Day
53 – 7-3-15 Friday Today was a 2 bear day.
The
campground was so quiet last night I think we could of heard a
squirrel running across the sites it there had been one. We departed
about 9AM and headed to Hyder Alaska. About 25 miles South of Iskut
BC. The roads had center lines and pavement edge markings again but
still very little shoulder but the pavement was smoother and the
lanes wider that from here back North to the Alaska Highway. The
scenery varied from average to awesome. Some of the time we were
riding down low in a valley with mountains on both sides and other
times all we could see were spruce trees on both sides. In some
places the river ran right along side the road and it could have
probably been classified a class 2 or 3 rafting river in some areas.
The water was really rolling over the rocks. I saw a black bear on
the left side of the road with just his head and shoulders above the
vegetation beside the road.
We
noted that the few places to get fuel on the Cassier Highway don't
bother to post the prices on a sign so you can see them from the
highway. Like Lena stated you either pay the price or walk. It is
roughly 400 miles from the turnoff from the Alaska Highway onto the
Cassier Highway to Hyder and we might have seen 4-5 small communities
to get fuel.
The
last 20 miles or so before getting to Hyder had some awesome views,
glaciers, snow capped mountains and rivers. We drove through Stewart
BC on past the Canadian border into Hyder Alaska. According to a sign
at the edge of town it is home to 100 happy people. We pulled into
the Camp Run-A-Muck Campground about 1PM. I walked around the
campground to look at the sites waiting for the manager to come back
from lunch. When he came back we checked into site 52 up in the
trees. The site are laid out rather strange but at least they didn't
cut the trees down to make the sites like a lot of campgrounds we
have seen. We can hear a stream of water back in the trees from our
site. After we set up we drove a short distance to The Seafood
Express normally called “The Bus” to get some lunch. We had heard
about it from some other travelers and the manager had marked it on
the town map. It is an old school bus that has a full kitchen built
into it. Three tables outside and a small dining room in another
building. We both ordered halibut and chips (french fries). The owner
has been running it for 17 years. She loves to cook and her husband
is a fisherman so they makes a good team. They also retail fresh fish
next door. She told us the names of several movies that have been
filmed in the Steward and Hyder area. Robin Williams was in one movie
that was filmed in Hyder and he ate with her, so she named one of her
sandwiches after him for awhile.
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| The Bus |
We
then drove back into Stewart after passing through Canadian Customs.
There is no American Customs checkpoint here just Canadian. It seems
strange to me they even need a Canadian Customs here. You can't get
to Hyder Alaska by car except through Canada so you have already been
checked by Canadian Customs before you even get to Hyder and you
can't leave Hyder by car without going back through Canada so what is
the point of having a customs office here. We saw three customs
agents on duty today. Oh well I guess it provides jobs.
We
returned to the campground after getting a few groceries in Stewart.
I was standing outside the motor home talking to a neighbor camper
when a very large black bear walked through about 100' feet in front of us. He was the largest we have seen on this trip. I was not fast enough to get the camera and photograph him.
About
7:30PM we went the Fish Creek Observation area to look for bear
feeding on fish. The Hyder Community Association and the Tongass
National Forest has built a nice raised wooden walkway with railings
along the creek to allow people to watch the bears while they feed on
the salmon without disturbing the bears and keeping the humans safe.
The ranger on duty said the salmon had not started to run yet so the
bears were not feeding. We walked the walkway and watched three
beavers working in a pond beside the creek.
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| Bear Creek & walkway |
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| Pacific Red Elderberry beside Bear Creek |
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