Well, the pace has picked up some... I got to Hyder/Stewart area before noon, and made a trip in to see the Glacier and the towns.... took some pictures... Salmon were not running yet, so could not go watch the bears catch them (one of the highlights of this area)... enough for me so I moved on. I am about 60 miles out of Prince George at a place called Vanderhoof, BC, at Dave's RV Park. What a find! Dave really has a nice place here about a mile off of the main road and reasonable. Nice grassy lots behind a house on a converted farm. New shower house and bathrooms and the best deal in washers and dryers that I have found.. After the trip down the Cassiar, the cars and I were a mess... I had the car and trailer washed by a man living in a little trailer with a water compressor outside his door, at the Hyder/Stewart junction.. Boy.. he sprayed and scrubbed and got the heavy stuff off.. also underneath.. well worth the $14 I paid him... Then as soon as I got here, I showered and threw a load of wash in.. am sitting at a table in the wash room writing this as I am washing... so by the end of the evening we will all feel fresh... car, trailer and I.. :-) A little Alaska crud still pounded into the front of the trailer, but I think it will take tar remover to handle that.. Nice to not have to worry about gravel roads for awhile..
Drove the whole Cassiar Highway without seeing any wildlife to speak of... it was a beautiful trip though.. then at the junction for Hyder/Stewart, I stopped at an old Rustic building that said information center... a heavily bearded old guy smoking a pipe was standing there and turned out to be the information person... I lamented in not having seen any bears coming down the Cassiar, and he said there were a lot toward Hyder/Stewart... just then he said look!! About a 100 yards from the information "shack" up the Hyder/Stewart highway, there was a big black bear grazing, and shortly a second one joined... Overjoyed, I grabbed my camera and jumped in the car and headed that way, but fumbled around trying to get the window down and the bears went into the brush and out of sight... Then about 20 miles further I saw one on a sand bar in the small stream following the road, that then jumped in the water and swam toward the road side... I stopped hoping to see it come up to the road, but it stayed someplace in the brush.... then on the way across BC to this place, a black bear jumped up on the road and just about ran in front of my car.. I tried to stop and it jumped back into the ditch, then after I passed, I saw it climb back up to the road and run across it.. So it was a good bear day after all...
The glacier that everyone goes to see along the Hyder/Stewart road was fantastic... (I forget the name and don't have my notes.. will update later).. it was very blue and I hope my photos captured that... I will process them later tonight... not sure I will get them uploaded as it is getting late.. I did talk the manager into letting me come over and hookup up my modem though..
The Cassiar Highway was not bad to drive, in fact it was no worse than the Alaska Highway, and better in that south of Watson Lake they have a 20 mile mess to drive through right now. I can see that more traffic is on the Cassiar these days just for the shortcut (saves 100+ miles in going toward Watson Lake or Whitehorse). The long period of the road that was designated as unpaved in the MilePost was mostly seal coated and was like an asphalt finish.. fairly smooth... so that helped the drive go faster today also.. The Cassiar is a pretty drive, and worth taking, one direction or the other...
So... kinda feels good to be returning to civilization... I find myself searching the towns for a Sam's Club or Walmart as I drive through... and I don't miss the bumpy roads... I think we all (car, trailer, and I) have had enough of that abuse for awhile... But I would do it again in a heart beat...
