Stewart, BC30 Aug 2010
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| Today we drove from Iskut, BC to Stewart, BC via the Cassiar Highway [BC 37]. The highway was a pretty good 2-lane narrow shoulder road. We made good time. The only tricky areas were at some of the bridges which were narrow, one lane, and had slippery surfaces. Traffic was sparse so we didn’t have any problems. As we neared the coast we came upon the coastal range of mountains. They were tall and had lots of snow fields and quite a few glaciers. We stopped across from the Bear River Glacier to take photos. There is a small lake between the foot of the glacier and the road. The guidebook said there were icebergs that had calved off of the glacier into the lake but we didn’t see any. We did see lots of blue ice which is old ice that was buried and compressed on its way downhill. As we were getting into the RV to leave, a guy called over and said “come here and see something even more spectacular.” We walked over to where he was standing and looked in the direction that he indicated. My first guess was that he was pointing to a boat that had sunk up to its superstructure. He said no, it was a pickup camper. He said that a German tourist travelling alone stopped there to take pictures. He neglected to put the truck in park. As he was occupied, the truck slowly rolled off the embankment and into the lake taking everything he had with him into the drink. The camper floated off of the sunken truck and floated across the lake to its present position. I guess it is just going to sit there until it rots. We arrived at our RV park soon after lunch. We beat most of the rigs in. The owner parked us on the grass across the field from the restrooms. While we sat there he parked the other units as they arrived. By the time that we went to the wagon-master’s briefing we realized that we were surrounded by rigs 40 feet long and 10 feet tall. We looked lost amongst them. We had our meeting ahead of schedule since everyone was in. Then we all carpooled to the NFS Bear Watching Area across the border in Hyder, AK. It was about 15 miles but some of it was over rough dirt roads so it took a while to get there. Rich and Cheryl gave us a ride. He was very careful of his new truck so we were one of the last to arrive. This is a very unusual place. There is the stream filled with spawning salmon. The bears come to fill up and gain fat for their long winter hibernation. The people are caged [sort of] instead of the bears. There is a long boardwalk raised above the land with waist high walls. Supposedly the bears can’t/won’t get in where the people are. The rangers claim that the bears totally ignore the people and gorge themselves on all the fish. Unfortunately the early meeting had allowed us to get over to the viewing area before the bear’s supper time. We waited and waited to no avail. I learned later that Ron had gone back after 6:00 PM and had spent 1 ½ hours photographing a sow and her cub having a great time feeding there. That was a bummer. We, on the other hand, had supper and read until bedtime. |
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