July 30

The campground was full mostly by a caravan of RVs. Twenty-two big rigs n the group. These are professionally operated trips where all the organizing is done by the company and you bring your rig. You pay for them to lead and organize. It’s bit like going on a cruise ship but you need to bring your own room. We found their next destination is the same as ours, Stewart, BC/Hyder, AK.  Before that we have an empty bottle to find.

I had remembered that we accessed the railbed about 20 miles south of Dease Lake where the bed came within 200 feet of the road. Let me start that the road may or may not be in the same location. The old highway was gravel and now it paved the entire length. The forest has grown 30 years and looked vastly different. At least different from the forest of my memories. When we located the railbed it was way off in the distance where it was not accessible. There small lakes, wetlands, and muskeg between us and the railbed not to mention there was no place to even pull off on the shoulder. There was no shoulder, just a drop off. I’d like to say we recovered the bottle but we did not. We didn’t even find a place to get onto the railbed. Oh well, it was a good dream. I will remain guilty of leaving the bottle.

We headed toward Steward/Hyder trying to avoid the caravan of RVs. We find a campground in Hyder, Camp Run A Muck. It’s small and funky. In a way it lives up to the name, yet we are in tree and it’s a beautiful location. Hyder, Alaska and Stewart, British Columbia are somewhat unique. The way here is via the one road coming off the main highway maybe 30 miles. The road heads into Stewart at the far end of the Portland Canal which is a long fjord. Hyder is just 3 miles down the road next to the Portland Canal. It’s in the US but the only access is via Canada. Heading back to Stewart you need to pass through Canadian Customs yet there is no US Customs. I decide I want to head back to Stewart to buy a couple of supplies while Marsha stayed in the campground. I pull up to Customs. “What is the purpose of your trip to Canada?” I answer with, “To buy ice cream.” I chatted with the guard for a minute and was on my way.

Why head to Hyder? We visited Stewart/Hyder at the time we did the mountain bike trip near Dease Lake. We had camped in Stewart then “bicycled to Alaska.” Back then Hyder was a hole in the wall with just about nothing but a bar. The road follows along the Portland Canal where we had seen some of our first eagles in our lives. There’s been some development of the port for the mining operations, but the main attraction for tourists to come to the area is a bear viewing area just two miles outside of Hyder. The Salmon had started running but the bears have not come. Both brown and black bears can be seen there, but this summer so far only a black bear sow and cubs showed up once. The salmon have started into the large river but the bear feeding frenzy starts once the salmon head up a small creek at the viewing area. The salmon have started but not in the numbers to attract bears. It will maybe happen a couple of days after we leave Hyder.