Stewart, Canada and Hyder, Alaska

We have been without phone and Internet service for several days so, I really have some catching up to do!

We drove from Fairbanks back to Tok where we met fellow Alfa Roadrunner members, Jim and Dorothy Collard for dinner. Dorothy has relatives near Tok and they are building a cabin on the family property where they will spend summers.

Gary & Ann and Dan & Pam split with us and headed south on a faster pace than what we had planned. So Tommy & Dorothy, Judy, Roger and I have been a “five some.

The road from Tok south on the Alaska Highway is the worst stretch of road we encountered. We missed it on the way north because we took the Top of the World Highway – a piece of cake compared to Destruction Bay! - glad we only had to drive it once! It was a horrible mess of gravel, pot holes and frost heaves! Oh, and add construction crews! Must be a never ending battle for them to keep the road navigable. The five of us stopped for the night at Kluane Lake to recuperate from all the jostling while the others drove on
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The drive down the Casiar Highway was great – a good road and beautiful scenery. There are several Canadian Provincial Parks on lakes along the way that are just gorgeous! We had two close encounters with wildlife. The first was a grizzly bear eating right along the left side of the road – so glad he turned back into the woods and did not run in front of us! The second was a mule deer with a big set of horns that ran across the road in front of us from right to left. There was only a small strip of land between the road and railway cars parked on our left – he was trapped and we thought he would run back out in front of us before Roger could stop but, he literally laid down, turned his head sideways and wiggled under the train!!

Waterfalls and glaciers were everywhere we looked on the way into Stewart – a small little town on the Canadian/Alaska border.

 Just about 2 miles away is another tiny town, Hyder, Alaska. Hyder is known for Fish Creek – a popular stream for salmon to spawn and bears to eat! It was fascinating to watch the hundreds of salmon struggle up stream. We saw two black bears but they were along the road eating berries not in the river catching fish. Guess they are vegetarians!

On the way out of Stewart we met a group of cyclists who had biked from Austin, Texas to Anchorage!! They had a great time and were sad to be on the way home! We were surprised by the huge number of cyclists all over Canada and Alaska – a hardy bunch pumping up hills even our motorhome was struggling to ascend!