Day 55
Monday, August 1
On the Road to Stewart
& Bears Fishing

Today we left Dease Lake and headed south for Stewart/Hyder. Highway 37 was not a good road yesterday, but Ken promised that it would be better as we neared Stewart. He was certainly right! About 20 miles south of Dease Lake we crossed Gnat Pass, the highest point on this leg of the trip.  
I didn't realize we were up high as we crossed the pass; however, the temperature dropped to 42 degrees. Shortly thereafter we came to a 9% downhill grade and we noticed the clouds below us as we started downhill. For miles after this we went downhill, over a river and back uphill again. It turned out to be a beautiful drive with excellent roads.

Our trip today covered 242 miles. When we reached Mezeiden Junction, 46 miles north of Stewart, we entered a section of road that went between two mountain ranges. We followed the valley and a river for many miles. Just north of Stewart we passed Bear Glacier. It is a huge blue glacier that came out of the mountains and down to a large lake. 
It was probably the closest we have been able to get to a glacier except when Robert and I hiked to Exit Glacier when we were in Seward. Bear Glacier was huge!
We also passed several waterfalls as we neared Stewart.   There are glaciers and icefields on top of most of the mountains, so there are also lots of waterfalls.


After arriving at the RV park and setting up the trailer, I took the truck to town to find a grocery store and a car wash. The 1st grocery store I found had milk but no Fritos. It did have a dirt floor in half of the store - the half with dairy and meat products! I did find Fritos in the store across the street - and they didn't have a dirt floor. I asked for change for a $10 so I could wash the truck. Both stores couldn't give change. There is no bank in town and everyone is short of change. I finally found the owner of the carwash at her house and got change. It took 3 toonies and 1 loonie ($7) to wash my truck!

Robert and Bet came over for dinner. Jenna had fixed chile. After dinner we loaded up and went to Fishcreek. Fishcreek is a National Park site outside of Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is a small, dirt almost ghost=town just across the U.S./Canada border from Stewart, B.C. Hyder is a unique little town. People do live there and it isn't really a ghost-town. They claim to be because 10,000 people lived there in the 1920's. Today, maybe 50 people live there. The streets are dirt/gravel and full of potholes. Fishcreek is the only thing that keeps Hyder alive.
Fishcreek is about 4 miles out of town. There the U.S. Park Service has built a boardwalk about 15 ft. above the creek. Each summer when the salmon come up the creek to spawn, the black and then the grizzly bears come to feed.

Shortly after we arrived we noticed several salmon in the creek. They were in groups of 2 or 3 and sometimes more just sitting over the rocks, swimming in place. Occasionally one would turn on it's side and shake up and down, in and out of the water. Then another would shoot out and swim upsteam and then turn and come back. The water was crystal clear and quite shallow, so you could easily see them.
  Suddenly about 200 yds. down stream a huge grizzly came out of the bushes and started plodding upsteam. Occasionally he would stop and look around. Tere were probably 200 people up on the boardwalk and I couldn't believe how quiet it was. You hardly heard any talking at all.
 
 
The bear would suddenly pounce hand run up the stream trying to catch a fish. The fish meanwhile were swimming very fast in every direction away from the bear. It only took him moments to catch a fish - you could hear it when he did; there was a loud crunch! Then he would take the fish to the bank and sit down to eat.  

It took him longer to eat the fish than I thought it would - maybe 5 minutes. Then he was up and at it again. All you could hear was the splashing of the water and the clicking of cameras. It was amazing. After 4 fish, he sauntered back down the river when he came from and then disappeared into the bushes. They call him "dogbear" and say he comes every morning and night. He is the first grizzly bear to show up this year. Prior to this there were only black bears, but they tend to stay away once the grizzlys come. They told us that the salmon had only started really running in the last few days and that next week would be better. Too bad we won't be here then.

Tomorrow we plan to go back to Fishcreek around 6:30 A.M. Later we are going 20 miles up into the mountains to Salmon Glacier. I'll tell you about that tomorrow! Till then - Happy Trails!!