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20030704 Open new window with today’s pictures.
July 04, 2003
Friday
The Fourth of July
Start: Cassiar RV Park, Kitwanga BC
End: Bear River RV Park, Stewart BC
Miles: 132
Hi Temp: 64.4
Lo Temp: 50.4
When we awoke, sunlight was streaming in between the leaves of the blinds. There was little breeze and the temperature was above 60 already. There were a few clouds, but not too many.
We got up and ate, then unhooked the utilities and headed north. As we went north, the clouds gradually took over the sky. Then it started raining lightly, just like the last six days. Then we came to the campground exit.
Actually, it took 60 miles or so for the clouds to take over.
The drive today was uneventful for the most part. It seemed there was little traffic going north with us, but a fair number of vehicles going south. Many of the southbound folks were in RV's. It seemed to us they were leaving early, but then we remembered Dolores was already teaching last year at this time.
We turned west off BC37 (the Cassiar) onto BC37A, the stub road to Stewart BC, and Hyder AK. They're on the Portland Canal, a fjord-like body of water that separates Alaska and BC. The road follows Bear River the last several miles; Bear Glacier comes down a mountain to the river just before entering Stewart; it's a really spectacular sight.
We checked into the campground and set up camp in a light rain. While checking in, we were given a note from the power company (BC Power) that all power will be down from 1:00am to 6:00am tomorrow morning (Sat). I guess the battery will power the furnace fan ok for that long. The refrigerator will shift to propane on loss of AC and then shift back when power is restored.
We ate lunch in the little house, and then headed out to look around.
At the Stewart, BC, visitors center, we received brochures and notes about the happenings today in Hyder for the 4th of July. Stewart has a population of about 500, Hyder about 100. Then we walked the main street (5th Avenue) of Stewart (two blocks) to see what's there. After that, we left for Hyder.
The road to Hyder is paved (all roads to here were paved) right up to the Canada-US border. Then the road changes to potholes in gravel. The speed limit is 20mph and you really don't want to go any faster. The place looks like something out of Northern Exposure, but more rustic.
We arrived around 2:00pm. The next event on the calendar that we wanted to see was the axe-throwing contest at 4:00pm. We walked the town's main street (one block) and bought a couple of Christmas presents. We still had time, so we went north 5km to Fish Creek.
When the salmon are running in Fish Creek, the bears come down out of the surrounding hills to catch and eat salmon. Fish Creek runs along the road to Salmon Glacier; for many years, tourists have stopped on the road and watched the bears. The Forest Service rangers are stationed there during this period to keep the bears and the people in their places. This was easy regarding bears because they only want salmon, but people kept being fools and crowded the bears to get better pictures, and so forth. A ranger said one idiot actually tried to put his daughter onto a black bear's back for a picture.
So the USFS built a long narrow platform along the creek on the side away from the road for this year. People will have to park in parking lots, not on the road, and they'll have to go to this platform to view the bears. The platform is elevated some six to eight feet, so that ought to work. The people can see the bears but not get to the bears.
While talking with the rangers, the sun came out. There wasn't any breeze out here in the woods, so it warmed up fast. One ranger made a joke about having to sacrifice a goat so the clouds would come back and cool off the place.
We went back to Hyder and found seats at the bar in the Sealaska Inn. A lady came along and sat next to Dolores. We began chatting and found out she was from Thorpe, Wisconsin. She comes up here for the summer and lives in her brother's cabin while he works the North Slope oil fields. We had a good talk with her until time for the axe-throwing.
We couldn't find where it would take place. Then we saw a wrecker coming down the street with a log suspended from it and a target log butt with rings painted on it attached to that log. The wrecker sat the contraption down in the field next door. A short stump was set up to hold four or five axes for the throwers. The contestants started flinging their axes, practicing. Some were fairly good.
Then the competition started, with the top five to be finalists. Each thrower got three tosses. There were two throwers I thought had a chance at winning, both burly rough-looking critters. One of them was walking around holding his right ribs because he'd broken one or two earlier, but he still wanted to throw.
Both of them made the finals, and the one with the broken ribs placed in the top three.
The next contest was the broom-kicking contest, which I can't even begin to describe. I'll show you when I see you, but I can't figure out how to type words that describe the contortions the contestants had to go through.
We learned during this event that the little kid's "penny-find" contest earlier afternoon had to be called off due to bear. There was a black bear in the field where it was to be held. The bear wandered off, but they weren't taking chances.
We talked with some other folks from Wisconsin (Reedsburg) for a while, then went back to the little house in the campground. We had to go through Canadian customs re-entering Canada, but it was pretty much a formality (ID, etc.).
After a while at the little house, we went downtown (!) for dinner at the Bitter Creek Cafe. Dolores had king crab legs and I had halibut with herb-and-garlic crust. The food was fine. The building was a meat market back when, and old pictures on the wall showed it at that time. Other old pictures showed more of the town in the period around 1910-1912, when mining was booming here. Later, it went downhill, and the last mine closed in the 60's. Now, it's tourism and a little bit of independent mining.
Then we took a ride around town. It looks like every other house is for sale; maybe the town isn't doing as well as I first thought.
It looks like we won't make church this week; the priest comes in only on the second and fourth Sundays of the month.
Tomorrow, we'll go look at the Salmon glacier and keep our eyes out for bears.
20030705 Open new window with today’s pictures.
July 05, 2003
Saturday
Start: Bear River RV Park, Stewart BC
End: Bear River RV Park, Stewart BC
Miles: 0
Hi Temp: 64.8
Lo Temp: 51.4
As advertised, the power went off at 1:00am.
The stupid refrigerator did not shift automatically to propane; instead, it sat there beeping about loss of AC until manually shifted.
The furnace, according to Dolores, was lit but the fan wasn't pushing air under battery power. I shut it off and later in the night, turned it on again. It worked perfectly, the fan coming on and then the propane ignited and the trailer warmed up.
We got up and went out for breakfast. We wound up in Hyder AK, at "Wildflour". It's a combined bakery and breakfast place. The bread was out of this world, and the rest of the breakfast was good as well. The guy who acted like the owner was one of my two favorites to win the axe-throwing contest yesterday (the one who didn't place). The help was saying that the "Hyderites" wouldn't be in until at least noon and then all they would want would be coffee. Musta been a big party last night.
The waitress was from Hyder. She says there are two schoolrooms in the Hyder Community Association building, one for 10 little ones (a few borrowed from Stewart to get to the minimum 10) and one for the first 12 grades. The building is new, replacing one the inhabitants burned down by accident with fireworks two years ago. The town and state offices are also in it.
Then we went north up International Drive. It goes up the Salmon River, passes the bear-viewing area (still no bears today, but we saw one salmon doing its egg-laying thing in front of the stands), past the remains of the old Riverside mine, and then goes up the side of the canyon, and keeps going up. It passes the New Montana mine, and the big one for the area, the Premier mine. The Premier took out, if I have it right, more gold and silver (and some copper) than any other mine in BC and the Yukon. It operated until the 50's.
We kept going up the hill on the rough, potholed, gravel road. No guardrails, of course. The road was put in by the Granduc mine people back when, and maintained by the mines in general. The Granduc was the mine farthest up the canyons and operated the longest, into the 60's. Now, the road is sort of maintained, casually, by BC (the road goes back into BC about 5 miles in and stays in BC).
Finally, at MP 22 or so, we got to the summit with a view of the whole of Salmon Glacier, the 5th largest in Canada. It's very impressive and even more so after that road. And cold; me must have gone up 3,000' or so. At the top, we were at the same level as the top of the glacier.
We came back down, taking pictures on the way. We arrived back at the bear-viewing place (no bears) and then Hyder. We went out on a wharf-bridge-causeway thing to take pictures there, then we left Hyder for the last time.
Then we stopped at the Stewart museum. We first saw "Hill of Gold", the Stewart story on video tape, running 71 minutes. It was thorough, but not too tedious. It showed the various booms and busts the place has gone through over the years. A trans-Canada railroad was started east from here at one point, but it only got 29 miles before the depression struck and stopped that work.
We went grocery shopping and then returned to the little house in the campground. I got the e-mail and when I complete this, I'll go back and send these notes.
We're leaving tomorrow for Iskut, BC. I'm low on diesel fuel, but I have enough to make it to Maziadin Junction, where the stub road rejoins BC37. There's a large service station there. The price for diesel here in Stewart is $0.815 per liter (around $2.50 per US gallon).