Jade city

Day 52

8/11/26 Tuesday

We had a rainstorm last night. It rained pretty hard for quite a while. It sent everyone scrambling inside tents and campers for the evening. Disappointing because it was beautiful and calm on the lake. I, however, still felt pretty miserable from my cold so I crashed out early.

We are off today to a place called Dease Lake. There’s a town by that name at the bottom of the lake we are not planning to go that far. We’re looking at a couple places on the lake before town to camp.

As we’re driving today’s wildlife we saw a red fox. He crossed the road then stopped to look back at us. Along the drive there are small lakes and creeks that dot the roadside. The Cassiar Mountains loom in the foreground. 

Our big stop of the day was to check out Jade City. It’s a private enterprise by one family that sells jade products. Not really a town at all. There are giant jade rocks that line the buildings. Theres a building where the slabs are cut, an artists building where they carve jewelry and the gift shop itself. Also a couple of air bnbs, free rv camping and Free coffee. Everyone stops here if only just to admire their efforts. 

Zzz People were very friendly here. All the employees and even the Police Officer. He said hello and shook our hands. He loves this place on his rounds because there are people visiting from all over the world. He said he likes helping people. Wow! He’s got a good gig.

We’ve seen more cyclists passing through. One at camp last night and two women at Jade City having coffee. Their bikes were loaded. It’s a popular route and I can see why… quiet, speed limit is 50mph and very scenic. 

Easy day today. We pulled into our campsite about 12:30 pm at Sawmill Point Recreation Site on Dease Lake. We’ve got a waterfront campsite, picnic table built from logs, pit toilet and it’s FREE! Hard to beat. 

We just had a little rainstorm go through this afternoon so hopefully it will clear up and get nice. We are planning to get our inflatable kayak out for the first time. Long overdue.

Just before dinner we had another shower move through. Jim had the kayak all ready to go so we ate dinner first waiting for the wind to calm down.

Mission accomplished we got out for a little paddle along the shoreline down then back up and past camp before turning around and heading in.

Earlier in the afternoon we noticed a funny muddy colored line running through the lake. We had no idea what is was until we paddled into it. It was actually orange spruce pollen floating on top of the water. There were patches of it everywhere.

Tomorrow we are taking a side road to Telegraph Creek. It’s a gravel road for 71 miles or so. Also steep with switchbacks. It’s suppose to be incredible there and the weather is supposed to be sunny. Fingers crossed we get there okay and it’s special!