Stewart, BC and Hyder, Alaska

July 3^rd and 4^th

We took the western route through BC to the Alaska/Canada Highway or the Al-Can.

This is a different route than in 2016. It’s called the Cassiar Highway. This 2 lane paved road is narrow but so beautiful. We saw a bear and that’s all for wildlife. After weeks of rainy weather, we finally have gotten some sunny days to highlight the natural beauty of the snow capped mountains.

 

We stayed at a lovely RV park called Bear River RV. The sight was level, the cable TV worked mostly, satellite was out of the question, the wifi was tricky but sort of worked. We’d stay there again. There were berries growing everywhere, to attract the bears!

Stewart is a tiny town with a few restaurants a hotel, post office and a liquor store. Hyder on the “American” side is even smaller. We had dinner at The Bus. A gal cooks the fresh seafood her husband catches. We had halibut and it was superb.

We drove to the Salmon Glacier which is 20 miles out of town up a mountain. Holy cow it was glorious up there. These pictures do NOT do it justice. We stopped at the bear viewing area the National Park Service has set up on a beautiful creek, but the Rangers told us we were about two weeks early for the arrival of the salmon, and the bears.

On the afternoon of July 4^th, we went to the local bar and had a few Alaskan beers then gathered with the locals and

other RV'ers traveling through and attended the 21^st Annual Bush Women Classic. I’d guess there were around 50 people there. The competing women had to go through an obstacle course of sorts: chop wood, cast a child’s pink fishing pole, collect a small bucket of water and run to the clothes line, “wash” out 3 socks and hang them on the line, “shoot” a bear that was thrown at them from the

woods (it was a teddy bear) diaper a baby doll, flip a pancake in a frying pan then apply lipstick while running to the finish line. There were locals, tourists and all manor of gals competing. The young woman camped next to us competed, and her dog actually attacked the last station of the race and ate one of the pancakes! Pretty funny stuff.

It was good fun. I didn’t take any pictures.

Tonight, we’re in Iskut, BC. A one-night stay as we continue on towards the Al-Can. This park has a beautiful view of Kluachon Lake. Some of the neighbors walked to the lake this afternoon and were surprised by a black bear on the trail. Nobody got eaten, but their small kids sure were excited.