DAY 59 – 66 ~ BRITISH COLUMBIA

We are now on the Cassiar Highway as we enter British Columbia.  We will be spending 8 days traveling 1,202 miles south through British Columbia to the US border.

  

After 189 miles and four hours we arrive at Iskut for a two night stay at Mountain Shadow RV Park.  

This is a quiet retreat at the base of Mt. Edziza at the north end of Kluachon Lake.  There is a short nature walk that takes you to the shore of this lake.  We did not unhook the trailer for our stay.  We just stayed “home” and relaxed, read, hike to the lake and I painted my turtle rocks.  We had no WiFi or TV, so we watched some of the video’s we brought with us.

  

For our next stop we are briefly leaving the Cassier-Stewart Highway and driving the Glacier Highway to Stewart for two nights. 

  

In our way into Stewart we drove by Bear Glacier.  This is another glacier that has receded since we last saw it in 2009.  

After 192 miles and four hours we arrived at Bear River RV Park. 

  

Stewart is a small town with a population of about 500 people.  It sits at the head of the Portland Canal, which is a steep, narrow ocean fjord that forms a natural boundary between British Columbia and Alaska.   Stewart was once a boomtown of more than 10,000 people.  It was the base for people working several gold and silver mines in the area. 

  

Today charter boats take you out on the waters of the Portland Canal to fish for salmon or halibut. 

  

A few miles from Stewart is Hyder which is in Alaska.  Hyder has a population of about 60 people and is called “the friendliest ghost town in Alaska”. 

On our first night we drove into Stewart to find a place to eat.  Couldn’t find anyplace so we drove about 2 miles into Alaska, Hyder that is. It was recommended that we “Eat at the Bus”.  It’s supposed to have the best seafood.  And it really is a bus.  The bus is the kitchen, you eat at tables on the outside or indoors in a room behind of the bus.  It’s family run.  The wife cooks, the husband and sons catch the fish. Everything is made from scratch, and cooked fresh while you wait. 

We ate inside. Dave had halibut and chips and I had an oyster burger.  It was delicious.

 This was inside the indoor seating area.  Never seen a Weather Stone before.  Every one should have one.

After dinner we visited Hyder's General store and stopped at the post office which made an interesting picture.  

 Portable Post Office.  Notice the sign on the post? "No Mail Plane Today".

  

We returned to Stewart and had to go through a border checkpoint.  This is new.  This was not here 9 years ago.  There is no checkpoint going into Alaska (the US), only going back into Canada.  

At the general store in Hyder, we got to talking to the owner, who was a very talkative gentleman 9 years ago and still is today.  We asked about the checkpoint and he said when it was first installed, they locked the gate when the checkpoint closed at 10pm, locking in all the residents in Hyder. This road was the only way in and out of Hyder.  Well the first checkpoint building was blown up as a protest by the residents.  Finally, Canada realized that they were blocking the only evacuation route out of Hyder and now leave the gate open at all times. 
  

Before going back to the trailer, we did a little grocery shopping in Stewart at the only grocery store in town.  A very colorful building with grocery carts on the roof.

We returned to Hyder the next day and continued driving the Glacier Highway to the end to view Salmon Glacier.  There really is another way to exit Hyder.  At Salmon Glacier you can hike over the glacier and the mountain range into the Inland Passage part of Alaska. 
  

After leaving Hyder and the paved highway we continued on a winding, steep, unpaved road.  We came across a Black Bear crossing the road, then came back and wandered the road a bit.  We followed it until it finally went into the bushes. 

Driving the Glacier Highway we saw several people on bikes (bicycles that is), loaded with camping gear.  I often wonder how they handle coming across a bear or two on the road.  Do they live to tell about it??
  

On this day the unpaved part of the road is very muddy.  It wasn’t raining, but we were driving into a cloud that laid on this area for the whole visit.  With heavy fog and mist, there unfortunately no view of the glacier.  We did get glimpses of it when the wind would briefly blow away the fog.  So, it was a short visit.  

I did have time to hid one of my turtle rocks here on a rocky area that you could walk out to.  Hopefully it will be found before the snows come.  Do you see the rock?  Its at 4 o'clock.

It was a nice drive up and back from the glacier as there were lots of waterfalls along the road.

  

Between the unpaved road and Hyder is the Fish Creek Wildlife Observation Site.   Hyder is a world-class destination for Grizzly and Black Bear viewing during the salmon spawning season; around August and September. There is a short walk along the creek on a boardwalk for viewing the bears.  We saw no bears while we were there; only bear poop.  We were told they come out in the early evening. If we had gone back there around 7pm we would have seen lots of bears; Dave overheard another RV’er at the RV park say so, who had gone back for the viewing.

The next 4 days traveling south through British Columbia will be overnight stops in Houston, Prince George, Lac La Hache, and Hope.  We will travel south-east on Trans-Canada Highway from Stewart thru Prince George.  Then south on the Cariboo Highway to Hope.

    

On the morning of our departure to Houston we had our first disaster of this trip…with two weeks to go, we almost made it home without any mishaps.  Helene, our blind kitty, had an injury to her one remaining eye when one of the other cats swatted at her, puncturing the eye.  Helene lost her other eye last year for the same reason. 

Now these are small towns we are passing through, there are no vets nearby.  People have to drive several miles to the biggest town to see one.  There is a mobile vet in the area who is only available on certain days.   In the yellow pages, we found a few vets in Houston, so we rushed to our next destination.

After 243 miles and six hours we finally arrived at Shady Rest RV Park.  Helene slept the whole way.

The wonderful couple who owned the RV park we stayed at in Houston was so helpful to us.  The wife called around trying to find us a vet.  She finally got us an appointment at a small clinic where the vet was able to stabilize Helene with pain killers and antibiotics.  The vet got us an appointment at a large vet hospital in Prince George as well as a surgery appointment in case it was needed.  I also found a painted rock (BC Rocks!) on a stump in front of the Vet’s office.  I replaced it with one of my turtle rocks.

After we settled Helene down (she fell into a deep sleep due to the painkillers), we visited the site and took pictures of the ‘largest fly rod’.  At 6 times the length of an average fly rod, it would take 12 fishermen working in unison to maneuver the 800lb rod and a river that is 15 boxcars wide to cast it.  I also hid one of my turtle rocks at the base of the rod.  I hid another turtle rock at the base of the rod.  Someone found this one and posted a picture on facebook!

 

Our vet appointment the next day in Prince George is at 9:30am, so we left Houston at 4am (it’s a 4+ hour drive). 

We got into Prince George 1.5 hours ahead of the appointment. Almost 24 hours after the incident, Helene’s remaining eye was removed.

Three days after the incident, Helene is recovering nicely and is back to her old self.  Because she was already about 95% blind from her scarred eyes (from birth we think), she already knew how to get around as a blind cat. So, after 3 days of uncertainly, all is well.

The next two stops, Lac La Hache and Hope we did not unhook.  We sat back and relaxed from our ordeal.  We gave Helene a lot of attention, read, played games on the computer, and watched TV. I also worked on the BLOG and painted rocks.  We stayed at Big Country and Wild Rose RV Parks.  We had TV in both places and fairly good WiFi…finally.  

  
We also ate up the rest of the apples, Dave’s spaghetti sauce, leafy greens, tomatoes and some of the wine in preparation for entering the US.  No apples, some vegetables, unlabeled meats, and limited wine (even though it was all bought in the US).  We had no problems at the US border going into Alaska, or the Canadian border.  But at the BC and Washington border.  They are really tough.
  

Tomorrow we leave Alaska and Canada behind and enter the US.  Eleven days to home!