YUKON-ALASKA 2018
June 28 Cont...
CASSIAR-STEWART HIGHWAY - British Columbia
The Cassiar-Stewart highway is named after two prominent towns back in the 70's, Stewart which is the access point to Hyder, Alaska, and Cassiar, a former town and Asbestos mine. The town of Cassiar and the asbestos mine have since been shut down.
It would be long distances between gas stations or even towns through this stretch, there was no cell service, and a lot of evidence of forest fires over the last number of years.
One of Northern BC's most colourful and unique lakes is Boya Lake, and it's where we would spend the first night back in BC, Boya Lake campground. What makes it so unique is it's tangled web of bays, islands and waterways, and the colour of the water is indescribable.
After walking around the lake a little, we headed back to the campsite where Silva was being taunted by both squirrels and rabbits.
Since it's almost 10:00 at night, and still light out, we decided to go explore the Beaver trail hike.
It's a fairly easy trail, that takes you around the far end of the lake and up and over a hillside to a large beaver dam.
It's impressive to see what they have built, and all around is is chewed off stumps, they have been some busy beavers.
We made our way back just as the sun was setting, and just in time for 3 Loud talking ladies to arrive and setup in a neighboring campsite. When you are out in the wilds, if we can hear every word you are saying two campsites away, you're too damn loud. There's some things about those ladies that we just can't unhear, luckily they were gone before we woke up.
Once they went to bed, we could peacefully sit in our camp chairs and watch the bats circling above our campfire.
June 29
It was a little slow going in the morning as we had to avoid rabbits on the road. Can you see them in the picture? No? Me neither, but they are there, and aren't the smartest, running back across the road to safety after they already crossed.
For those of you that have watched the TV show Jade Fever, our first stop of the day was Jade City. It's not really a city, it's a working Jadesmith and Store. You can see the cutters and polishers hard at work converting Green rock into sellable pieces or art.
Giant boulders of Jade are just laying on both sides of the road, so when you see the TV show saying if they don't find that Jade, it's all over... it's a bit of an exaggeration. Apparently the dig sites they use are down closer to Dease Lake, and now is in dispute by the natives that own that property. Stay tuned for season two...
They did have some beautiful stuff, we didn't buy this $2500 bear, but we did get a little jade bear on an Amethyst base as a souvenir.
Back on the road heading South, we did see another Moose, but couldn't safely stop to take a picture.
Today we learned a valuable part of geography, whenever we get the province wide weather reports in British Columbia, they always refer to Dease Lake. Turns out, there is nothing there but gas, groceries, and 2 restaurants. One of the restaurants is closed, and the other isn't open yet. I guess when doing the weather, you just have to pick a spot on the map.
$114.50 Dease Lake
A nice place for a break is the Tanzilla River, a nice little pullout right on the side of the water, and a breeze to keep the mosquitoes away.
Anybody know what kinds of trees these are?
In all of our years of traveling, the only Porcupine we ever saw was up a tree in Juneau, Alaska... this trip we were seeing them everywhere, usually waddling away from us.
We decided our stop for the night would be Kinaskin Lake provincial park. We weren't quite sure what we driving down too, but are we ever glad we did, a picturesque lake with a campsite right on the water.
Silva loved being able to wander back and forth to the lakeside. Of course all that water time can be quite exhausting.
June 30
I don't know if was the overnight rain, or just that it's getting later in the season, but most of our stops on this day would be Mosquito infestations. So you stop, do your business, and get back in the truck to kill more mosquitoes.
$127.25 Medezian Junction
We were definitely back in mountain country when we turned West to head down the Stewart hwy towards the Alaska border.
From the highway you can see the toe of Bear glacier, halfway between the Medezian Junction and Stewart. In the 1940's, Bear Glacier began to retreat and Strohn Lake formed in the exposed basin. This glacier was part of the closing scene in the film "Insomnia" with Al Pacino and Robin Williams. The exterior shots from John Carpenter's classic The Thing were filmed in the nearby glacial mountains.
We made it to the city of Stewart, BC. Population 500. Stewart BC, and Hyder Alaska are sister cities, only 3km apart.
We found the Bear River RV campground with hookup and walking distance to the town. It wasn't the most private campsite, but it worked. When we checked in we were told all about the festivities going on in town for Canada Day, including a Fireworks show at midnight.
Free Wifi in the campground is good too, so I double-check my Rogers app... oh look, I still haven't used all my data.
Wanting to make sure we were back in time to take in some of the small town Canada Day celebrations, we jumped in the truck and drove into Hyder, Alaska, Population 87... It really feels like a ghost town, maybe because everyone is in Canada right now at the Beer Garden.
Our first stop is the highly recommended Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site in the Tongass National Forest. Both grizzly and black bears can be observed and photographed at the site as they fish for chum and pink salmon in the clear shallow waters of Fish Creek. Unfortunately we were about 2 weeks too early for the salmon run this year... no bears.
We didn't get to see any bears, but we got to talk to a 100 year old forest ranger about the location and the bears, and watch a beaver working on a new dam. The ranger told us about how they have to go destroy the dam several times a year or the whole area floods.
From Fish Creek, you can continue down a dirt road 37 km to see the Salmon Glacier and Summit viewpoint, we've driven some bad roads already, how bad can it be? Partway along the road we re-entered British Columbia.
The road didn't start out too bad, there was a few potholes around, but you could steer and avoid most of them. The scenery more than made up for any of the bumps, and the further we went, the nicer the weather was.
Then, an hour after we started on this road, we reached the "Toe of Salmon Glacier".
The views of the glacier from here were great, but apparently only 10km further up the road, was the Summit viewpoint. I'm not sure if this Marmot was trying to tell us to turn back, but he was not getting out of our way in any hurry.
Only 10 km, but it was some nasty 10 km. Normally you can steer around potholes and a bit of rock on the road. I did my best to avoid the biggest holes, and slowed to a near crawl for most of them.
We have now hit the snowline, and the views are breathtaking.
It only took a half hour to get to the Summit from the Toe, but it sure seemed like a lot longer. Regardless, it was worth it!!
The Truck and Camper took a bit of a beating on the way up here, and now we could bounce our way back to Hyder.
We are finally clear of the potholes and back on to paved road, as we enter Hyder, Alaska. After that drive, I was planning on stopping at the Glacier Box/Hyder Inn, famous for their shots of 151 proof Everclear (75.5% alcohol) and being "Hyderized". But, it was closed at 9:30 on a Saturday night... No getting Hyderized for us.
As we come back out of Hyder and into Stewart, we have to go through a Border crossing. It was an easy process as there isn't really anywhere to go on the US side, but there is only Customs coming back in to Canada, and not going in to the USA.
Stewart really is a cute little town, with it's historic buildings, quaint waterfront boardwalk, and friendly people.
It's a very nice surprise to find these two beauties parked on the main street!
The night before Canada Day, and Stewart has all kinds of celebrations going on. So we got some food and drinks from the beer garden, and suffered, I mean listened to their live band. To be fair, the band was good, but the singers were not. They did play a great mix of songs, although Smashmouth's All-Star to the tune of Radiohead's Creep was just a little bit disturbing.
At 11:00 it's still light out, so we'll see how the fireworks go. Talked to a few locals, and one of them recommended we go out to the boardwalk to watch the fireworks as most of the crowd will be in the park area.
At Midnight, we had the perfect view of the fireworks, and although Silva has never had a fear of firecrackers, gunshots, or lightning, she was not a big fan of these Fireworks. For such a small town they were pretty damn impressive.
July 1
We woke up to Rain, and after using their lovely psychedelic lighting showerheads, we made our way out of Stewart, and back towards the Yellowhead Highway. Back past the waterfalls, snowpacks, and the Bear Glacier.
$45.00 Medezian Junction, again
Just when you think the mosquitoes can't get worse... We stopped at the Brown Bear rest area, let Silva out for a Pee, and when we returned to the truck, the inside looked like those old Deep Woods Off ads with a glass box filled with mosquitoes. We loaded up as quick as we could, raced on down the highway and opened the windows hoping most would get sucked out, then killed the rest on the windshield over the next hour... fun times.
YELLOWHEAD HIGHWAY - British Columbia
Instead of heading back towards Prince George right away, we decided to take Silva on a bit of a family reunion. We are going to head back to the area where she came from and meet up in Terrace with the family that rescued her 8 years earlier.
It's not very long on the highway to Terrace that we spot a Black bear on the roadside. He seemed more curious about us when we stopped.
$124.85 Terrace
We had a great visit with Cam & Todd, the family that rescued Silva from New Aiyansh, where her mother was chained up with two little puppies in the midst of Winter. So great to finally meet those people that made such an impact on our lives by flying Silva down to us.
Silva & Sparkles 2010
Cam & Silva 2018
After a great visit we drove out to Lakelse Lake only to find out its a 100% online reservation campground and it is completely full. I guess that's the risk of looking for a campsite on a Long weekend near a bigger city. It was kind of dark and dingy there anyways 
We headed back away from Terrace and ended up at Kleansa creek campground, and as our luck seems to go, it was a great campground. It backed on to the creek, was very clean, and well separated campsites.
When we got firewood from the ranger, it even came with a little fire starter bundle, how great is that?
You can tell Silva is feeling way better, she's climbing up the ladder to beg for supper.
When we were at the FULL campground, it was raining, at this campground, No rain! Nice to sit by the fire and not get wet.
July 2
It's very nice to wake up to a bright sunny day, as we are getting closer to the end of our trip.
Our first stop was in Kitwanga to see the historic St Paul's Anglican Church and the Bell Tower from 1893. Somewhere nearby is the Gitwangak First Nations Totem Poles, but we didn't see them, so we'll look again when we come back from our next stops.
Gitwangak Battle Hill was an 18th Century fortress that utilized a strategic location, with a number of different defensive fortifications: rolling things such as rocks and huge logs covered with spikes down the sides of the slopes that surrounded the fortress during raids. This fortress was defended by a legendary chief named 'Nekt, he was a warrior that wore a grizzly bear hide for protection which could not be penetrated by any weapons used by his enemies. He used a number of weapons most notably a weapon called The One Strike Club to kill his enemies. The Gitwangak people would drop back to this location during raids on the village in the lower part of the Gitwangak territory, and this location was never lost during battle. The legends of the battles are recorded and passed on through oral history by the Gitwangak people.
From the Battle Hill, there was great views of the Seven Sisters mountain range, named after the 7 peaks.
Our main destination of the day was the First Nations town of Gitanyow, home to some of the oldest-known and largest collection of totem poles in British Columbia. The totem poles here were highlighted by famous Canadian painter, Emily Carr, in 1928.
Although many of the original totem poles have been taken from Gitanyow and preserved at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria and replaced with replicas, many have stayed in place including the "Hole in the Ice" totem, erected circa 1850.
A little bit of backtracking, and it turns out the totem poles we were looking for in Kitwanga were one block further down the road from where we stopped at the old church. If we had of turned our heads we would have seen the historic Gitwangak totems.
The collection of totem poles here have been moved from different villages including Battle Hill, and represent one of the oldest collections in their original village settings. Seems like we are looking at such history, as one of the locals is mowing the grass on a riding lawnmower.
A very nice stretch along the Yellowhead highway as we stop at Seeley Lake for a break, and continue on. It's a little heart-breaking as you see so many Missing Persons signs along "the Highway of Tears". I'll let you look it up, it's kind of horrifying.
We did make a nice stop at Moricetown Canyon, and what's more Canadian than ordering Poutine from a food truck and eating it on the banks of a river? Mmmmmm, Fries, Gravy and Squeaky cheese curds!
Hudsons Bay Mountain outside of Smithers stands prominently over the landscape here, if you have seen the movie 'The Grey' with Liam Neeson, this is where it was filmed.
What appears to be an abandoned white Igloo is the Adams Igloo Wildlife Museum. Apparently inside is mounted animals and birds native to British Columbia, apparently the museum is closed and is scheduled to reopen in 2018, but I don't see that happening.
$124.73 Talkwa, BC
Smithers is described as a cute town with alpine themed storefronts and murals, our GPS must have been bad, because we just didn't see that part of town. It was nice, don't get me wrong, but very much like a lot of other BC small towns we have seen, except for the Hornblower.
I had noticed that the main highway felt a little rough, but after stopping in Smithers and Norine taking over, it got much worse. There was something wrong with a tire(s), and of course it's holiday Monday at 5:30 and everything is closed now. So when we got in to Houston, we looked past the world largest Fly rod, and looked for a Tire shop..
Instead of driving on, we found a place to stay just outside of town called the Shady Rest RV Park (I know it sounds like a retirement home), and would call around in the morning to get our truck looked at again.
Silva was keeping a very close eye on me while I barbecued up some Pork burgers for her, she was finally putting some weight back on.
The campground actually had a lot of similarities to a retirement home, it was 9:00 at night, and the place was a ghost town. We were the only ones with a campfire, and the only activity in the campground was a fox skulking around outside the showers.
July 3
I woke up at 7:30 to make a call to Kaltire, and by 9:30 we found out that the tread is separating from one of our tires. You know how you see those big snaked pieces of tire on the road? If we had continued on, that was likely going to be what our tire became. Turns out that those potholes I hit pretty hard a few times on the way to and from Salmon Glacier might have caused some damage.
We definitely had to replace the tire, and because it was a front tire, we would need two so they matched. Unfortunately Kaltire didn't have our size tire, so they sent us to Traction Tire, their competition. Fortunately Traction Tire had 2 good used tires and we were back on the road by noon without any vibration, shaking or bouncing. We were very fortunate to resolve it this way instead of a blowout at 100km/h.
No sooner do we get going and I had to slam the brakes on for a dumb deer that darted across the road, then a few minutes later a bear crosses the road in front of us... good thing I have those new tires.
This was the last main stretch for us heading towards our second home in Williams Lake, and we went from bad and rainy weather to nice and blue sky weather the closer we got to Prince George. We even saw 3 deers as we went, but never where we could stop and take a photo. At least we could visit a Costco, and replace Silva's bed which had seen enough traveling over the years... it was done.
$120.88 Prince George
To wrap up our trip and make it full circle, we spent 3 nights in Williams Lake with our dear friend Diane.
You spend all that time driving around the country, hoping to get a photo of a deer, and apparently we just had to sit on the balcony and look in the backyard.
July 6
$98.65 Williams Lake
One month after we started and it was time to drive home, it's about 6 hours from Williams Lake. Of course it's always a pretty drive through the Fraser Canyon too.
$143.70 Emery Creek
One last fill up at Emery Creek and we were home in a couple hours.
We covered so much territory that we had never seen before, avoiding repeating the same roads we had used ensured we saw so much more, and resulted in us driving 8500 km (5281 Miles) and spending $3230 worth of gas. The memories far outweigh that cost.
I did have to spend an hour on the phone with Rogers convincing them they had no right to charge me $50 in data over-usage, but at the end of the day we had an unforgettable trip, Silva is feeling way better and ready for the next trip, and we got some more unique souvenirs for our Xmas Travel Tree. Now what all-inclusive beach destination could we travel to that is equal to $3200 in gas for our next trip?