later that evening we bought them dessert as they were having dinner in the same restaurant as us.

We found a mechanic who asserted that indeed the alternator was dead and had to be replaced. Since his personal collection of junked cars, trucks,tractors and piles of spare parts didn’t include anything that was foreign-made, we would have to wait three days before a new one could be brought on the delivery truck from Terrace. At the Northway Motor Inn where we had checked in, we told them that, unfortunately, we needed to stay for 2 more nights, which would be a lot of money on top of the car repair costs. Sheri came up with the unexpected proposal of cleaning rooms and doing chores around the motel to lower our room rate. They found the proposal a bit strange but agreed to give us a kitchenette room (with stove, fridge, and microwave) for $20 per night less than the regular rate and free use of the laundry room in exchange for 14 hours of manual labor.

With nothing much to do in town and a choice of 3 television stations, we figured that it was a pretty good arrangement. To add to our excitement, on Thursday morning, we discovered that one of the tires was flat. The timing was actually very good, because we were able to drive the car to a shop (well, junk-yard/waterdelivery/wrecking service/auto repair“facility”) where they put a patch on the tire so that we would be ready to hit the road when our new alternator finally arrived. When it did, we said goodbye to Dease Lake and finally completed the last153 miles/246 kilometers of theCassiar (sadly, without seeing any more bears).