The Cassiar Highway and Back on the Alaska Highway

July 5, 2014

Wednesday morning we got up early and left the Safeway parking lot after a short night's sleep. Greg found an open wifi link and we posted our news from the past week on Vancouver Island and drove east out of Prince Rupert. We followed the Skeena River and then proceeded north on the Cassiar Highway. Our guide told us that the road was less traveled, but in good shape so we were delighted to discover that it was indeed very drivable.

Morning over a tidal pond

After our short night and vow to slow down once we got off the ferry, we pulled early into a British Columbia forest service campsite on Bonus Lake. It was close to the highway with only three campsites, but, was free and we had a beautiful pond, and spectacular cloud shrouded mountain scenery from our site. After a quick walk by the pond, we decided to enjoy the bug-free interior of the RV!

The view from our RV

We took one of only three campsites at this BC Parks camp

No one else camped with us that night, and we left the next morning to drive further north and explore the Cassiar Highway. We took the turn-off west to Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK. What a great choice! The drive was one of the most spectacular we have ever witnessed, even better than much of Alaska. We stopped to view the Bear Glacier, right along the highway and across a pond. We passed so many waterfalls cascading down the high rock faces, that we stopped counting.

The pass through the Coast Range to Stewart

Bear Glacier

Arriving in Stewart, it was raining on and off, and gloomy. Stewart sits at the top of the 90 mile Portland Canal that comes in from the Pacific Ocean, and in the past was an important port. Today, the town is small and hosts the visitors who come to see the bears at Fish Creek, just over the border in Alaska, outside of the funky town of Hyder.

Before we visited Hyder, we went to the information center in Stewart to see if the salmon were running yet, and if the bears had shown up on Fish Creek. Finding out we were probably a week early, which we had read in the guidebook, we decided to explore anyway. Wandering around town we found a trendy food truck to get lunch. Totally out of place in this sort of, has been town. It was called Dash, and had the food truck as well as a covered and clear plastic enclosed area. The cute tables were set on a wooden platform, with rugs and flowers on the tables. The menu was upscale with really interesting entrees. We went for the elk-venison burgers to keep within our budget, and got warm drinks to counter the cold, rainy weather.

Main Street Stewart

Dash food truck

Elk Burger!

We had a great conversation with the young woman who took our order. She was from Texas! She left Texas after college, went to Seattle, then Vancouver and fell in love with a chef. He was working in the top restaurants in Vancouver, but wanted his own restaurant. Because she was from the States and had to stay six months a year in the country, they looked for a cross border town to open up an upscale food truck. One look at the scenery in Stewart/Hyder and they were hooked. She rented an apartment in Hyder, and kept a chart to keep track of her nights there. She has now gotten permanent residency, so she no longer has to cross the border to keep herself legal in both countries.

They were recently able to purchase a lot in Stewart, so they moved the business there, and have the food truck, covered dining, another storehouse on wheels, with refrigerators, and a really nice bathroom on wheels! They work seven days a week during the summer. I suspect serving mostly tourists, since the food prices are high and the entrees trendy and locally sourced. They take the winter off, because they really can't heat the dining area, plus the tourists are gone by then.
She told us to be sure to go to the end of the Hyder wharf when we drove over there, to see the view that made her stay. The Portland Canal is a fjord, and is a spectacular sight. We drove onto it after we went to Fish Creek, and even in the pouring rain and wind, the majesty of the mountains rising straight up from the water is breathtaking. There is still snow on the peaks, and above town is a hanging glacier, shining blue, even in the rain and gloom. Ahhh...she found her bliss with the chef she loves!

Looking down the Portland Canal from the Hyder warf

Logs floating at the log port

After a short walk over the boardwalk of the Stewart wetlands, we drove across the border to Hyder. There is no border station for the US there, but a Canadian one where you need to show your passport when you return. Hyder is this funky, half closed down, little town. You drive through it and then three miles down the road to Fish Creek. When the salmon are running, the black bears and grizzlies, who normally live in the area, and walk through the towns, swarm along the banks of the creek. Word spread over the years of the easy access to see bears, and the Tongass National Forest had to build a boardwalk with railings along the creek to contain the human visitors, and protect both humans and bears. A ranger patrols with a gun and pepper spray.

Stewart Wetland park

Antique car mounted on tracks for snow

We were at least a week early for the salmon and bears, but walked the boardwalk, imagined what it would be like, and had a talk with the ranger. He said that the boardwalk is packed tight with spectators. When they built the boardwalk in the early 2000's, they didn't know if the bears would be willing to walk under the boardwalk, so they built higher fencing along the sides of it where their natural paths were. Apparently, the salmon are such a big draw, that they don't care. Moms and babies come, as well as the male bears.

Black and brown bears

Bear viewing boardwalk

Where the Bears are - Not!

Bear Hardware

This ranger also found his bliss. He was probably in his 50's and has lived in Hyder long enough to raise his kids. He told us that one summer he took his little daughter to the Southwest and kept warning her to be careful of scorpions and rattlesnakes. When they were coming home, she told him she was glad, because now all she had to worry about was bears. She was used to them being in town. She had grown up with that!

We drove back through Hyder to the Hyder General Store. Eavesdropping on the owner's conversation with some visitors from Tennessee, he warned them not to camp at the Sealaska Inn campground, where we were considering staying. A local man had camped in a tent out back in their field, where we would have been, and was killed by a bear. Apparently, it backs up to the town dump, where the bears scavenge. That decided it for us, we drove back over to Stewart.

We stopped at the border and had a conversation with the border guard. We got the impression that he was enjoying chatting. We figured that the young man had a dead-end job being posted there, but it was low stress and allowed him to live in spectacular surroundings and take advantage of the recreation opportunities. Someone else following their bliss?

In Stewart we found the town RV dump, or sani-station as they call them in British Columbia, tried to find an open wifi, failed, mailed some post cards, and drove out of town to another small BC forestry service free campground at Clement Lake. Wow! A gorgeous lake with a mountain reflected in it, and a family of Canadian geese and a loon swimming by! By 7 pm, one other RV quietly pulled in nearby, and left before we did the next morning. Almost all to ourselves again.

Clement Lake camp

"Cotton" that blew off the cottonwood tree containing the seeds.

Andesite boulders from nearby quarry. Greg swatting mosquitoes

Campground Road

The rain started during the night and continued the next morning while we drove the beautiful road back out to the Cassiar Highway. The clouds were quite low over the mountains, but because of the overcast, the blue of Bear Glacier was more pronounced. We were almost sorry to get back on the Cassiar Highway, and leave the beauty and tranquility of our detour, but we had many miles ahead of us to continue towards Alaska.

Lots of Log Trucks!

Heading back up to the Cassiar Highway

We spent Friday continuing north. The road became narrower, and we lost the center line and most of the shoulders. The scenery continued to be dramatic. More snow covered and cloud shrouded peaks. We had a long day of driving and few campgrounds, so at dinner time we pulled into Jade City, mostly just a jade mine with a gift shop and restaurant to capture tourist business, who offered free overnight camping on their gravel parking lot. We spent the night there with a half dozen other rigs, Greg walked to the shop in the rain to check out the jade, while I worked on dinner. He came back later, having slipped out when the Discovery Channel crew showed up to film their series on Jade City. All the other tourists high tailed it out as well, since no one wanted to be interviewed, including Greg!

Bell 2 Lodge, a Cassiar Highway Roadhouse

We followed this SuperHauler carrying a huge transformer for the new power project. It had 10-wheel tractors both pulling and pushing!

Wood deck bridge

Another river crossing

Jade City

Giant all-terrain hauler for raw jade

The big event from Friday was breaking our bear drought! For the five years that we lived in Alaska, and the drive south on the Alaska Highway when we moved out, we never saw a bear in the wild. Last summer Greg found a mother and baby black bears on a bike ride in Kouchibouguac National Park in New Brunswick, Canada, and we saw one from afar in Yosemite a few months ago, but no bears in BC, the Yukon, or Alaska. Prime bear habitat. Friday we saw six black bears on the side of the road during the day, breaking our 25 year drought. Today we saw four more, including what we are fairly sure was a grizzly! We also saw a dead moose being dragged behind a highway maintenance pick-up truck. Yuck! The only moose we've seen so far, and no caribou, but a ptarmigan, and a horseshoe hare. We've seen lots of chout ravens, what we've come to call the ones in the road after Greg kept saying, “Chout raven! Get out of the road!” The squirrels scurrying across the road baffle us as well. What could be so great to cross the busy highway? Maybe an alluring female with a lush bushy tail?

Today, Saturday, we got an early start in the rain, after filling a few water jugs at Jade City. No water was available the 3 nights before, so we were rationing it, and using all disposables for meals. Trash is no issue. There are trash bins at the numerous highway pull-offs. We traveled about 75 miles north and turned west onto the Alaska Highway. It was like an interstate after a state highway, except it's not. Just busier, especially with RV's, but the road isn't any better. We drove a short ways through BC. Then into Yukon Territory. Immediately we found the potholes. Then we went in and out of the two provinces as the road drapes in and out of them. We stopped for fuel almost every chance we got, driving off the top quarter of the tank. Stations are a lot more numerous than they used to be, but many roadhouses have closed in recent years, as vehicles are able to travel longer distances in a day.
We took a short stop at Rancheria Falls. The boardwalk took us a short distance through the boreal forest to two small falls. There was no lingering to enjoy the view. The mosquitoes were atrocious! I took photos as quickly as possible, we speed read the placards and raced back to the rig.

Leaving Jade City in gloomy rain

Huge burn area from fire in 2010 and 2011

The Alaska Highway

Scenic Nugget City

The most confusing Pay-at-the-pump in this hemisphere!

North up the highway

Rancheria Falls Boardwalk

Rancheria Falls

Moss on rock outcrop

After a rainy day we were glad to stop in a Yukon government park before reaching Whitehorse, YT. It's near a lake. A small park, with free firewood, and is only $12 for the night. Not free, but cheap! Greg decided to haul out his hatchet and split wood to build a fire. A lot of the wood is green or wet from rain, but I am amazed that he is able to build a clean, mostly smokeless fire, after we have spent months watching our camping neighbors build smudgepot fires from green wood.

Greg's chopping technique- wedge in a small hatchet and whack it with a log!

Tomorrow we will try to find some wifi, go to a few interesting places in Whitehorse, and look for a campground for the night with showers! Seriously, we are getting to that point... I guess after 33 years of marriage, we are getting tolerant of each other...

Don't think we will quite make it to the Alaska border tomorrow. We have a long way to go, and the next section of the highway has major frost heaves, so we'll take it slow and get back to the States when we get there!