Wednesday, August 26 - Day Forty-three. Today’s journey from Teslin, Yukon Territory to Watson Lake, YT was only about 150 miles and it was straight down the Alaska Highway. We had run this route in the other direction on day five of the trip, over five weeks ago. Basically, the trip was pretty uneventful - the roads were OK and we didn’t see any wildlife. We did stay in a different RV park this time. The first time in Watson Lake we stayed right in downtown, next to the famous Sign Forest. This time we stayed at the Baby Nugget RV Park about 5 miles North of town. We are staying here because it is right near the intersection of the Alaska Highway and the Cassiar Highway, our next route.
After we got set up in the park Jackie and I headed into Watson Lake to do a couple of geocaches that we had identified in the area. One of them was actually inside the sign forest, hidden between two signs on one of the posts. We also wanted to
check at the local electronics store to see if they had an ink cartridge for our printer - we had just run dry. We found the store but it had a sign that said it was closed for the day. Oh well. After our caching we headed back to the park in time for the travel meeting for the next day. We are only staying in Watson Lake for the one night. After the travel meeting we went to dinner at the restaurant at the RV park with Gary and Dee. We had an excellent dinner and a good evening of conversation with Gary and Dee. We had not had a chance to spend much one on one time with them. They are originally from Connecticut, but are now full timers located in Florida. He is a retired heavy equipment mechanic, a very handy profession to have on a trip like this. After dinner we just went back to the coach for the rest of the evening.Thursday, August 27 - Day Forty-four. Today we head down the Cassiar Highway, BC Route 37. The Cassiar Highway was constructed in the early 70's as a connector between the Alaska Highway and Canada’s Highway 16 which runs from Prince Rupert on the West coast all the way across Western Canada to Winnipeg, Manitoba. Our ultimate destination and reason for going down the Cassiar is to get to Stewart, BC. However, because of the distance involved we were only going 208 miles to a small village called Iskut, a little over half way to Stewart. About 10 miles South of the Alaska Highway we crossed into British Columbia and left the Yukon Territory for the last time, at least for this trip.
About 75 miles down the road we stopped at a place called Jade City. Jade City is really just one store and the headquarters for a jade mining operation. The actual jade mine is a couple dozen miles into the mountains, but the store had a lot of
jade jewelry and decorative items for sale. They also had raw pieces of jade for those who want to make their own jewelry. We looked around but resisted buying anything. We got back on the road to finish the last 125 miles of the drive and found that the Cassiar highway is in pretty poor condition. There were a lot of frost heaves and gravel sections. It also started to rain so we were driving in the wet gravel and dirt getting the coach and car really muddy and gritty. To top it off, I started getting a faint “dinging” sound from somewhere under the dash that sounded just like one of the warning chimes, but not quite as loud. None of the gauges showed anything amiss and there were no warning lights. I had read on one of the Monaco chat sites a while back about other Monaco owners having similar alarms when driving in wet weather. Apparently some sensor under the coach is getting wet and sounding a false alarm. Although there was nothing wrong with the coach I had to listen to the dinging sound for the rest of the afternoon. Very annoying.We finally got into the park by late afternoon because we could only drive about 40 miles per hour on the poor roads. The park was certainly nothing to shout about, grass sites with no sewer, but we were only there for one night. We were also deep into mosquito country and they were terrible. Jackie and I finally got to use the mosquito head nets we bought just after starting the trip. They actually worked pretty well. We had our travel meeting in the park’s restaurant and lounge area. After the meeting several of the members of the caravan stayed for a special meatloaf dinner made by the park’s owner. We decided we didn’t want meatloaf so we had arranged to have dinner in our coach with Peggy and Vern. Jackie made her chili relleno casserole and Peggy brought some beans and other goodies. We had a very nice Mexican dinner and a good evening of conversation.
I should also note that shortly after arriving at the park in the afternoon we learned that the caravan had suffered another serious mechanical casualty. Linda and Ernie had stopped at Jade City some time after we left and when they went to leave found that the transmission on their motorhome was not working properly. They had an older gas coach with about 150,000 miles on it. Doug, our Tailgunner had stayed with them in Jade City to ensure that they got help. Apparently a flat bed tow truck came down from Watson Lake, loaded the coach up and took it up to Watson Lake. Linda and Ernie followed the truck back to Watson Lake and Doug and Linda ended up stopping at one of the fuel stations on the road to Iskut to spend the night because it got too late. They showed up in Iskut as we were getting ready to leave the next day.
Friday, August 28 - Day Forty-five. Today was another early start - we had 183 miles of bad road to travel from Iskut, BC to Stewart, BC. We were on the road around 8:30. Again, other than the road being rough and tumble with a few gravel spots, the trip was uneventful. Not much scenery, other than trees, until we got within 25 miles of Stewart. The Cassiar Highway (Hwy 37) runs pretty much North-South. To get to Stewart we had to take Highway 37A, a spur that heads straight West. Once on this spur we started down a river valley, and ultimately into a river canyon, that provided spectacular scenery. Although it was rainy and a little foggy we could still see that the mountains to the South of the road were spotted with glaciers and there were waterfalls all over the place. And the road, although a little narrow and winding, was in fairly good shape. We arrived at the RV park about 2:00 and got settled in.
At 3:30 all of our caravan was in so we all got in our cars and headed through Stewart, a Canadian town of about 1,200 population, into the neighboring “town” of Hyder, Alaska. Stewart, BC, sits right on the Western border between Canada and Alaska, very near the southernmost part of the Alaska panhandle. There is no US customs checkpoint between the two towns so you just drive across into Hyder. When you cross the border the road turns to dirt and you would swear that you just went back in time 70 years and into the wilderness. Hyder has a permanent population of about 65 and is VERY rustic. It is all dirt roads and broken down buildings, log cabins. There is a general store and two gift shops, but other than that it is only a few old wooden buildings.
The reason we went to Hyder is that about 10 miles North of town is a US Forest Service site that provides close-up viewing of wild bears at certain times of the year. There is a stream, Fish Creek, that is a major King Salmon spawning creek.
Usually in August and September the fish come up the river to spawn and the bears come out of the woods to eat the fish. We have seen pictures taken in the area that show as many as 10 bears, both black bears and grizzlies, in the stream fishing and eating. The bears are getting ready for hibernation and trying to bulk up and the fish make great meals. The Forest Service has installed a network of elevated wooden boardwalks along the stream so people can stand up there and watch the bears. Historically, the bears don’t seem to bother the people and the noise the people make doesn’t seem to bother the bears. Seems to be a no-conflict zone. Larry says the bears aren’t bothered because they have been coming here every year since they were cubs.A few days prior to our visit to Stewart, Larry, our wagonmaster, had told us that he had been in contact with another caravan’s wagonmaster who had been in Stewart already, and had been told that the fish were in and the bears were making an appearance. Unfortunately, when our group got to the site, there were a lot of large salmon in the river, but no bears. Supposedly they come out mostly in the mornings and evenings, which is why we went up there when we did. We were there
about 4:30 p.m. or so and waited about an hour and a half, but no bears. There were probably a hundred people on the boardwalk. Many of them had very expensive cameras with huge telephoto lenses set up on big tripods. We were told that they were the professional photographers trying to get good saleable wildlife shots. Unfortunately, it was raining a little which made it uncomfortable. The people with the big cameras had little umbrellas over the cameras to keep them dry. About 6:00 or so we gave up and headed back to Stewart.When you pass back from Hyder, Alaska to Stewart, BC the Canadian customs service does have a check point. Larry made a point of telling everyone to make sure they took their passports or other ID with them or they might not get back into Canada where our RV’s were parked. The customs guy was a young officer who just asked where we had been and where we were headed. Very easy crossing for a change. We got back to the coach, had dinner and spent the rest of the night in.
Saturday, August 29 - Day Forty-Six. Today was a free day so we were able to sleep in a little and relax in the morning for a change. Larry and Doug, our two leaders, did cook a nice pancake and sausage breakfast which, since it didn’t start until 9:30 a.m., we attended. Very good breakfast. About noon we drove into Stewart and
walked around the town for a while. There was one geocache in the town, which we found and logged. One of the places we wanted to visit was the Toaster Museum, located in one of the hotels. We walked up to the door and it was unlocked, so we walked in and started looking around. There were hundreds of old toasters, blenders, mixers and other small appliances all over the place. Many of them looked like they dated back to the early 1900's when electricity really started to be available everywhere. After about 5 minutes a lady walked in and told us that the museum was not open today! We told her that the door was unlocked and she said that she just had to run out for a bit and didn’t think to lock it. She could have told us to continue to look around since we were there, but she didn’t - she asked us to leave. Oh well, we’ve been kicked out of better places!After our short tour of Stewart we headed back out on the highway we had come in on. The day was much clearer and we wanted to get some pictures of the scenery while the weather was nice and we weren’t trying to guide the RV through the
canyon. We spent a couple hours driving about 25 miles back up the highway and then back down, taking pictures as we went. There were dozens of glaciers including some right down by the river and close to the road. It was a very scenic trip. After that tour we drove over the border to Hyder, Alaska again to sightsee a little there. We visited the general store and found that the owner was a native Californian who moved to Hyder in the 80's. He was from the same area of Los Angeles County that Jackie is. He told us a lot about the Hyder story - that there was little or no government presence - no police, no city government, no zoning, no nothing - and that was just how they liked it. Most of the townspeople carry guns and, as he said, “we take care of our own.” There are only a handful of kids in the town so there is no school. Those that are there have to be home schooled.We also visited the other two gift shops in town and drove around taking pictures. I did get a glimpse of a small black bear walking down one of the streets, but he went into the bushes before Jackie could see him or get a picture. When I mentioned
this to one of the shopkeepers he said bears walking in town was an everyday occurrence. While driving around town I commented to Jackie that this was closest I have seen to what my preconceived notion of Alaska was - like something out of Northern Exposure, the old 90's TV show. After getting our fill of Hyder we headed back into Stewart. Again, the border crossing into Canada was very friendly and perfunctory.About 5:00 p.m. we drove back over to the bear viewing area North of Hyder. We took Peggy and Vern with us. We wanted to take one more shot at seeing the bears in the river. Again we stayed about 90 minutes and got tired of waiting. We headed back to Stewart and dinner in the coach. About 9:00 we were eating dinner and heard a knock at the door. It was Larry telling us that we left about 15 minutes too soon, that two bears had finally showed up. Oh well, sometimes the bears come, sometimes they don’t!
Sunday, August 30, Day Forty-seven. Today was our last travel day with the Fantasy caravan. We had a little over 200 miles to drive from Stewart, BC to Smithers, BC. This turned out to be a very easy drive. Once we hit Highway 16, the Transcanada Highway, the road got smooth and wide. We didn’t see any wildlife along the way although there were all kinds of signs warning of deer, elk and moose. We arrived in Smithers, BC in the early afternoon and got settled into the park. At 6:00 p.m. we all drove into town to one of the local hotels for our Farewell Dinner. There was a nice bar there so we had about 45 minutes of social time then into the dinner. The dinner was a nice buffet in a very nice room. After dinner Larry and
Doug made little speeches about how great the trip was and how happy they had been to have this group on the caravan. A couple of the members of the group also got up and gave brief talks about how much fun they had. It was a little sad to be beginning the process of saying goodbye to people you have been around nearly 24/7 for the last seven weeks. Even Linda and Ernie, the couple who’s coach broke down a few days earlier, were at the dinner. Although their coach was out of commission, awaiting a new transmission, they drove their car down from Watson Lake just so they wouldn’t miss the final dinner. After dinner we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.Monday, August 31 - Day Forty-eight - the Last Day. The “last day” was really only a continental breakfast in the morning and then we were on our own again. Jackie and I did get up and out in time to have a roll and coffee with most of the group.
After breakfast the group started heading out. Seven of us decided to head to Prince George, about 260 miles East, and stay at the same RV park for a couple of nights. The other three decided to start heading South to the border right away. Although it took five hours to get to Prince George from Smithers, it was primarily because of the distance, not the roads for a change. Highway 16 is a main artery and was a very nice road all the way. We got settled into the RV park - which we had to pay for ourselves for the first time in seven weeks - and visited with some of the other couples who decided to go there.About 7:00 we all got together for a sort of a potluck dinner. A couple of people set up BBQs and most people cooked some of the fish that we had caught on the
various fishing trips. Everyone brought a side dish of some sort and we had a very nice dinner. After dinner we went back to the coach and I spent some time plotting out our next few weeks of travel. After having someone else take care of everything for us, it was a bit of a shock to have to work it all out myself again. Yikes, can I do it?Well loyal readers, that marks the end of segments on our Alaska Caravan Adventure. It was a fantastic trip and the few words and pictures I was able to place on this blog don’t begin to describe the things we did and saw. We drove the coach 4,438 miles with the caravan, from the beginning at Dawson Creek on July 15th to the end at Smithers on August 31st. We met some great people on the trip, some of which I know will be lifetime friends. We knew this would an adventure of a lifetime and it was - we had a wonderful time. Now we are back to our “normal” lives, making our own plans and traveling on our own for the most part. I hope you enjoyed reading about our trip and continue to check our blog from time to time for updates on what we are doing now.
Until the next time, safe travels and great adventures.
